This sensitive and topical 50-minute documentary, titled Frances Xavier Cabrini: The People's Saint, held its world premiere on November 26, 2017 at Santa Cabrini Hospital in Montreal, QC, Canada, in conjunction with the dedication of the hospital's Chapel to Mother Cabrini by the Archbishop of Montreal, Monsignor Christian Lepine. It received its U.S. premiere on December 5, 2017 at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute, sponsored by Cabrini University's Wolfington Center in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area. The Chicago premiere was on February 6, 2018 at Loyola University Chicago. Filming took place in Italy and in Chicago over the summer 2017 -- Mother Cabrini's Centenary year. 

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The film is available to rent on Vimeo in five languages: English, Italian, Spanish, Polish and French. It explores the environment and deep spirituality that shaped Mother Cabrini – the Patron Saint of Immigrants and Hospital Administrators -- in honor of the 100th anniversary of her passing. It reintroduces audiences to the first American citizen saint and addresses her relevance today for refugees and immigrants around the world. Mother Cabrini -- despite frail health and a fear of water -- crossed the ocean many times to administer to the poor, the sick and children and established schools, hospitals, and safe havens across Europe and the Americas. Frances Xavier Cabrini: The People's Saint begins in her birthplace of Sant’Angelo Lodigiano, Italy and takes viewers through her tireless commitment to serve those in need in the U.S. and around the world. Mother Cabrini spent her final days at Chicago's former Columbus Hospital in Lincoln Park. In 2012, it reopened as The National Shrine of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini. She embraced and overcame great challenges in her mission and is the founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

 

Includes enlightening interviews with author-scholar Achille Mascheroni, Sr. Joan McGlinchey, MSC, Sr. Bridget Zanin, MSC, Father Richard Fragomeni, artist Meo Carbone, architect Christopher Payne, Sr. Maria Regina Canale, MSC, youth ministers from the Archdiocese of Chicago, and new immigrants establishing strong faith communities. With a special appearance by Il Grande Coro di Roma, conducted by Fabrizio Adriano Neri and filmed live in Rome performing an original hymn composed by Enzo De Rosa exclusively for this film.

 

The film has screened at St. Ita Catholic Church, St. Peter's Catholic Church in the Loop, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, Assumption Catholic Church (where Mother Cabrini prayed and established Assumption School), and Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago; St. Raphael the Archangel Catholic Church in Old Mill Creek, Illinois; St. Procopius Benedictine Abbey in Lisle, Illinois; St. James Cathedral in Seattle, Washington (where Mother Cabrini received her American citizenship in 1909 and founded a school, orphanage and hospital); St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Church in Yucaipa, California in honor of the parish's 70th anniversary; for the Italian Catholic Federation's Annual Mass & Pilgrimage at the Mother Cabrini Shrine in Burbank, California; St. Jerome Catholic Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida during its Spanish-language Novena to Mother Cabrini; at St. Frances Cabrini Catholic Church in Omaha, Nebraska and at St. Frances Cabrini Catholic Church in Savannah, Georgia in honor of Mother Cabrini's Feast Day; and the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 -- the historic port of entry for immigrants to Canada between 1928 and 1971 -- in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

 

It has toured Italy, with screenings held at l'Auditorium della Banca Popolare di Lodi in Lodi (the province of Mother Cabrini's birth town) sponsored by l'Associazione Missione Cabriniana Oggi Onlus and la Parrocchia di Sant'Antonio Abbate e Santa Francesca Saverio Cabrini; in Milan at the Convent of the Sisters of Charity of the Assumption; and in Rome at the Church of San Tommaso Moro sponsored by Fondazione Migrantes and We the Italians magazine. The documentary was selected for a special showing by the Lincoln Park Community Research Initiative at Chicago's DePaul University, and was presented at Chicago's National Shrine of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini followed by the unveiling of a City of Chicago Tribute Marker to Mother Cabrini. It was shown in honor of Mother Cabrini's birthday at The Shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii in Chicago's Little Italy neighborhood, and during Epiphany at the Felician Sisters Convent in Chicago. Other venues include Chicago's Lakeview Condo Association; The Clare Independent Senior Living; at 2550 N. Lakeview, the condominium that was formerly Columbus Hospital (which Mother Cabrini founded in 1905); Westminster Place Senior Living in Evanston, Ill.; and Sheffield Manor Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Dyer, Indiana; as well as Casa Italia Chicago's Italian Film Series.

 

The film was chosen as an Official Selection at the 2018 Catholic Film Festival in Seoul, South Korea, and broadcast in its entirety by the Catholic Peace Broadcasting Company, Korea's major Catholic TV Channel.

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Frances Xavier Cabrini: The People's Saint has been touring the U.S., Canada and Europe,  with the goal of sharing Mother Cabrini's timeless humanitarian message. Since Covid-19, it is being offered both in person and online.

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"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

--Mother Cabrini

 

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