St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, usually known as Mother Cabrini, was born from a farming family Sant’Angelo Lodigiano, a village in northern Italy.

Since she was a child, she was attracted to religious and missionary life. 

Frances studied to become a teacher at a school managed by the Daughters of the Sacred Heart. After completing her studies, she applied to join the order, though her request was not accepted, due to her fragile health.

In 1880, Mother Cabrini founded the Institute of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Codogno, with the dream of missioning in China. However, Pope Leo XIII changed her direction to the United States, to serve the many Italians immigrating in search of a better life.

Mother Cabrini thus became the voice, advocate, guardian and mother to these myriads of immigrants.

In 1889 Mother Cabrini arrived in New York and started opening day schools, boarding schools, orphanages, hospitals and social centers, helping immigrants to receive care and to be integrated into new cultures. From there she moved all over the world and founded schools across the United States, Central America, Brazil, Argentina and Europe.