On November 14, 1880, the Institute of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was born. Thus we read in the Memoirs of the MSC Institute:
“In this township of Codogno the Lord was arranging a small group of virgins, gathered around Rev. Mother Francesca Saverio Cabrini who, full of zeal, felt moved by the liveliest desire to give life to a religious Institute, which, based on the total denial of itself, would draw from the Sacred Heart of Jesus that impulse of lively faith and holy courage with which her soul was already full. The holy project was explained to His Excellency Monsignor Gelmini, Bishop of Lodi, through the illustrious Monsignor Provost Antonio Serrati, to whom it was already known, and he was not only gladly received by the Bishop but encouraged by promising his paternal support.
Monsignor Prevosto suggested a rented house in Via Garibaldi in Codogno, but Mother did not like it, nor did she think it appropriate for the foundation, and one fine day when the rental of the house was about to be negotiated, our good Mother said to Monsignor Prevosto: “Go and see behind the church of Our Lady of Grace, who must be the Foundress of this Institute, and you will see a house suitable for the foundation and that it will be good to buy it”. Monsignor Prevosto went immediately the same day to the place indicated by our good Mother and saw only the old one of the Franciscan fathers suppressed under Napoleon in 1811. When he returned to the Mother and explained the matter to her: “So much the better” she said “if it is an old convent, it is enough for me that it is leaning against the Church of Our Lady of Grace, do all the paperwork immediately with the greatest possible prudence so that no one realizes what the house will be used for, otherwise the price would rise too high”. November 14: The dawn finally dawned on this longed-for and memorable day for the Institute and it is hard to say with what holy jubilation we greeted it, being able to finally unite in this house under the maternal guidance of our venerable Mother Foundress, with the wise direction of the Most Illustrious Provost, Antonio Serrati, and the paternal protection of our beloved Bishop, Monsignor Gelmini. It seemed to each one of us to be on the threshold of Paradise when we entered this house, destination and fulfillment of all our vows and desires”.
From the Brochure “Cabrinian Places”
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From Cabrinian Itineraries
In Codogno, therefore, on November 14, 1880, the Institute of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, founded by Saint Francesca Saverio Cabrini, was born. The Bishop of Lodi Monsignor Domenico Gelmini called Francesca Cabrini and in the middle of the speech he said to her: “you want to become a missionary, I don’t know any missionary Institute, you found one”. Mother Cabrini had no hesitation and immediately set to work looking for a house. She found one in the old building of a Franciscan convent that had been suppressed during the Napoleonic era. The room where Mother Cabrini spent the intense days of drafting the “Rules of Life” of the new Institute remains intact from that time. Here she prepared herself, in intense union with the Heart of Jesus, for the apostolic undertakings that awaited her. As the years went by, other buildings were erected around the original cloister and, in 1925, Mother Cabrini’s great dream came true: to build a church, Tabor, dedicated to the worship of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus and open to all those who wished to gather in adoration.
