Mother Cabrini’s Feast is November 13. This year we will celebrate with five Masses in four languages over two days, with a special concert on the Feast Day itself. Saturday, November 11 Mass in Italian at 11 am Filipino Mass at 2 pm French Mass at 4 pm Sunday, November 12 Mass in English at 11 am with Bishop Gerald Walsh Mass in Spanish at 3 pm with Bishop Josu Iriondo Mother Cabrini’s Canonization Mass Concert Ever wish you’d been able to be at Mother Cabrini’s canonization in Rome? Join us for a special concert version of the seldom-performed Gregorian chants for the Feast of Mother Cabrini, music sung in 1946 in honor of her canonization, and music Mother Cabrini sang in her lifetime. For more information or to purchase tickets visit our events page.
https://cabrinishrinenyc.org/mother-cabrinis-feast-schedule/
At Cabrini Shrine at New York
On Monday, November 13 the Shrine will be open beginning at 6:15pm for a spectacular candlelight concert of Gregorian Chant. The Majesta Chanters will offer us a single performance of the music sung at Mother Cabrini’s canonization. The program includes some of Mother Cabrini’s favorite hymns as well.
Mother Cabrini’s Feast Weekend
November 11 & 12, 2023
Saturday, November 11
11 am Italian Mass
2pm Filipino Mass
4pm French Mass
Sunday, November 12
11am Mass in English
with the Very Rev. Joseph P. LaMorte
Vicar General of the Archdiocese of NY
3pm Mass in Spanish
with Bishop Josu Iriondo
The Feast Day of the Patroness of Immigrants
In the early years, the Missionary Sisters worked in northern Italy. But Mother Cabrini was eager to spread the love of Jesus around the world. She still longed to go to China. Then a different opportunity presented itself. In 1887, Mother Cabrini was approached by Bishop Giovanni Scalabrini, now Saint Scalabrini. The bishop was deeply concerned about Italians who had emigrated to the Americas. In a single decade, nearly a million had fled poverty in southern Italy. Few had much education, and few possessed skills that allowed them to get good jobs. Instead of finding the better life they envisioned, they faced deep prejudice, poor wages, a padrone system of contract labor, and bad housing. In those days, the U.S. was considered mission territory. There were few priests in the United States who spoke Italian. Bishop Scalabrini asked Mother Cabrini to go to New York to help. Mother Cabrini prayed deeply about this. Then she obtained an audience with Pope Leo XIII to seek his advice. The Pope told Mother Cabrini to go “not to the East, but to the West” to tend to the immigrants in the United States. So, Mother Cabrini and six of her Missionary Sisters set off for New York City in 1889. They found a mass of human misery: families crammed into foul tenements, parents working 12-hour days for meager wages, and children who lacked food, supervision, and basic education. Within days of her arrival, Mother Cabrini organized catechism classes and schooling for the children. She and the Missionary Sisters knocked door to door through rough neighborhoods, facing humiliating insults to gather funds to do their work. Their convent quickly became a haven for children from the notorious Five Points neighborhood in New York City. An orphanage was established, followed by schools and a hospital. Soon requests for Mother Cabrini’s help poured in from other cities in the United States, as well as from Europe and Central and South America. Renowned as a woman of deep faith, Mother Cabrini was also an astute businesswoman. Over the course of 34 years, she established an astonishing 67 hospitals, orphanages, and schools. Her energy was fueled by an intense focus on serving Jesus in whatever was asked of her. In Seattle in 1909, Mother Cabrini became a citizen of the United States. Following her death at the age of 67 in 1917, she was canonized in 1946 and given the title Patroness of Immigrants four years later. ~excerpts from the St. Frances X. Cabrini Shrine website
A new film, entitled CABRINI, chronicles the missionary zeal of Mother Cabrini, her work in New York to establish ministries on behalf of immigrants, and is set to debut in March 2024.