Mother Cabrini

An anniversary unobserved: July 7 was the 50th anniversary of the canonization of Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, the patron saint of immigrants and the first saint who was a U.S. citizen. She and her Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart offered care and assistance to foreign-born newcomers in clinics, hospitals and schools they established from Chicago to Buenos Aires.

Following her arrival in Los Angeles in July 1905, St. Frances Cabrini reached out to the city’s immigrants, establishing an orphanage in the former J.W. Robinson estate on Sunset Boulevard at Grand Avenue, where only the fence and grotto now remain. She also organized a day care center, a boarding school, and in Burbank, the state’s first “preventorium” for young girls at risk from tuberculosis.

At her canonization Pope Pius XII observed: “Especially toward immigrants . . . did she extend a friendly hand, a sheltering refuge, relief and help.” It is this example of compassion for the newcomer which is Frances Cabrini’s greatest contribution to the citizens of Los Angeles.

GLORIA RICCI LOTHROP

W.P. Whitsett Chair of California History

Cal State Northridge