WHEREAS, Francesca Xavier (Mother) Cabrini, beatified on November 13, 1938, by Pope Pius XI, and canonized on July 7, 1946, entered into eternal life on December 22, 1917 in the City of Chicago; and
WHEREAS, 2017 marks the centenary of her passing in the convent of Columbus Hospital at age sixty-seven; and
WHEREAS, the City of Chicago has been informed of this historic anniversary by Alderman Edward M. Burke; and
WHEREAS, Mother Francesca Cabrini was the thirteenth child born to her family in Sant' Angelo Lodigiano, in the Lombard Provence of Lodi (then a part of the Austrian Empire) on July 15,1850; and
WHEREAS, her two-month premature birth left her in delicate health for most of her life; and
WHEREAS, in 1880, Mother Francesca Cabrini founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Codogno, Italy; and
WHEREAS, in 1889, Poe Leo XIII sent Mother Francesca Cabrini to New York City to serve the needs of the increasing number of Italian immigrants and orphans arriving in Manhattan; and
WHEREAS, despite the extreme poverty of the Lower Manhattan residential area, Mother Francesca Cabrini and the sisters opened an orphanage and within two years' time, the Columbus Hospital; and
WHEREAS, Mother Francesca Cabrini's success working with the poor and indigent brought her to Chicago where she founded and taught at Assumption School, the first Italian school in the city; and
WHEREAS, Mother Francesca Cabrini and the sisters worked hard to keep the school tuition-free for its nearly 700 students even if they had to beg for funds; and
WHEREAS, Mother Francesca Cabrini founded Columbus Hospital, dedicated and opened on February 26, 1905 in a former North Shore hotel at Deming Place and Lakeview Avenue in the Lincoln Park community; and
WHEREAS, five years later, she founded the Columbus Extension Hospital (later changed to St. Cabrini Hospital) on Polk Street in a low-income neighborhood on Chicago's West Side using surplus funds from the original hospi...
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