St. Frances Cabrini Planted Roots in This Once-Remote Corner of Manhattan, by Joseph Pronechen

In 1899, when Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini discovered the New York City property on which the St. Frances Cabrini Shrine now stands, she never dreamed that one day visitors from many lands would be coming to this chapel to pray before her earthly remains.

Many of today’s visitors are immigrants, just like she was. In fact, four years after Venerable Pope Pius XII canonized Mother Cabrini in 1946, he named her “Patroness of Immigrants.”

It is easy to think of this as an “Ellis Island” of a shrine since people come from around the world. Despite cold weather, the visitors on a recent Sunday included people from Brazil, Hong Kong, China, Colombia, other South American countries, Washington, D.C., and nearby states. Residents of Connecticut, New Jersey and New York City’s boroughs like Queens are regular pilgrims here. Catechists bring youth from Brooklyn to learn about Mother Cabrini. …