“The world is too small for what I intend to do.”
In the new film Cabrini, Frances Xavier Cabrini boldly says these words to Pope Leo XIII as she petitions the Holy Father to grant her permission establish a global network of orphanages and charities in the late 19th century. Whether or not the real Mother Cabrini said these words or not, they are words that are believable and befitting of the divine mission that Mother Cabrini accomplished during her life.
It’s one of many moments throughout the film that exemplify the incredible life this Italian immigrant nun led. Mother Cabrini’s life was marked by a call to serve Italian immigrants in America who were treated as less than human by fellow citizens at the time. The film opens as a young Italian boy frantically sprints about the streets of New York, pushing his dying mother around in a wheelbarrow and asking for somebody, anybody to help. The well-dressed New Yorkers ignore him, as do the uppity nurses in the hospitals. He, like so many others before him, becomes an orphan, alone in a city filled with people who hate him.
This vignette serves as the archetype for the people which Mother Cabrini and her Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus spent their lives serving. Crisitana Dell’Anna delivers a masterful performance as Cabrini, bringing a fine balance of stoutheartedness and compassion to the role which honors the real-life saint. While the film chooses to focus more on Mother Cabrini’s entrepreneurial skills rather than her deep spiritual life, there is nonetheless a distinctly Christian thread that runs through the film and animates what happens on-screen.
Mother Cabrini originally sought to go East and serve the poor and downtrodden in China, but it was Pope Leo XIII who asked her to go West instead, to serve her fellow Italian immigrants in America. It is a story which only God himself could have written and is retold with the utmost attention to quality for the big screen. It is also a very timely story, especially as America and the rest of the world navigates through a migrant crisis. In a way, the film indirectly asks the question: Who will serve the least of these, as Mother Cabrini did in her time?
She and a handful of other sisters arrive in New York with nothing more than a few suitcases, and they head straight for the underbelly of the city, Five Points. She befriends a prostitute, who reluctantly smuggles her and her sisters into a room in her pimp’s house to stay the night. This is the sort of world Mother Cabrini fulfilled her missionary call in; one filled with darkness, danger and hopelessness. And yet, as the film shows, she fearlessly brings the hope of Christ to those who most desperately need it and changes the city from the inside out, one heart at a time.
As Mother Cabrini carries out her mission, she encounters much resistance along the way, both from within the Church and outside of it. During her audience with the Pope, a cardinal tells her to stay where she belongs — the first of several references to the theme of belonging which the film explores. Despite her good intentions, Mother Cabrini must contend with the fact that she is a woman who is trying to move mountains; for in those days, women were considered second-class citizens incapable of doing anything noteworthy. She fights a constant uphill battle against the Church hierarchy, the Mayor of New York, the prejudice of the New Yorkers, and a lack of funds. Her own health also proves to be an obstacle, as the film alludes to a life of frailty and ongoing health complications that plagued Mother Cabrini throughout her 67 years of life. Through it all, however, her faith and determination remains. “Begin the mission, and the means will come,” she tells the Pope later in the film.
As history shows, the means did indeed come. She went on to establish her dreamed-of global network and left a legacy that endures to this day. Part of that legacy remains here in Colorado, at the Mother Cabrini Shrine, and also each year on Cabrini Day. While the film is not entirely historically accurate and takes some creative liberties with some of the events of Mother Cabrini’s life, the spirit of who she was and what she did shines through brightly.
Through a powerful narrative, beautiful cinematography and an impressive cast of performances, Cabrini puts flesh on the bones of the story of the very first American citizen who became a saint — an immigrant, no less. It is a compelling portrait of a holy woman, filled with courage and ironclad resilience, who lived out a divine mission that propelled her to sainthood.
Cabrini opens in theaters March 8. The film is rated PG-13 for thematic material, some violence, language and smoking. Find showtimes and tickets here.
