Saint Cabrini Day replaces Columbus Day in Colorado

Colorado is the first state in the nation to observe Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini Day as an official state holiday. Cabrini Day was established in 2020 and is celebrated on the first Monday in October.

Simultaneously, Colorado effectively erased the traditional Columbus Day on the second Monday in October from its state calendar.

Giving explorer Christopher Columbus, a native of Genoa, Italy, the boot was a bit of a political hot potato.

 

Colorado was the first state to vote in the observance of Columbus Day as a state holiday back in 1907, as a tribute to the large number of Italian immigrants who had moved into the state seeking a new life in America. 

Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini is also from Italy. She was born in 1850 in the small village of Sant’Angelo Lodigiano in northern Italy, the youngest of 13 children in her family. 

The communications officer at Cabrini University in Radnor, Pa., said Frances was “enthralled by the stories of missionaries and made up her mind at an early age to join a religious order.” 

“Her dream was not easily acquired, as her frail health held her back from joining the Daughters of the Sacred Heart, the order who had been her teachers and mentors.”

“Undeterred, in 1880, Frances founded her own order with seven other young women – the Institute of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.” Their goal was to go to China, but Pope Leo XIII told Mother Frances to go “not to the East, but to the West” – to New York City to help the thousands of Italian immigrants already in the United States.” 

Pope Leo XIII wrote that he found Mother Frances to be “a woman of marvelous intuition and of great sanctity.”

 

“In 1889, New York seemed to be filled with chaos and poverty, and into this new world stepped Mother Frances Cabrini and her Sister companions. Cabrini organized catechism and education classes for the Italian immigrants and provided for the needs of the many orphans. She established schools and orphanages despite tremendous odds.” 

“Mother Cabrini’s travels brought her to Colorado several times in the early 1900s, where she forged a strong relationship with Italian immigrants working the mines in the foothills west of Denver. In addition to the Queen of Heaven Orphanage in Denver, Mother Cabrini also founded a summer camp for children near Golden, Colo.” 

“Today, Golden is the home of the Mother Cabrini Shrine, a complex of monuments and chapels intended for religious ceremonies, prayer and personal reflection.”

 

JoAnn Seaman, who is the development director at the shrine, said she was thrilled that Mother Cabrini’s legacy received “mainstream attention with an official state holiday” in Colorado. 

“Today, with so much…social and political unrest, it’s really awesome that we have an example like Mother Cabrini, who did so much good and placed so much emphasis on social justice,” Seaman said. “Cabrini Day highlights what a great humanitarian she was.” 

Mother Cabrini’s humanitarianism was multifaceted and far-reaching, said Dr. Ray Ward, a professor at Cabrini University. He said her strongest traits were: “Service in love, entrepreneurship, cultural pride and integration.”

 

Statue on the grounds at Cabrini University.

Mother Cabrini became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1909. She died in 1917, at the age of 67. 

In 1946, she was canonized a Saint by Pope Pius XII in recognition of her holiness and service to humankind. Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini was the first American Saint of the Catholic Church.

 

In 1950, Pope Pius XII named her “The Patron Saint to Immigrants.”