The first saint ever to die in the United States as an American citizen was named Frances. She is Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, who was born in 1850, and who died in 1917 at the age of sixty-seven. She came to this country from Italy in an effort to keep her beloved Italian Catholics from being perverted in their Faith by those in this country who plotted against it. She became an American citizen a few years before she died. She died in Chicago. Her body is now in New York. She is the namesake of that notable saint called Frances of Rome, who died in 1440, and who is remembered on her feast day on March 9. Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini added Xavier to her name because she wished to make the great apostle of the Society of Jesus, Saint Francis Xavier, the patron of her crusade for the Faith in the United States.
See also:
- A Bouquet from the Spiritual Garden of Mother Cabrini
- Not to the East, But to the West – The Saintly Adventures of Francesca Cabrini
- First Canonized Saint of the United States, Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini
Mother Cabrini (source)
