First U.S. Saint

From the papal throne in the blazing baroque magnificence of St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Pius pronounced the ancient formula: "In the most holy name of the Trinity ... for the exaltation of the Catholic faith and the increase of the Christian religion. . . ." Then, with the solemn notes of the Te Deum, and the pomp of a papal High Mass, and the clamor of Roman church bells, Francesca Saverio Cabrini became the first U.S. saint.

Until the 12th Century saints were created quickly and easily by popular acclaim or by decree of local bishops. But by the decrees of Pope Urban VIII in 1625 and 1634, the process of canonization began to be tightened. Today the barriers to sainthood, both ecclesiastical and financial, are formidable. So expensive is the long church inquiry that Catholic Biographer Theodore Maynard says: ". . . It might seem that nobody (however holy) has much chance of being canonized today who does not belong to a religious order prepared to pay the costs, unless he can arouse such popular enthusiasm as to have his devotees subscribe the necessary funds."

Ordinarily, no step toward sainthood can be taken until the "Servant of God" in question has been dead at least 50 years. In Francesca Cabrini's case this requirement was waived by direct action of Pope Pius XI; her process started ten years after her death in 1917, giving her one of the quickest canonizations of modern times. (Three others were proclaimed saints at the Vatican ceremonies last week: Jeanne-Elizabeth Bichier des Ages, a French nun who died in 1838; Bernardino Realini, an Italian Jesuit, who died in 1616; John de Britto, Portuguese missionary martyred in India in 1693.)

Good Works. On March 31, 1889, Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, a tiny, frail nun, daughter of a Lombard farmer, arrived in New York with six' members of the order she had formed, the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Pope Leo XIII had sent her to work among the Italian immigrants who were finding neither a welcome nor prosperity in the New World, and worse, in the eyes of the Church, were losing their faith and piety.

Mother Cabrini and her six set to work in the New York slums. To support their first orphanage they begged their way through the squalor of Little Italy, later managed to set up a tiny, ill-equipped hospital for the Italian poor. Though funds came mostly in small change, Mother Cabrini's masterful will again & again overcame obstacles that seemed insuperable. For the next 28 years she traveled indefatigably, setting up schools, hospitals, orphanages and novitiates in Chicago, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Seattle, Denver and other U.S. cities.

Her shrewdness in acquiring property for these institutions and raising funds to pay for it made her seem to many a sharp businessman a kind of saintly Hetty Green. And she was as tough as she was canny.

When a group of highbinding Chicago contractors tried to get the better of the sisters in remodeling a hotel into a hospital, the little Italian nun fired them out of hand, tucked up her habit, and stumped about the scaffoldings for weeks directing the laborers herself. She was an American after America's heart, and in 1909, in her 59th year, she became a U.S. citizen.

But Mother Cabrini's mission was not only to America. She somehow found time, energy and means to visit and establish her order in London, Paris, Madrid, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Nicaragua.

Saintly Mystic. Mother Cabrini had her Mary as well as her Martha side. From childhood she had the mystic's hunger for communion with God that gave everything she did the quality of prayer. Legends about her grew up in her lifetime: that she was saved from drowning as a child by an unknown hand; that a locked church door opened to her touch. It is said that a sister who shared her room once woke to find it flooded with a strange light. But the most revealing evidences of her inner life were the intimate notes she kept in her private journal.

To Jesus she wrote in the mystic's language of love: "I feel myself consuming with love for You, and this is a great torture to me, a slow martyrdom at not being able to do something for You. . . . Convert me, Jesus, convert me completely to Yourself, for if You do not make me a saint, I will not know how to work in Your vineyard and will end by betraying Your interests, instead of rendering them successful."

Long-drawn Process. But good works and great sanctity are not all it takes to make a saint. One of the things it takes is a lawsuit--long-drawn, intricate and complex. In the first step toward canonization a diocesan tribunal is appointed in each diocese where the candidate has lived. Before this tribunal a local Vice Postulator pleads the candidate's "Cause" while a Promoter of the Faith (the "devil's advocate") makes all possible objections at every turn.

When all local examinations are completed, the documents of the case proceed to the Congregation of Rites in Rome, where they are meticulously reviewed, approved by the Pope (in his Christian name, so as not to compromise papal authority) and returned to the diocesan tribunals for a second pleading. Once again the postulators and devil's advocates examine the Servant of God's writings, study her local reputation for saintliness, make sure that no public act of homage, prayer, or religious devotion has ever been paid to the individual under examination. If they and the Congregation of Rites find that the Servant of God was not just an extremely virtuous person but practiced in "heroic degree" the Seven Theological Virtues of Faith, Hope, Charity, Prudence, Justice, Fortitude and Temperance, the primary degree of Venerable is awarded.

For a Venerable to become Blessed and finally a Saint, two miracles are required at each stage. Miracles must be "of the first order": i.e., instantaneous healing of a grievous disease of a nonpsychological or nervous nature, attested to by doctors of known reputation, preferably non-Catholics.

Miracle of Healing. Saint Frances Xavier's best known miracle occurred in March 1921. A nurse at the Cabrini-founded Columbus Hospital in Manhattan accidentally washed out the eyes of an infant named Peter Smith with a 50% solution of silver nitrate instead of the routine 1%. Three doctors who examined the child's scarred eyes said that there was no hope for his sight. But the hospital's Superior pinned a relic of Mother Cabrini to the baby's nightdress and called the sisters to the chapel to pray all night. Next morning the doctors admitted that a miracle had occurred--the scars were miraculously gone.

But day-old Peter Smith now had pneumonia, was running the normally fatal temperature of 108. Once again the doctors gave him up. Once again the Sisters of the Sacred Heart prayed all night for Mother Cabrini's intercession. Once again morning found the child completely cured. Last week, while the bells of Rome rang out and the Holy Father said High Mass in honor of the first U.S. saint, 25-year-old Peter Smith, now a veteran of the Pacific war and a candidate for the priesthood, retired with his mother to the Catskills to meditate on St. Frances Xavier Cabrini.

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