A monument to St. Frances Xavier Cabrini — the first U.S. citizen to be canonized a saint — will be installed in Arrigo Park, 801 S. Loomis St., the Chicago Park District and the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events announced last month.
The statue will fill the space that was once occupied by statue of Christopher Columbus.
Mother Cabrini, who founded schools and hospitals in Chicago and died here in 1917, received the majority of votes among a slate of eight leaders of Italian heritage, park district officials said.
The National Shrine of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, 2520 N. Lakeview Ave., encouraged people to vote for Mother Cabrini in the selection process for the new statue, said Laurie Halaska, executive director.
She hopes the shrine can partner with the parks on the monument.
“Mother Cabrini’s impact on the Chicagoland area was immense,” Halaska said. “She walked the streets right around where the shrine is at. Since I’ve been there, I’ve heard stories, even from very close friends, about their grandparents and great-grandparents who met her or had her over for dinner.”
The shrine recently learned that Mother Cabrini has a connection to Mercy Home for Boys and Girls on the near West Side, Halaska said. She would visit their chapel for respite when she needed time alone.
“These saints are people too and she was pulled in so many directions,” Halaska said. “She too needed a place of quiet.”
Carol Christiansen, a parishioner at Holy Name Cathedral, has a strong devotion to Mother Cabrini and has donated life-sized statues of the saint to the cathedral and to the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Wall in Rome.
“It’s very appropriate that that statue is going in because Mother Cabrini herself walked those streets. She knew the people,” Christiansen said.
In 1910, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini opened Columbus Extension Hospital to serve immigrants and the poor who could not make it to Columbus Hospital on the North Side. The extension hospital was at 811 S. Lytle St., which borders the east side of Arrigo Park; Cabrini Street runs along the park’s southern edge.
“A statue is a visual reminder of what a person can do,” Christiansen said. “Following in her footsteps, she was a tireless advocate for the immigrants and the disadvantaged.”
While the times are different, immigrants and the poor still struggle.
“We need a constant reminder that we need to take action,” she said. “We all have the power and the responsibility to speak up against the injustices we see.”
Francesca Cabrini was born in Lombardy, Italy, in 1850, one of 13 children. At 18, she said she wanted to become a nun, but was refused because her health was poor.
She taught at a girls school until, at the request of her bishop, she founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart to care for poor children in schools and hospitals.
She came to the United States with six nuns in 1889 to work among the Italian immigrants at the urging of Pope Leo XIII. She spoke no English and had no money. Filled with a deep trust in God and endowed with administrative abilities, she founded schools, hospitals and orphanages.
She became a U.S. citizen in 1909.
At the time of her death in 1917, she had founded 67 institutions around the world, including Columbus Hospital and Assumption School, 319 W. Erie St., in Chicago.
In 1946, she became the first American citizen to be canonized.