Tabby Laccetti Michael Pettinger Catholic Saints 21 December 2007 The Mission as Mystical Experience: The Representation of St.

Frances Cabrini Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, Universal Patroness of Immigrants, poses a difficult dilemma for hagiographers. As Aristeo Simoni, Vice-Postulator of Mother Cabrinis Cause, puts it: It is not an easy task to write Mother Cabrinis life and to paint her portrait in the true perspective . . . in the whole of Catholic hagiography there is probably no other life of a Saint in which we find such marvelous exterior activity and so few signs of mystical experiences (Maynard xii-xiii). In other words, Mother Cabrini did not, in her lifetime, outwardly reveal any extraordinary relationship with God. Unlike the very visible stigmata of St. Francis, or the deeply inward autobiography of St. Threse of Lisieux, St. Frances was instead recognized as being holy mainly by her ceaseless activity, her practical Catholic action (Maynard xi). Even more difficult than writing a full-length biography of the Saint is portraying her adequately in shorter, vita style booklets, the kind most often used during the daily devotions of practicing Catholics. The Little Flowers of St. Francis, for example, is largely comprised of short, memorable episodes suited for reading aloud on a feast day or other memorial. In comparison, there is no easy way to summarize Mother Cabrinis life and holiness in digestible sections. And then there is the final difficulty: how do you portray Mother Cabrini in a shrine or church, which must put across something of her importance without the luxury of text? The Shrine Chapel in New York Citys answer is to focus less on Cabrini herself and more on the results of her labor, with the suggestion that God was working through her,

not that she was accomplishing such works by her own ability. The main mode of representation utilized in the Chapel is a set of murals, some of which mirror the anecdotes told in the vitas but many of which are more abstract, usually less focused on Cabrini herselfwhich is why they are more effective than the vitas in illustrating the saints significance. An American Saint of Our Day, a short vita published by the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart (Cabrinis religious order), imitates the general format of St. Franciss Little Flowers. Short, three or four-paragraph vignettes appear on one page, with prayer card-like illustrations of the stories on the facing page. Yet only seven out of the twentytwo chapters featured in the book take place following Mother Cabrinis trip overseas to New York City, arguably the turning point of the young nuns life. Out of those seven, few contain specific incidents told in detailinstead, chapters like Her Love of Nature and Her Business Acumen summarize certain aspects of Cabrinis life. This format is the result of an attempt to focus solely on stories that directly involve Cabrini (thus the ten chapters drawing from her childhood), but actually lessens the effectiveness of the book as a whole in proving her holiness. As Simoni tells us, the Church declared her a saint not for what she did, impressive as were her phenomenal activities and achievements, but for what she was (Maynard xiii). A mere summary of a persons business deals does not explain why that person was canonized as a saint. The murals on the walls of the Shrine Chapel, situated behind the alter, are similar in style to the illustrations in An American Saint. Yet the life of Mother Cabrini told through them is very different than the one presented in the booklet. The murals are chronological from left to right, and ostensibly portray St. Frances from birth to death. In

actuality they focus less on Cabrini herself and more on the fruits of her order following its arrival in the United States in 1889the same point at which An American Saint ceases to tell specific stories. Prior to this point, there are only four murals that portray scenes from Mother Cabrinis childhood, compared to An American Saints ten. All four of these scenes are also featured in the booklet, and this is probably due to the fact that three of the four are some of the only miraculous moments that occurred during Cabrinis lifetime. These are the arrival of a flock of doves right at the moment of St. Francess birth, an allusion to her mysterious rescue after falling into a river near her home (she had been placing paper boats in the river at the time, pretending they were carrying missionaries, which is specifically what the mural depicts), and her confirmation, at which she later said she felt full of the purest joy due to the presence of the Holy Spirit (MSS 16). Underneath these scenes at the Shrine is the phrase The Word of God is My Mission, emphasizing the fact that these episodes in the life of Mother Cabrini established her as chosen by God to carry out missionary work in his name. The fourth scene in this section portrays Francess childhood lessons under her strict sister Rose. Again, the emphasis is taken off Cabrini herself herein the first three murals, it is God, not Frances, that has an active role, and in the final mural it is suggested that Frances received her famous discipline from imitating her sister, not through any of her own merit. The second section of the Shrine murals is where the murals and An American Saint diverge. Labeled Mother of Immigrants, this section begins similarly to the booklet, with depictions of Cabrinis audience with the Pope (and his famous words to the nun, not to the East, but to the West), and her trip overseas to New York City. The

first of these two clearly follows the pattern of diminishing the role of Cabrini herself in comparison to the work God is accomplishing through herher obedience to the wishes of the Pope to go West and not East is an outward representation of her inward obedience to the wishes of God, whom the Pope represents in the Church as the Vicar of Christ. But the following murals do not specifically represent any story that can be found in either An American Saint or other lives of St. Frances. These murals do feature representations of Mother Cabrini, but her role is simply that of a helper, possibly standing in for the general work of her order. The first mural is a picture of Cabrini assisting a young immigrant familymother, baby and young boy at their arrival to the country. Nearby is the Statue of Liberty, though it is smallas if its purpose is simply to situate the scene, not to signify anything about America. Mother Cabrini herself in this mural is much larger. The second mural is another family, this consisting of a father with his young daughter, and Mother Cabrini is there to help them as well. As aforementioned, from this point on in the murals Cabrinis own life story is passed over in favor of the results of her order. The next section is entitled, Going ThereforeTeach all Nations, yet Cabrini herself only appears once. Where An American Saint is vague from this point forward chronologically, simply featuring chapters that tell us in abstract terms about Mother Cabrinis Business Acumen, the murals depict three of the many institutions Cabrini or her order founded during the saints lifetime. There is Cabrini High Schoolthe school attached to the Shrine Chapelan unnamed hospital and another building that is probably an orphanage. Cabrinis only appearance in this section is her support of a young boy with crutches and an older man in a wheelchairthus noting her founding of

the institutions. The more interesting scene in this section is the two children of the immigrant families earlier features, the young girl and boy, attending Cabrini High School. These characters reappear once more in the Chapel following this point in the murals, and the suggestion of this subnarrative is less that Mother Cabrini helped them personally but that Gods plan as carried out by Mother Cabrini allowed them to attend school and have a life for themselves, and that this is more important to remember than Cabrini herself. The final section of the murals proper is entitled Glory of America. This consists of two murals, one a scene of stereotypical America (a man with a pickaxe, possibly an allusion to St. Matthew but otherwise unrelated to the rest of the murals), and the other a depiction of Mother Cabrinis departure to heaven. In this mural the saint holds flowers, a recurring motif in her statues and prayer cards, and is levitating upwards surrounded by angels. Although the final mural completes the set behind the alter in the Shrine Chapel by returning the focus to Mother Cabrini, the final representation of the saint in the Chapel recontextualizes its meaningat the entrance to the Chapel, facing the alter from behind the pews, is a huge stained glass window of Mother Cabrini that depicts the saint following her death. Surmounted by a halo, Mother Cabrinis hands are outspread, and she is flanked on either side by three sets of images: a pair of angels, a pair of childrenthe same immigrant children featured on the muralsand then the Sacred Heart and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. The angels and children are praying to her, suggesting her final and most important role following her deaththat of intercessor. As the theology behind prayers to the saints always asserts that veneration is not the same as worship, that praying to a saint assists the Christian because the saint may

then pray even more effectively to God, this final representation of Mother Cabrini again reinforces the idea that she herself is not importantshe is only a vehicle for God, and in death she does not work miracles but God works miracles through her. Mother Cabrinis coffin also suggests this, even though it has pride of place in the Shrine underneath the alter. Shaped like a pentagon, the point at the top of the coffin, if followed with the eye from the pews, leads upwards to the cross that stands directly behind the communion table. The story, then, depicted at the Shrine Chapel, is one of an obedient Mother Cabrini acting as Gods representative: first Gods choosing of the saint and her training, then her obedience to Gods wishes for her, and then the work done through her by God for the immigrants. Finally, she takes her place as an intercessor for Gods people. This is very unlike An American Saint, which mainly tells the story of Cabrinis own developing abilities. The events of Mother Cabrinis life and afterlife that have been left out of the depictions in the Shrine Chapel also shed light on the purpose of the Chapels representation of the saint. One miracle reported during Cabrinis lifetime, recorded in the Novena Prayers and Sketch of the Life of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini pamphlet that is sold in the Shrine Chapels gift shop, and the two canonization miracles that occurred after the saints death were omitted from the Shrines murals. The former of these three, though suited to the Chapel in theory, would undermine the specificity of the Shrine: in 1912, at the site of Mother Cabrinis Queen of Heaven orphanage in Colorado, a spring of water was miraculously discovered in a formation of dry red rocks after Cabrini pointed at it and told her nuns that they would find water there. The spring has never stopped, and is now the site of a shrine to the saint (Nov 23). This miracle would fit the

murals depiction of the saint as a vehicle through which God acts, yet the existence of a shrine at the spot of the miracle probably precluded it form inclusion in the Shrine Chapel. As the designated place of worship for Cabrini High School, the Shrine Chapels representation of the saint serves the function of inspiring devotion amongst its parishioners, and therefore the emphasis is on what God through Mother Cabrini has done and can do for the people of the Chapel. The two canonization miracles, though alluded to by the suggestion of prayer to Mother Cabrini in the Chapel, are also slightly beyond the purview of its depiction, which largely stresses Cabrinis assistance to immigrants (the schools population predominantly consists of recent Dominican immigrants) through her orders hospitals, schools and orphanages. It is significant to remember here that the same immigrant children shown arriving in America in the murals are the ones praying to the saint on the stained glass windowthe suggestion is that Cabrinis devotion to the plight of the immigrants in life has continued into her death. The specific posthumous miracles, though proof of her sanctity, are not necessary to inspire devotion from immigrants that are already benefiting from the institutions Cabrini founded during her lifewhich, through the murals, are implied to be Gods miracles as well. The differences between the Cabrini-centric vitas and the Shrine Chapel can also be explained by the fact that written accounts are intended for personal devotion, while the Chapel was built for communal devotion in the form of Mass and pilgrimage. The many prayers and hymns to Mother Cabrini that end An American Saint and the novena prayers in the Chapels pamphlet illustrate this. In fact, the prayers in An American Saint largely use the personal pronoun me as opposed to ussuggesting that the prayers

were written for individuals, not groups (MSS 61). The focus on Mother Cabrini in the written vitas may be accounted for as an exhortation to individual Christians to imitate the personality and actions of a proven holy womansimilar to the early accounts of saints lives pre Constantine. Meanwhile, the Shrine Chapels presentation of Mother Cabrini and her order as a vehicle for God, largely minimizing her own role in the successes of her life, are more reminiscent of Prudentiuss account of St. Lawrencean account not written for individuals, but for Rome itself. In this way, the Shrine Chapels depictions of the saint better serve community needs as opposed to the needs of individual devotees, largely avoiding the problem of Cabrinis lack of mystical experiences during her lifetime. Mother Cabrinis favorite Biblical phrase was I can do all things in Him who strengthens me, and, through its representation of the saint, this is the explanation given by the Shrine Chapel for Cabrinis incredible achievements during her lifetime (and afterwards). As the Chapels pamphlet suggests, Mother Cabrini counted on nothing, not even on herself; the love and the grace of the Heart of Christ were enough for her (Nov 17). With its emphasis on God working through St. Frances, the Shrine Chapel avoids the issue of depicting a deeply activeas opposed to contemplativesaint and both addresses the needs of its community and reinforces the theology behind the Cult of the Saints. This is in stark contrast to the written vitas, which mainly focus on the qualities of Mother Cabrini herself. I can do all things in Him who strengthens me unfortunately, the Shrine Chapel did not use this phrase as one of its mural headings, but it certainly could have.

Works Cited Maynard, Theodore. Too Small a World: The Life of Francesca Cabrini. Milwaukee: Bruce, 1945. Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart. An American Saint of Our Day: Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini. New York: Mother Cabrini High School, 1946. Novena Prayers and Sketch of the Life of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini. Chicago: Mother Cabrini League, no date.

Picture of Shrine Chapel from http://www.mothercabrini.com/ministries/shrine_ny.asp