Archdiocese of Chicago celebrates Mother Cabrini’s life with relic

By Julie Sammarco 

A seven-month pilgrimage that began last month is bringing one of the best preserved relics of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini to area Roman Catholic churches to commemorate the 90th anniversary of her death.

            The forearm bone of Mother Cabrini is traveling in a one-of-a-kind reliquary throughout the Archdiocese of Chicago through December as part of Walking with a Saint, a program hosted by the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii. The program is presenting services at different churches around the area; at each church, a Cabrini scholar will each speak on a significant aspect of the saint’s mission and work. Each service also includes veneration of Cabrini’s forearm bone, a major relic that had been preserved under the altar of the former Columbus Hospital. The relic will be transported ceremoniously to each host site to represent Cabrini’s missionary journey through Chicago’s streets.

            Richard Montalbano, CEO of Montalbano Majestic Furniture Factory in Bellwood, IL, was asked to make a reliquary to hold the bone. “I went to the church to see it, and I was immediately moved by the spirit,” Montalbano said. “I had to do it for them.”

The relic is designated first class because it comes directly from the body of a Roman Catholic saint; items such as clothing and personal possessions are considered second class. Based on a design by architect Roger DeVito, Montalbano created a custom reliquary of solid wood, adorned in gold leaf, and measuring two feet wide by one foot high and one foot deep. The bone was then encased in a glass tube and placed in the reliquary.

Montalbano’s factory is the only one in the nation selling carved, solid wood furniture made in the U.S. It also restores and finishes church furnishings. The factory has a chapel on site that can seat nearly 80 people, holds more than 300 relics and statues, and hosts Masses about 50 times yearly on various feast days.

            Chicago’s relic is one of several dispersed around the world after Cabrini’s body was exhumed in 1938. A first class relic of Cabrini can be found at every Cabrini mission site. Her bones, hair, and nails are in Illinois, New York, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Argentina, Spain, Italy, South Africa, Australia, and many other locations.

            When the shrine at the former Columbus Hospital is finished the relic “will probably go there,” stated Sr. Bridget Zanin, MSC.

            Columbus Hospital at 2520 N. Lakeview Ave. closed in 2001. The building is being converted into Lincoln Park 2520, a triple-tower condominium highrise and townhouse development by Chicago developer RMI LLC. The shrine remained open until 2006, when it was closed to permit construction to proceed; it will reopen later in the construction process or when the project is completed.

            Born in Lombardy, Italy, in 1850, Cabrini worked to better the lives of the less fortunate. Together with the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the religious congregation she founded in 1880, she opened hospitals, schools, and orphanages around the world. In 1889, Pope Leo XIII sent Cabrini to New York City to serve the rising number of Italian immigrants. Her missionary work brought her to Chicago in 1899, and she eventually opened Columbus Hospital and then Columbus Extension Hospital on the Near West Side. (See “Living in Harmony,”) The latter hospital was renamed Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini Hospital after her death.

            Cabrini died in her convent room at Columbus Hospital on December 22, 1917. She became the first naturalized American citizen to be canonized in 1946, and Pope Pius XII declared her the Universal Patron of Immigrants.

            The next opportunity to see the relic and the Montalbano/DeVito reliquary and to celebrate Cabrini’s life will be Thursday, July 26, at the National Shrine of St. Jude at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, 3200 E. 91st St., Chicago.

A closing liturgy celebrated by Cardinal George, OMI, ends the series on the 90th anniversary of Cabrini’s death, Saturday, Dec. 22. The 10 a.m. liturgy will be held at the Shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii, 1224 W. Lexington St. Call (312) 421-3757.


 

Pilgrimage and lecture series marks St. Cabrini anniversary 

The Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii will commemorate the 90th anniversary of Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini’s death with a pilgrimage and lecture series through December. The series is free and open to the public.

            Lectures will be held at various Chicago area locations, and each will be given by a Cabrini scholar who will focus on a significant aspect of the Roman Catholic saint’s mission and work. Besides the speaker’s presentation, each session will provide a prayer service and veneration of a major Cabrini relic that was preserved under the altar of the former Columbus Hospital. The relic will be transported ceremoniously to each host site to symbolize her missionary journey through the streets of Chicago.

            A liturgy celebrated by Cardinal Francis George, OMI, closes the series on Saturday, Dec. 22, the 90th anniversary of Cabrini’s death. The 10 a.m. liturgy will be held at the Shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii, 1224 W. Lexington St.

            The series’s next installment, Mother as Woman of Prayer and Union With God, will be given by Joan McGlinchey, MSC, on Thursday, July 26, at 7 p.m. at the National Shrine of St. Jude at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, 3200 E. 91st St. The other lectures are:

            Mother as Patroness of Immigrants, presented in English and Spanish by Pietrina Raccuglia, MSC, Friday, Aug. 24, 7 p.m., St. Agnes of Bohemia Parish, 2652 S. Central Park Ave.

            Mother as Spouse of the Sacred Heart, Barbara E. Bowe, RSCJ, Sunday, Sept. 16, 3:30 p.m., St Mary of Celle Parish, 1428 Wesley Ave., Berwyn.

            Mother as Woman of the Eucharist, Agnes Cunningham, SSCM, STD, Thursday, Oct. 25, 7 p.m., Shrine of St. Rita of Cascia of the Midwest, 7740 S. Western Ave.

            Mother as Apostle of the New Evangelization, Bernadette Anello, MSC, Tuesday, Nov. 13, 7 p.m., St. Paul of the Cross Parish, 320 S. Washington St., Park Ridge.

            Closing liturgy, Cardinal George, Saturday, Dec. 22, 10 a.m., Shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii, 1224 W. Lexington St.

For more information, call (312) 421-3757.