NOVEMBER 13TH, SAINT FRANCES XAVIER CABRINI, VIRGIN; St. Didacus, Confessor

Month in honor of the Poor Souls in Purgatory.

From the RB —

Frances Xavier, born in the town of Sant'Angelo in the diocese of Lodi, from her earliest years dedicated her life to God. When she was thirteen years old, she vowed virginity to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. She then taught at Lodi and thereafter the Bishop appointed her directress of an orphanage and also urged her to found a new religious congregation which would be devoted to the missions. And so, when she was thirty years old, in the chapel of Our Lady of Grace at Codogno, she laid the foundation of the Institute of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart. She was uncertain where to undertake missionary work, but when Leo XIII told her to go West she recognized in his word the will of God. She traveled across the ocean twenty-four times and earned the title of mother of the Italians in North America. Her mind and heart were in constant union with God in whom her confidence was implicit. She hailed the Blessed Virgin Mary as the Mother of her Congregation. She affected the wonderful spread of her Institute, as is evidenced from the fact that she established sixty-seven houses. Finally, her life came to an end at Chicago on December 22, AD 1917, and her remains were translated to New York. She was beatified by Pius XI, whereas Pius XII added her name to the list of holy Virgins.