Mother Cabrini spent the last years of her life at the former Columbus Hospital – where she passed away on December 22, 1917 -- in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. The site of the hospital she founded is now home to the restored National Shrine of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, also presented in the film.

The documentary reveals the scope of Mother Cabrini’s mission through interviews and archival material, such as photographs and artifacts from collections including Mother Cabrini’s birth home in Sant’Angelo Lodigiano, Italy, the convent she established in Codogno, Italy, Chicago’s National Shrine, Montreal’s Santa Cabrini Hospital, the Cabriniana Collection at Cabrini University in Radnor, Penn., and more.

This universal story is also told through actor reenactments, interviews, and sweeping footage of the art related to the life of one of history’s most tireless and compassionate advocates for the sick, the poor, the vulnerable, children, and immigrants. Filming took place over the Summer 2017 in Milan, Sant’Angelo Lodigiano, Lodi, Codogno, and Rome, Italy; and in Chicago and Des Plaines, Ill.

Interviews include author-scholar Achille Mascheroni; Sister Maria Regina Canale, MSC, Assistant General of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart in Codogno, Italy; Sister Bridget Zanin, MSC, Director of the National Shrine; architect Christopher Payne; Father Richard Fragomeni, Rector of the Shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii; artist Meo Carbone; youth ministers from the Archdiocese of Chicago; the global community at St. Ita Catholic Church, and more individuals who embody Mother Cabrini’s mission.

The documentary features a live performance by Il Grande Coro di Roma singing an original hymn to Mother Cabrini, written by Enzo De Rosa, at the Church of St. Alessio in Rome.

Frances Xavier Cabrini: The People’s Saint is produced by Joe Orlandino of Atlas Media and is part of In My Brother’s Shoes, Inc., a not-for-profit 501 (c)(3) corporation founded by Lucia Mauro and her husband, producer Joe Orlandino, dedicated to helping individuals and families suffering from the many forms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Funds raised go toward veterans, cancer research and humanitarian efforts.

The documentary follows on the heels of Lucia’s feature, One Year Later, about a cancer survivor who takes a life-affirming trip to the Italian Alps one year after completing cancer treatment. It screened at Montreal’s 2016 Visions of the World Film & Music Festival, where it was nominated for Best Original Score. Her short film, In My Brother’s Shoes, starring Danny McCarthy (Elvis & Nixon, Boardwalk Empire) as the brother of a fallen U.S. Marine who embarks on a healing pilgrimage to Rome in his sibling’s combat boots, won Best Short Film at the 2015 Mirabile Dictu International Catholic Film Festival in the Vatican and was featured in the 2015 Cannes International Film Festival’s Short Film Corner. Lucia is also the creator/host of the Italian TV pilot, The Cooking American.

Information:

Date: Sunday, November 26, 2017
Time: 10 a.m. Mass & Chapel Dedication, followed by 11 a.m. film screening and Q&A with filmmaker Lucia Mauro
Location: Hopital Santa Cabrini, 5655, rue St-Zotique est, Montreal, Quebec Canada
Free, but space is limited. Reservations required:
[email protected]
In English and Italian with French subtitles.

Date: Tuesday, December 5, 2017
Time: 7 p.m. screening and Q&A
Location: Bryn Mawr Film Institute, 824 Lancaster Ave., Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
Price: $20, individual tickets, includes popcorn/soda and Q&A;
$75, screening plus pre- and post-show reception with writer-director Lucia Mauro and producer Joe Orlandino
Proceeds benefit Cabrini University.
In English and Italian with English subtitles.

More information: https://www.mothercabrinifilm.com/