While there was heated contention between the City and Roman Catholics earlier this fall – regarding the dismissal of St. Frances Xavier “Mother” Cabrini in the She Built NYC campaign – progress with external initiatives are taking place to honor her. A statue will be made in Cabrini’s honor and a Brooklyn post office may be rechristened to share h...
READ MOREWith this important fundraising initiative, we're raising funds to create and install a permanent statue of Mother Cabrini in Rochester's "Little Italy Historic District" on Lyell Avenue. The Lyell corridor is one of Rochester's oldest immigrant's corridors. For over 150 years, the area has served as an inclusive and welcoming place of first entry...
READ MOREGov. Andrew Cuomo’s panel tasked with erecting a statue to honor Mother Frances Cabrini has narrowed in on two potential sites Friday — one in Battery Park and the other in Brooklyn Bridge Park. From both sites, visitors would be able to view the statue of Cabrini, the patron saint of immigrants, as well as the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor...
READ MORELocal artist Scott LoBaido unveiled a statue Monday dedicated to America’s first saint amid continuing controversy about a perceived snub against her. His statue of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, more commonly known as Mother Cabrini, was made public on her feast day, and displayed outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan. City officials declined...
READ MOREDo you know who Mother Cabrini is? We celebrate her Feast Day this week. St. Frances Xavier Cabrini was an Italian-born sister who felt a passionate desire to serve the poor. In 1880, after founding the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, she presented herself to Pope Leo XIII and asked to be sent to China. Leo answered, “Not to the East, but t...
READ MOREThe campaign to honor Mother Cabrini in New York City despite Mayor Bill de Blasio and first lady Chirlane McCray is snowballing. A post office in southern Brooklyn would be renamed after Mother Cabrini under legislation introduced Friday by Rep. Max Rose (D-Staten Island/Brooklyn). It’s the latest move by an elected official pushing to honor the s...
READ MOREThe state will dedicate $750,000 to erect a Big Apple statue honoring Mother Cabrini — after Mayor Bill de Blasio and first lady Chirlane McCray came under fire from Italian American and Catholic leaders for failing to recognize the patroness saint of immigrants as part of their “She Built NYC” program. The funding and construction, announced Thurs...
READ MOREOctober is Italian Heritage Month; you may or may not be aware of this depending on which media sources you follow. This year, preceding Columbus Day, there was a controversy which wound up spilling into New York’s Columbus Day parade and ignited an unprecedented movement by New York’s still-vibrant Italian American community. The seemingly well-in...
READ MORECeleste Raspanti, a volunteer archivist at the Cathedral of St. Paul, remembers stories her mother told about their family forging a friendship at the dinner table with St. Frances Cabrini as they helped her minister to the poor in Chicago. “She drank wine, she ate pasta, she sang songs,” Raspanti said of St. Frances. When Raspanti’s grandfather wa...
READ MOREThe long-standing rivalry between Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio was cemented on Monday when the Governor of New York announced he would bypass the mayor and fund the polarizing Mother Cabrini statue with state money. For months, the two political figures have committed to a very public feud over Mayor de Blasio’s decision to exclude Cabrini, a Ro...
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