Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini and Her Connection to Louisiana

I did not talk on this last week but a very Louisiana related Saint had her feast day. That was Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini . She was also our first American Citizen Saint!!! She became a American citizen at the age of 59.

Our retired Ex Pat Priest in Houston Fr. Victor Brown’s Catholic Daily Message did a post last week on her and her Louisiana connections. See Feast of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini (13 Nov 2008) He also had an excellent post on her and her Louisiana Connections last year at Feast of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini (13 Nov 2007)

As we shall see her influence was felt far beyond New Orleans and into my neck of the woods. In Fathers 2007 entry we learn

Her canonization made official sanctity seem very close to many Americans, and especially many New Yorkers, Chicagoans, and those in New Orleans. Before that, saints had been people who lived long ago. Now, we had a saint who had died only 29 years ago, who had walked our streets, begged groceries from the merchants along Esplanade Avenue in New Orleans to feed her orphans, known people whom we later knew. One morning in New Orleans, she met a ten-year-old altar boy after Mass. The priest said to her, “Mother, this is Charles Greco.” She looked attentively at the child, then laid her hand on his head and said, with her thick Italian accent, “My son, you will go far in the Church.” He became a priest and a bishop, and never tired of telling the story of having been touched by Mother Cabrini.

Well yes that is the Bishop Greco. He was the amazing Bishop of Diocese of Alexandria (That at that time included all of North Louisiana). The Church as well as many in Protestant North Louisiana were established by him. Many Catholic of course have gone to Maryhill for retreats in Alexandria. He is buried Right in the middle of it. This is one reason why you see so many "Cabani" things in Alexandria.

I am really convinced that Greco set the foundations of why the Catholic Faith is still very vibrant in that portion of Louisiana.

Anyway sort of neat.