Hi neighbor!

Have you seen the movie Cabrini yet? While the university closes for good next month, its namesake lives on, thanks to a team of local investors who raised a staggering $50 million to get the film made. I live less than three miles from the school, and before seeing the movie I knew nothing about the woman after whom the university is named.

Born in 1850 in northern Italy, Maria Francesca Cabrini was a frail, sickly child who battled health problems all her life. The movie opens in 1887, when Cabrini (superbly played by Cristiana Dell’Anna) boldly petitions the pope to allow her to establish missions in the Far East, specifically China. Instead, he instructs her to go west to the United States to help a rapidly growing Italian immigrant population struggling to survive. When she arrives in New York’s Five Points neighborhood with six other nuns, she’s horrified by what she sees—orphaned children living in sewers alongside rampant disease, poverty and crime. She establishes an orphanage and later campaigns to open a hospital to serve ALL New Yorkers. Despite facing hostility and sexism at every turn, Cabrini refuses to back down and frequently clashes with the city’s archbishop and callous mayor (played by John Lithgrow) to secure funding and real estate. (NIMBY was alive and well in turn-of-the-century New York City, apparently.) It’s an inspiring story that’s well-acted and beautifully filmed.

The movie is spiritual, but not overtly religious. Instead, timeless messages of social justice, feminism and human dignity shine through. My only quibble is with the length; at nearly two and a half hours, the movie is longer than it needs to be. My daughter was also curious about Cabrini’s sainthood and the miracles attributed to her, but they’re never discussed. (Cabrini was canonized in 1946 by Pope Pius XII, who named her the patron saint of immigrants.)

The movie is still playing locally, so catch it on a rainy spring day and share your thoughts in the comments below!

XOXO,

Kate