St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Shrine

The Story

The St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Shrine stands on Fort Washington Avenue in the Hudson Heights neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, overlooking the Hudson River near Fort Tryon Park. It is the resting place of Mother Cabrini, the tireless missionary to immigrants who in 1946 became the first United States citizen to be canonized a saint. Francesca Cabrini was born in 1850 in Sant'Angelo Lodigiano, Italy, and in 1880 founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She dreamed of serving as a missionary in China, but Pope Leo XIII famously directed her 'not to the East, but to the West.' Arriving in New York in 1889, she devoted herself to Italian immigrants and the poor, and over the following decades founded dozens of schools, orphanages, and hospitals across the Americas. She died in Chicago on December 22, 1917. Pope Pius XII canonized her in 1946, and in 1950 named her the heavenly patroness of immigrants. In 1959 her remains were transferred to the present chapel, built in 1957-1960 beside the school she had founded, where the major portion of her body now rests in a glass reliquary beneath the altar; other relics are venerated in Rome and in Codogno, Italy. Today the shrine remains a place of quiet prayer for New Yorkers and pilgrims alike, and a particular place of intercession for immigrants and all who, like Mother Cabrini, have left home to build a new life. Mass, Eucharistic adoration, and a small museum on her life continue her legacy of welcome.

Church Recognition

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini was canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1946 — the first American citizen raised to the altars — and declared patroness of immigrants in 1950; the shrine holding her remains is maintained by the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the congregation she founded.

Catholic Teaching

The veneration of the saint's relics at the shrine reflects the Church's teaching on the communion of saints (CCC 946-962) and on popular piety surrounding relics (CCC 1674), while Mother Cabrini's life embodies the Gospel call to welcome the stranger and serve Christ in the migrant and the poor.

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The shrine in Upper Manhattan holds her remains beneath the altar.

Go Deeper

Visit the shrine's official website at https://cabrinishrinenyc.org, read about the communion of saints in the Catechism (CCC 946-962), and explore the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus for the story of her congregation's continuing work among immigrants.