I recently went to see “Cabrini,” the story of America’s first saint. It’s a wonderful film, and I highly recommend it.
Mother Cabrini, as she was known, founded an order of sisters in Italy that created orphanages and homes for poor children. She longed to launch a mission to China but the Pope denied her request and told her to go to America instead, where there were large numbers of impoverished Italian immigrants.
She and several of her sisters traveled by ship to New York City in 1889 and immediately established residence in the Five Points, a congested and dirty neighborhood teeming with indigent Italian immigrants. The sisters opened a home and school for vagrant children living in squalid conditions.
Mother Cabrini was always in frail health but she had an iron will and surmounted every obstacle that blocked her desire to serve. She was a fearless feminist. The Archbishop of New York was not welcoming but she overcame his opposition. The Mayor of the city tried to close down her orphanage and frustrate her plans to grow, but she persisted.
She was ingenious. She sought out a reporter for The New York Times, brought him to see the living conditions of her district, and he wrote about her work. Children were “living worse than rats,” in sewers under the streets, he wrote. Anything to stay alive. Mother Cabrini ran a school where they learned English but sang songs in Italian. She wanted them to fit into their new homeland but not to lose touch with their ancestral home.
Let me emphasize that while the story centers on a nun with an iron will, there is no religious propagandizing. None. It’s a movie about courage, dedication, kindness, and a fierce desire to help the neediest. Mother Cabrini eventually established orphanages and hospitals around the world.
The lesson that I took away from the film was about the hard life of immigrants and the valor of those who reached out to help them survive. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, there were no government services. People came pouring in and had to make it in their own or die from hunger and disease.
Mother Cabrini’s love for the immigrants of her time stand in sharp contrast to the political rhetoric of today, when they are vilified as rapists, drug dealers, murderers, invaders. Even the children.
As I watched the film, I found myself wishing that Trump might see it. I know he never will. Its message is not religious. It’s about kindness, compassion, dedication, and selflessness. He would say that Mother Cabrini was a radical socialist, a Communist, a sucker, a fool, and not his type.
In addition to the story line, I loved the depiction of early New York City (even though the credits say the film was made in Buffalo).
Diane Ravitch's blog 
@Diane — I have not seen the film, but weeks ago I saw it previewed on YouTube. I thought, “What a great story.” As I grow older, I realize all that I do not know and never taught, so I relish to learn more and more each day. What I noticed first was how the Italian immigrants were immediately denigrated being called, “Dagos.” I watched Warrior about Chinese immigration in San Francisco (I grew up in the Bay Area) and how immediately the new immigrants were “Chinks.” Somehow one race learned quickly they were superior even though nearly all of our families came from somewhere else. Yes, I am dumbfounded by people whose soul purpose is to make someone else’s life miserable by namecalling and other measures. We need more compassion, empathy, and kindness. Oh, another good film is “Shirley” on Netflix. I was so happy to know the young woman Ms. Chisolm encouraged was Barbara Lee. She is such a great person. Blessings to you and yours.
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Rcharvet: Also, if you don’t already, keep up with the American Masters series on your PBS channel. They are always showing fascinating documentaries about people like “Shirley.”
This last week they focused on a Latino woman who gained her social consciousness by working her way up at a local newspaper and who set a pattern for many others, breaking stereotypes all around, and the constant pushback she encountered.
And thank you Diane for focusing on that film. I’ll go see it soon. CBK
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CBK,
You will love “Cabrini.”
My 10-year-old grandson did.
An incredible woman in frail health with a will of iron, determined to serve those in need.
When you contrast her with today’s selfish, noisy, greedy “Christians,” it’s quite the difference.
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Seriously think all good folk. Who seek solutions. Should see this film.
It is Italian gorgeous film work. And Mother Cabrini is a tough & tender Hard-nose Liberator of the hard-working down & out.
I loved it.
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Trump is beyond redemption. This is a creep who has broken every Bible Commandment, more than once, and ignores laws every chance he gets.
The only way this traitor would be in a theater showing this film is if he was forced by a judge, under military or police guard to attend, and then he wouldn’t pay attention.
Instead, he’d take the stage or stand on his seat so others would notice him. He’d attempt to recruit the audience to join MAGA, bragging about himself, cursing his enemies (anyone that doesn’t do what he wants) even if the audience booed him so not one mangled word out of his mouth could be heard.
It wouldn’t take long before the police/military that escorted him to that theater would have to remove him for his own safety because the audience would be so angry, they’d tear his arms and legs from his body and hang him from the balcony, if there was one.
UNLESS the audience was all MAGARINOs. Then they’d cheer him on and ignore the film while encourage their orange blob to become a dictator and “lock her up?”. Then the theater’s employees would have to be escorted out for their safety.
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“Trump is beyond redemption. This is a creep who has broken every Bible Commandment, more than once, and ignores laws every chance he gets.”
One of trumps many believers once explained that God often sends sinners to spread His word.
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I hope you have also seen “One Life,” about Sir Nicholas Winton’s rescue of more than 600 Jewish children from Prague. Great movie!
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Yes, great movie. Imagine–a religious zealot who actually walked the talk! I know there are many who do, but we don’t often hear from them because they’re busy with their work.
Instead, what overwhelms us are the many shrill liars and hypocrites who wear the cross and wrap themselves in the flag while constantly telling us–in effect–to do as they say, not as the do!
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P.S.: I am referring to “Cabrini.” Alas, I missed “One Life” at our local theater; wrote it on my calendar then forgot to look at the calendar!
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In other film news, recently I was reading an obscure text called 3 Baruch, a piece of Christian pseudographia from perhaps the second century CE that describes a vision of five heavens on the part of the titular character. In this book I discovered where Frank Herbert got his idea for giant worms that excrete spice, which he describes as like cinnamon, but is, of course, a powerful psyche-expanding psychedelic. (NB: Psyche means both “mind” and “soul” in Greek. Here’s the relevant text, from 3 Baruch, 6: 3-12:
And I said to the angel, “What is this bird?”
And he said to me, “This is the guardian of the earth.”
And I said, “Lord, how is he the guardian of the earth? Teach me.”
And the angel said to me, “This bird flies alongside of the sun, and expanding his wings receives its fiery rays. For if he were not receiving them, the human race would not be preserved, nor any other living creature. But God appointed this bird thereto.”
And he expanded his wings, and I saw on his right wing very large letters, as large as the space of a threshing-floor, the size of about four thousand modii; and the letters were of gold. And the angel said to me, “Read them.” And I read and they ran thus: “Neither earth nor heaven bring me forth, but wings of fire bring me forth.
And I said, “Lord, what is this bird, and what is his name?”
And the angel said to me, His name is called Phoenix.
(And I said), And what does he eat?
And he said to me, The manna of heaven and the dew of earth.
And I said, Does the bird excrete?
And he said to me, He excretes a worm, and the excrement of the worm is cinnamon, which kings and princes use.
Herbert was a great student of ancient religions, as readers of the Dune series (and watchers of the recent Dune films) will know. So, my contribution to Herbert scholarship. You’re welcome.
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Where Did Frank Herbert Get the Idea for the Spice Worms of Dune? | Bob Shepherd | Bob Shepherd | Praxis (wordpress.com)
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Here is another tidbit from history that really flew in the face of my stereotype about 10th Century living, from the New York Book Review, Oct. 19, 2023:
“The act of killing people was once taken so seriously, Phil Klay writes in ‘Uncertain Ground: Citizenship in an Age of Endless, Invisible War,’ that after the Battle of Hastings in 1066, a Penitential Ordinance was imposed on Norman knights:
“‘Anyone who knows that he killed a man in the great battle must do penance for one year for each man that he killed.‘
“Klay, a forty-year-old veteran of the war in Iraq, considered such rituals beneficial not only for the psychological health of soldiers but also for their communities, because after a war the traumatized perpetrators . . .
“‘must reconstruct a view of faith, society, and ethics that will not merely collapse into the emptiness of evil they have faced. A nation left flailing in the emptiness of evil becomes one in which that evil never ends.'”
(Reviewer: Suzy Hansen) CBK
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Nice, CBK!
A little English history, here: A Brief History of England, by Gerald | Bob Shepherd | Praxis (wordpress.com)
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Thanks for the detail on this, Diane. Definitely a must-see for us. Hubby’s parents were our mainstay grandparents (local, vs mine hours away), & much time spent with maternal grandparents while alive. Grandpop arrived at age 17 as a housepainter, but soon found better career in garment industry. He met Grandmom here; her family emigrated when she was 5yo, and eventually established a bakery. I wonder if their early years here were as difficult; stories don’t go back that far… We will be watching for the dialog in Italian & the view of early NYC [a/k/a Buffalo? lol] as much as for the inspiring story.
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Ginny, it’s a terrific story.
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I loved it, too, Diane. At times, I found myself quietly weeping, thinking about the condition in which those poor children lived. She was really quite something. “The world is too small for what I intend to do.” A remarkable feminist as well.
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Yes! I found myself wishing that someone would force Trump to see it. Maybe he would not be so mean to immigrants if he did.
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