Francesca Cabrini came to America from Italy in 1889 to find poverty, disease, and crime. She viewed this as a challenge, not as the end. Cabrini is responsible for founding a school, an orphanage, and a hospital. She accomplished all of these deeds not for her own fortune but simply out of the good in her heart and the hurt she felt for the children being forced to grow up in such an unfortunate environment.
We as Cathedral students may see making change like she did almost impossible. It is possible though to make a difference in another person’s life by having them remember how you made them feel. Using the saints as examples for how to lead your life is a great step towards making this difference.
Recently, Cathedral planned an event for a screening of the movie Cabrini about the life of Francesca Cabrini. Our building at Cathedral is named after her because of her works for others and the Catholic Church.
Father Matthew, a priest here at our school, shared that if there was another building at Cathedral he’d name the building after Blessed Carlo Acutis. He explained that, “we might not have to do extraordinary things like they did but just in our normal daily life we can be saints.”
Acutis lived a short life and died at the age of 15 due to his struggle with the cancer leukemia. He is said to be ‘the first millennial saint,’ but has not yet officially been canonized into sainthood. Acutis is responsible for creating a website documenting Eucharistic miracles and approved Marian apparitions. He was also accredited with a miracle. In 2013, he healed a 4-year old Brazilian boy named Marcus, who was afflicted with an annular pancreas, a birth defect which was affecting his pancreas. The Vatican acknowledged this miracle in 2020 and Carlo Acutis is on his way to becoming a saint.
“They weren’t perfect people and that’s the point,” religion teacher Mr. Hurt shared when highlighting why we learn about the saints. “They were complicated people who had imperfections.” We as humans are all filled with these imperfections as we are drawn to sin throughout the course of our lives. “They were able to, despite those imperfections, turn their life toward Christ.”
Teachers and priests at our school are a resource we students have access to so that we can bring this education of saints’ holiness and spread their messages. Dons at Cathedral are currently using the opportunity given to them to make saint-like decisions and actions.
Students are participating in charitable acts and clubs to raise awareness and hold donations for those who are in need, just as Cabrini did. Lauren Hanson ‘26 expressed that, “I think we think it’s impossible to be a saint, but I don’t think it’s impossible to act in a way where we’re using saints as our role models.”
Cathedral Catholic honors saints greatly by naming buildings after them and teaching their stories in classrooms. “We have these stories about saints… but I encourage people to go deeper into the lives of saints.” Mr. Hurt insisted that it is important for students not to accept the sugarcoated stories, but to do real research, and bring the holiness learned from that research into our lives.
