SANT'ANGELO LODIGIANO, Italy — Pope Leo XIV paid tribute Saturday to St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first U.S. citizen ever canonized as a Catholic saint, holding her up as a model for how the Church should respond to migrants today.
Before returning to the Vatican after a daylong visit to the northern Italian city of Pavia, the pope traveled to Sant'Angelo Lodigiano, in the Diocese of Lodi, the birthplace of Cabrini, the Italian-born missionary who became a tireless defender of migrants in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century.
Cabrini died in Chicago in 1917 — the same city where Pope Leo was born. She was beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1938 and canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1946.
Welcomed by about 5,000 faithful, Pope Leo visited the Parish of Santi Antonio Abate e Francesca Cabrini for adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and to venerate the heart of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini.
"When I learned that Sant'Angelo Lodigiano is only a few kilometers from Pavia," Pope Leo said, "I thought I would take the opportunity, and here I am."
The pope said Mother Cabrini, following the guidance of Pope Leo XIII and St. John Baptist Scalabrini, "interpreted the signs of the times" and understood that her dream of going to China, in imitation of St. Francis Xavier, had to be fulfilled where the need was greatest.
"Today that sign, that is, the phenomenon of migration, has entered a different phase, certainly more complex, yet no less capable of challenging the Church," he said.
Pope Leo asked what Cabrini's missionary soul would say if she were alive today.
"For my part, I inherited and carried forward the magisterium of Pope Francis with the apostolic exhortation Dilexi te on love for the poor," he said. "And there, where it speaks of charity in the form of accompanying migrants, the figure of St. Frances Cabrini appears right alongside St. John Baptist Scalabrini. What could be more timely than a missionary charism placed at the service of migrants?"
The pope also urged young people to learn more about Mother Cabrini, saying that those who come to know her "are captivated by her."
"Her soul was at once contemplative and active," Pope Leo said. "She was immersed in the love of the heart of Christ, and this gave her an extraordinary capacity for work and strength of spirit."
In his greeting to the pope, Bishop Maurizio Malvestiti of Lodi praised what he called Mother Cabrini's "original and highly fruitful" union of contemplation and social charity.
Both dimensions, he said, were "overwhelming and farsighted in an evangelical reading of the times and of new realities," marked by "ecumenical and interreligious intuitions" that testify that "no one is a stranger in history: We are all called to fraternity in justice and peace."
The stop in Sant'Angelo Lodigiano was the final leg of Pope Leo's brief but intense visit to Lombardy.
This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
