Film on Mother Cabrini, patroness saint of immigrants, does justice to ‘empire of hope’ (TRAILER)

Mother Cabrini (actress Cristiana Dell’Anna), who founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1880 in Italy, personally petitions Pope Leo XIII (actor Giancarlo Giannini) to allow her to follow the path of her saint namesake, St. Francis Xavier, who traveled to Asia as a missionary. But the Holy Father points her instead to the West — America where ships of Italian immigrants followed their dreams and many were crushed, leaving behind their orphaned children. (Photo courtesy of Angel Studios Inc.)

HOUSTON — Being just five-foot tall and suffering lifelong lung damage after nearly drowning in childhood did not deter Maria Francesca Cabrini. Born in 1850 to a farm family in Italy, she followed God’s call to form a worldwide missionary order comprised solely of women.

Brought to life by actress Cristiana Dell’Anna, the film named simply “Cabrini” shows how hard she fought against many rejections. Other religious orders denied her admission to their convents because of her frail health. Yet she resolutely maneuvered through the male-dominated hierarchy of the Church and hateful prejudices spewed upon her and her group of six sisters upon arriving in America in 1889.

Mother Cabrini began by founding her own Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1880. She petitioned Pope Leo XIII (actor Giancarlo Giannini) to allow her to follow the path of her saint namesake, St. Francis Xavier, who traveled to Asia as a missionary.

But the Holy Father pulled out an ornate wooden box atop a desk, calling it the “tomb of dreams.” He opened the top to show her a pile of pleading letters from Italian immigrants who had traveled more than 5,000 miles by cargo ship to America only to be crushed.

Mother Cabrini obeyed the pope, leaving Italy and following the immigrants’ trail, traveling with her sisters by ship to New York to serve the poor, especially orphaned Italian immigrant children. This first biopic ever dedicated to the life of Mother Cabrini premiered in theaters on March 8, coinciding with International Women’s Day.

The high production quality and caliber of actors for the PG-13 film come from Angel Studios Inc., which produced the series “The Chosen” on the life of Jesus. Its director, Alejandro Monteverde, also directed the film “Sound of Freedom.” The 2023 independent movie about human trafficking grossed more than $240 million worldwide.

Mother Cabrini repeats her faith in divine providence several times throughout the film, saying, “Begin the mission, and the means will come.” Despite what is thrown at her and her sisters, she is kind and loving but unflinching in her persistence and determination.

Even after they arrive in New York, the priest who closed the orphanage for lack of funds tries to push her and her group, wearing dark habits and bonnets, back to Italy. She moves beyond to meet with New York Archbishop Michael Corrigan (played by David Morse), who is shown as sensitive but politically astute. He also tries to persuade her to return to her homeland; failing that, he then warns her not to solicit funds from wealthy New Yorkers but only from deeply impoverished fellow Italians.

Another award-winning actor, John Lithgow, performs as the hardened New York mayor, threatening both the archbishop and, in turn, Mother Cabrini as he puffs his cigar and waves about a whiskey decanter in his City Hall office.

For viewers entranced by the HBO Max drama series “The Gilded Age” about wealthy New Yorkers at the turn of the century like the Vanderbilts and Astors, “Cabrini” displays some of that extravagance. But the film also shows the flip side of the muddy stench of Five Points in Manhattan, which housed the shabby and squalid neighborhood of Italian immigrants. The reality-based conditions are duplicated from photographs of actual slums shot by a 19th-century journalist and photographer.

The film shows Mother Cabrini striding into the New York Times building to meet with reporter Calloway (actor Jeremy Nobb), who is convinced by the persuasive, matter-of-fact sister to tour the immigrant neighborhood and shed light on how Italian children were living worse “than the rats.”

In her long habit and lantern in hand, she climbs down a metal ladder into a dungeon-like sewer to show him where orphans hide away for the night. But the movie does take poetic license on events in her life. A newspaper interview did take place three months after she and six of her Missionary Sisters arrived in New York.

However, the website of the St. Cabrini Shrine in New York City stated this interview was published in New York’s The Sun on June 30, 1889. The article by an unnamed reporter highlighted Mother Cabrini’s courage, compassion and persistence, quoting her mission “to rescue the Italian orphans of the city from the misery and dangers that threaten them and to make good men and women of them.”

The movie also shows composite figures of the many children Mother Cabrini saved, such as street girl Vittoria (actor Romana Maggiora Vergano), forced into prostitution to survive (implied, not shown). And young boys run about like sweet-faced Paolo (Federico Ielapi), who, in the opening scene of the film, desperately races around the streets of New York pulling a cart carrying his dying mother as he pleads for help and is turned away from the hospital.

Auxiliary Bishop Italo Dell’Oro, CRS, originally from Italy, saw the film “Cabrini” when it was previewed at a recent U.S. bishops gathering.

“A very good, genuine movie that shows the strong faith and perseverance of Mother Cabrini. It didn’t show her many hours of prayer, but it demonstrated the fruits of those prayers in all she was able to accomplish with God’s grace,” Bishop Dell’Oro said.

Before she died in 1917, Mother Cabrini made 23 transatlantic voyages and established 67 institutions, including schools, hospitals and orphanages throughout the U.S. and the world, even in Asia, where she originally wanted to begin her mission of “an empire of hope.”

She was canonized as a saint in 1946 by Pope Pius XII, making her the first American saint. The Archdiocese has its own church named after St. Frances Cabrini in southeast Houston.

For tickets and screening locations, visit Angel Studios.