In Battery Park, Overlooking Lady Liberty, Ellis Island, and Brooklyn stands the statue of the patron saint of immigrants, Frances Xavier Cabrini, also known as Mother Cabrini.
Cabrini was an Italian American Roman Catholic nun, the founder of the female religious congregation Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In 1889 She immigrated from Italy to the US with six sisters. They supported the Italian immigrants’ community in NYC, founding schools, orphanages, and hospitals. Overall she founded 67 missionary institutions all over the US. Twenty-one years after she passed away, Pope Pius XI beatified her, and she became the first US citizen to be canonized and declared a saint.
To commemorate her contribution to New York City, the governor, Andrew Cuomo, announced the commission of her statue. The father and daughter team of Giancarlo Biagi and Jill Burkee Biagi won the design competition, which depicted the young Mother Cabrini guiding two children in a boat on their way to America. The girl is holding a book and symbolizes Cabrini as a young girl. On the base of the statue, there are scenes from Mother Cabrini’s life inscribed on the bronze. The statue was dedicated on Columbus Day, October 12th, 2020, a year after the announcement on the commission.
A few months later, another statue of Cabrini was dedicated in the city, this time in Brooklyn, in Sacred Hearts and Saint Stephen Roman Catholic Church in Caroll Gardens.
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