(Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini)
By Nia Bender
In case you didn’t realize, it’s a state holiday today and offices statewide are closed. This is the first year the state holiday has been called, “Cabrini Day,” as this holiday was formerly known as “Columbus Day.” In fact, Colorado was the first state to celebrate “Columbus Day” in the United States. Colorado began celebrating back in 1907, which was about 30-years before it became a national holiday in 1937. State offices and services are closed today.
Last March, Governor Jared Polis signed into law House Bill 1031, which renames the holiday. Now, the first Monday in October will honor Frances Xavier Cabrini, who created 67-schools, hospitals, and orphanages in the United States and South and Central America throughout her lifetime.
Frances Xavier Cabrini MSC, also called Mother Cabrini, was an Italian-American Roman Catholic nun. She was born on July 15th, 1850 in Lombardy, Italy. She founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a Catholic religious institute that was a major support to her fellow Italian immigrants to the United States. She also founded the first orphanage in Denver, which is now a shrine.
Mother Cabrini died in 1917 (at the Columbus Hospital in Chicago) and was canonized on July 7th, 1946, by Pope Pius XII. She is the patron saint of immigrants. In 2017, then-Governor John Hickenlooper set aside a day in December to honor Mother Cabrini on the 100th anniversary of her death.
Cabrini Day is the first paid state holiday to honor a woman.
