# Day Eight of the Novena: Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini
*2008-12-01*

> Bill Young continues the eight‑day novena to three American saints, focusing on Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, her missionary life, and a prayer invoking her intercession for the forgotten and the sick.

## Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini – A Brief Biography

Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini was born in a small village in Lombardy in 1850. She was so frail at birth that she was taken immediately to the church for baptism. From her youth she dreamed of becoming a missionary, yet she was rejected three times when she applied to join a convent. Undeterred, she eventually founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, establishing 70 orphanages, schools, and hospitals across eight countries in Europe, North America, Central America, and South America.

## The Novena Prayer for Saint Frances Cabrini

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, in every corner of the hemisphere you sought out those whom everyone had forgotten. Mother of immigrants, friend of orphans, protector of the poor, intercede for us who seek to follow your example. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Mother of the aged, be with those who are forgotten and alone. Mother of the oppressed, pray for all who are condemned to die. Mother of the sick, pray for those who tempt to forget the infinite value of life. Amen.

## Traditional Prayers

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

*Saint Frances Cabrini reminds us that Christ calls us to reach out to the forgotten and the marginalized, trusting in God's infinite value of every human life.*