Yellow Fever and the Missionary Sisters
In the 1890s, the large Italian community that had immigrated to New Orleans faced prejudice and fear from local residents. That fear eventually led to violence and the lynching of a group of Italian men. Mother Cabrini and her Missionary Sisters were asked to visit the city to intercede. What they found was the entire region caught in the grasp of a yellow fever epidemic that had claimed the lives of many Italian parents. The Sisters soon established an orphanage there to care for the children, though they themselves were exposed to danger from the rampant and deadly disease. They faced theses difficulties willingly in the true missionary spirit of their order.
Mother Cabrini expands her scope
As Mother Cabrini and her Missionary Sisters arrived in the US in 1889, they
had little funding and a poor command of the English language. But it did
not take them long to establish remarkable success by tirelessly working
with poor Italian immigrants wherever they lived. The Missionary Sisters
delivered basic education, healthcare and spiritual guidance to poor Italian
communities across the United States. So amazing were the results of her
efforts that she became in demand everywhere Italian immigrants settled.
The great emigration of the late 19th and early 20th century saw millions of
Italians leave their home country and relocate to both North and South
America. In the US, there were large colonies in New York, the Midwest,
Colorado and on the West Coast, anywhere labor was needed for factory work,
building railroads, mining metals or farming. Wherever these settlements
were established, Mother Cabrini and her Missionary Sisters were in called
to tend to their spiritual and educational needs.
Not long after Mother Cabrini's success in New York, leaders of the Italian
church requested that she expand here missionary work beyond the East Coast.
By 1895, she had traveled to many cities in North America and had even been
to Nicaragua to establish a school there for Italian children. To accomplish
this, Mother Cabrini needed to attract more women to join the Missionary
Sisters, which she did through the example of her endless energy and devout
piety. Those who joined her order over the next two decades would soon swell
to an amazing number worldwide.
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