ENGLISH SPEAKING SAINTS NOVEMBER 13, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, St. Caillin, St. Chillien, St. Columba, St. Devinicus, St. Gredifael

ENGLISH SPEAKING SAINTS NOVEMBER 13 St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, 1917 A.D. Patron of immigrants. St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, Virgin. Frances was born in Lombardi, Italy in 1850, one of thirteen children. At eighteen, she desired to become a Nun, but poor health stood in her way. She helped her parents until their death, and then worked on a farm with her brothers and sisters. One day a priest asked her to teach in a girls' school and she stayed for six years. At the request of her Bishop, she founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart to care for poor children in schools and hospitals. Then at the urging of Pope Leo XIII she came to the United States with six nuns in 1889 to work among the Italian immigrants. Filled with a deep trust in God and endowed with a wonderful administrative ability, this remarkable woman soon founded schools, hospitals, and orphanages in this strange land and saw them flourish in the aid of Italian immigrants and children. At the time of her death, at Chicago, Illinois on December 22, 1917, her institute numbered houses in England, France, Spain, the United States, and South America. In 1946, she became the first American citizen to be canonized when she was elevated to sainthood by Pope Pius XII. St. Caillin, 7th century. A bishop associated with St. Aidan of Ferns, Ireland. Legends claim that Caillin turned Druids into stone when they refused to embrace the Christian faith. St. Chillien, 7th century. An Irish missionary, a relative of St. Fiacre. Chillien worked in Artois, France, to spread the faith. He is buried in Aubigny. St. Columba. The patroness of two parishes in Cornwall, England. The heather king there put her to death. St. Devinicus, 6th century. Scottish missionary and bishop also called Denick or Teavneck. He was a companion of Sts. Columba and Machar in evangelizing Caithness. Other details of his life no longer exist. St. Gredifael, 7th century. Welsh or Breton abbot of Whitland, in Dyfed, Wales. He accompanied St. Paternus from Brittany to Wales.