Sister Blandina: Saint for Migrants at the Border

If you haven’t seen the movie Cabrini, be sure to make the effort. By now, however, it might be streaming on one of the several venues like Netflix or Max, etc. It is the story of St. Francis Xavier Cabrini, and the founding of her missionary community in her native Italy before coming to America to help the impoverished Italian immigrants in New York. The movie centers on Cabrini’s work in New York and offers a sobering look at the treatment of immigrants, especially Italians, who were preyed upon and lived, literally, in sewers. Her ministry and legacy are inspiring to anyone who learns about her since she arrived here in 1889. The movie is well-done without the glamour and religious affectation which is often the gestalt of a Hollywood production about religion or faith.  

Women religious have always been on the frontlines of immigration reform and almost any other kind of injustice and societal need since they were founded centuries ago. In fact, most congregations of women were founded explicitly to serve the poor. Sister Blandina Segale is one of my community’s sterling examples of sanctity merited from her dedication to the very poor in Colorado (when it was still a territory), New Mexico, and later in Cincinnati, Ohio.  

I have written before about Sister Blandina in this blog, but her cause for sainthood may be advancing now: she is presently on the first level toward canonization called, Servant of God. It is time for a review. Because I have a limited word count for my blogs, allow me to list only some of her achievements for the mission. This will be very pedestrian reading. Sister Blandina: embarked on the Santa Fe Trail from Cincinnati on rail and then on stagecoach to Trinidad, Colorado at age 22 in 1872. She encountered and befriended Billy the Kid and remained his friend until his death. She taught school, worked in an orphanage, and built a trade school for Native Americans and a home for the elderly. She begged money from mining camps throughout the southwest to build St. Vincent’s Hospital in Santa Fe. She sold insurance for the many accident-prone workers constructing the infrastructure of the southwest. She calmed countless mobs of armed men ready to take the law into their own hands and she helped build coffins for the indigent. She continued ministering in Colorado and New Mexico establishing homeless shelters, attacking the issue of human trafficking, even facing the threat of death. 

Ready for more? Twenty-one years later Sister Blandina was back in Cincinnati where she and her sister, Sister Justina, founded and managed Santa Maria Institute, among the first Catholic Settlement Houses in the United States.  The two sisters, along with Sr. Euphrasia Hartman opened a storefront church for Italian immigrants known today as the beautiful San Antonio Church on Queen City Avenue. Sister Blandina has been the subject of novels, articles, television programs, poetry, dramas, and a comic book. Her bravery was celebrated in a 1966 episode of television’s Death Valley Days titled, “The Fastest Nun in the West,” in which she faced a lynch mob and saved a man’s life. A documentary of her life is being completed now. Her letters to her sister describe her life and work in the southwest in rich and candid detail and are published in the book, At the End of the Santa Fe Trail. Whew! Hefty list, isn’t it? And I have only scratched the surface!

Coincidentally, both Mother Cabrini and Sister Blandina were born in the same year, 1850, and the same country, Cabrini in Sant’Angelo Lodigiano, and Blandina in Cicagna, Italy. While Mother Cabrini concentrated on the rancid poverty of Italian immigrants in two major American cities, New York and Chicago, Sister Blandina fought for Mexican immigrants and Native Americans existing in squalid conditions in Colorado and New Mexico, and later for Italian immigrants in Cincinnati. 

Reflection

In June 2014, the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, New Mexico, announced the cause for canonization of Sister Blandina had been approved. She is now, Sister Blandina, Servant of God. To secure her canonization into sainthood, materials and documents and possible testimonies are collected to be examined by officials in Rome who would determine possible elevation to the title of ‘venerable.’ The next step is beatification which requires verification of a miracle through her intercession. Once beatified, canonization occurs after a second miracle is attributed to Sister Blandina.

Last week’s blog was on what you can do regarding the immigration issues at our border. This week I have presented what two holy women did in this country for immigrants a century ago. And still, migrants and people arriving from different cultures at our borders face suspicion, rancor, abuse, and terror instead of welcoming arms for those “yearning to be free.”

For more information on how you can get pamphlets and prayer cards on Sister Blandina, and the prayer for her canonization For more information on how you can get pamphlets and prayer cards on Sister Blandina, and the prayer for her canonization go to our website: https://www.srcharitycinti.org/who-wearearchives/historical-resources/servant-of-god-blandina-segale-sc/materials/

You can order her book The End of the Santa Fe Trail on Amazon or through any bookstore. 

In your own quest as to how you might help in assisting migrants, reflect on God’s love for you and how you might share it with the poor. You might reflect on her well-known quote: “Do whatever presents itself and never omit anything because of hardship or repugnance.” Sister Blandina was a true daughter of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. Please join us in praying for her canonization.

Thank you to all my readers and Anonymous Angels as we pray for the poor and work for them as best, we are able.