Mother Cabrini's Prison Ministry
Much has been written about Mother Cabrini’s care for children and the sick. Less well-known is that her compassion extended to caring for the souls of prisoners.
“The sisters go regularly to the American prisons to visit the inmates and to teach Christian doctrine. They take special care to prepare the unhappy ones who have been condemned to death to die well,” she wrote in 1913. In New York, the Missionary Sisters paid weekly calls to inmates on Blackwell Island, in the Tombs, in Ludlow Street prison in Brooklyn, and those incarcerated at Sing-Sing and Elmira penitentiaries.
Mother Cabrini is Concerned
Deeply concerned that there was no Italian-speaking priest at Sing Sing, Mother Cabrini instructed the sisters at Sacred Heart Villa (the receiving house for orphans and boarding school originally at 701 Fort Washington Avenue, where the Shrine sits today) to send their own chaplain, Fr. Indelli. A warm correspondence between Mother Cabrini and the incarcerated men she addressed as meie buoni amici (my dear friends) soon developed. The men wrote her letters, poems, and in 1907 printed a tribute to Mother Cabrini and Father Indelli.
Every Person’s Soul Matters
The importance of this friendship to Mother Cabrini was evident in 1905. In a journal published to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the first congratulatory note was from the cardinal of New York, the second from the Italian ambassador to Italy… and the third from the prisoners at Sing Sing.
Mother Cabrini was always concerned for the spiritual well-being of others. Her deep compassion led her to treat prisoners as brothers in Christ rather than as hardened criminals. She regularly remembered those imprisoned in her prayers, and asked others to pray for them as well.
Of your charity and in honor of Mother Cabrini, please spend a few minutes today interceding for the souls of those in prison.
