"With God I can do all things"
St. Frances Cabrini's letters reveal the heart of a woman far different from the one portrayed in the movie
About four years ago, I stumbled upon an out-of-print book containing a collections of letters from St. Frances Cabrini. They were amazing in every respect. Beautifully-written, eloquent, full of love for God and Jesus Christ and her missionary work, and possessing a richness of humanity not often found in works of the saints. Not overly-theological, her letters wove her faith throughout tales of the trials of her journeys, descriptions of the beauty of the ocean, and the rich wisdom she shared with her missionary sisters.
I looked for a print copy, and finding none available on any of the used bookstores online, I checked the copyright information. Seeing it was out of copyright, I decided to re-publish it “some day.” Last summer I felt the draw to get to work on it, completely unaware that the movie was being made. (A fact I wouldn’t learn until December, when my spiritual advisor mentioned it to me.) By that point I was well along in the production process, and by the time I had the book ready for release in January I had read her letters about six times. I walked away from them buoyed by her mirth and exuberant faith. Through her letters I could almost see her smirking as she wrote them, possessing a sublime joy that only those who have a strong connection to the Lord seem to radiate.
Then I saw the movie.
To say I was disappointed would be an understatement.
I knew it was going to be a bad portrayal early on. While those who read her letters know how often she preached obedience to her missionary sisters, in the opening scenes she defiantly stood up to the ecclesiastical hierarchy at the Vatican. Similarly, in her letters she often reminded her sisters, “Omnia possum in Eo qui me confortat” (“With God I can do all things”) but in the film we see her say, “We must rely on ourselves.”
But there was something else wrong, too. While cinematographically beautiful and gripping, it portrayed a woman who possessed none of the beautiful qualities that shone through so brightly in her letters. The movie portrayed her as bouncing between fearless-power-woman sometimes, and looking exhausted, anxious, and overcome with worry other times. Reading her letters you see neither of these things.
In April I stumbled upon a website called The Catholic Pilgrim run by Amy Thomas, and after reading some of her posts and listening to one of the “Journeying With the Saints” podcast episodes she produces, I decided to reach out and see if she’d like a copy of the book. On her site, Amy talked about how, as a military wife, she has gotten to travel the world and see a lot of Catholic churches and shrines and holy sites, so I thought she’d enjoy Mother Cabrini’s letters. Well, she enjoyed the book enough that she’s going to be reading it next year on her “Journeying With the Saints” podcast! Be sure to check it out.
