Sant'Angelo Lodigiano, House and basilica of Santa Francesca Cabrini

Santa Francesca Cabrini was born on 15 July 1850 in Sant’Angelo Lodigiano into an enthusiastically Catholic family. In 1880, she founded the Institute of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Cotogno. Its missionary work began in March of 1889 and is directed principally to the United States, and to Central and the South America.
For her great works, Pius XI proclaimed her Beatified on 13 November 1938 and Pius XII canonised her on 7 July 1946. In 1950 the same Pius XII declared her the universal patron saint of emigrants.
Her house (in the street named after her) is now transformed into a small museum and centre for documentation about her, with hundreds of publications of various kinds and in various languages, apart from other important materials brought from different parts of the world. Close by, in the piazza XV luglio, stands the monument “ to Santa Francesca Saverio Cabrini and Emigrants”, a work by the sculptor Enrico Manfrini. The Cabrini basilica – the first sanctuary of the Saint in the world – imitates the Renaissance style of Bramante. It was built recently: it dates from the 1930s and is also dedicated to the Patron of the Barasin Community, Saint Antonio Abate.