Ten years after her arrival in the United States, Mother Cabrini extended her mission further West
to Chicago where she opened an elementary school. She soon realized the city needed a hospital. In 1902,
she and her sisters set out to raise the funds to purchase what was then the North Shore Hotel on the
corner of Lakeview and Deming Place. On February 26, 1905, Columbus Hospital opened its doors.
Almost half of its 100 beds were reserved by Mother Cabrini for the poor, but her dream to provide
care for large numbers of Italian immigrants and the poor was more extensively fulfilled at Columbus Extension
HJospital, later called Saint Cabrini Hospital, which she founded in 1911 on the West side.
The room in which Mother Cabrini lived and died was opened to the public in 1948, and on August 10,
1955, the chapel that honors St. Frances Xavier Cabrini was dedicated.
In 1992, Mother Cabrini's chapel and rooms were recognized as a National Shrine by the National Registry
of Shrines and Places of Pilgrimage. Today, Mother Cabrini's spirit lives through the Missionary Sisters
of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and lay collaborators at Columbus. They continue her work of ministering
to God's people through compassionate service.
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