Trump honors St. Frances Cabrini as 'towering Italian American hero’

President Donald Trump released a July 15 statement celebrating the birthday of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, calling her "a towering Italian American hero."

In the statement about the first canonized American citizen, Trump said, "Today, we celebrate the birthday of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini — a woman of boundless faith and limitless charity.”

The President described St. Cabrini as "an immigrant who proudly became a citizen of the United States," writing that she "cherished America as her beloved home."

Trump went on to reflect on the virtues he said marked St. Cabrini's life.

"Her tireless pursuit of the common good, her unceasing devotion to Jesus Christ, and her measureless generosity embody the very virtues that have made America the greatest force for good the world has ever known," Trump wrote.

The President also reflected on St. Cabrini's missionary vocation, noting that after founding the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, she answered the call to go "not to the East, but to the West," where the sisters arrived with “nothing but their unshakable faith in Almighty God.”

Highlighting St. Cabrini's charitable work ministering to Italian immigrants, Trump wrote that she and her sister’s ministry "rekindled the faith of thousands of Catholics.” 

The President concluded by reflecting on St. Cabrini's faithful witness and the path ahead for the nation.

"As we celebrate her enduring legacy today,” Trump wrote, “we pledge to safeguard the precious freedoms she cherished so deeply, to usher in a historic resurgence of faith across our land, and to steward the full glory of the American promise for generations to come."