Year Released: 2024
Directed by: Alejandro Monteverde
Starring: Christiana Dell’Anna, Romana Maggiora, David Mores, John Lithgow
(PG-13, 145 min.)
Genre: Historical Drama

“We can serve our weakness or we can serve our purpose. Not both.” – Mother Cabrini

A beautiful tale of an extraordinary woman, enhanced with astounding recreations of Italy and New York near the turn of the century. But why did they dismiss the most important focus of American’s first female saint?

Released on International Women’s Day, this film is more about a woman’s empowerment as she fights a male dominated clergy than about the religious devotion of America’s first female saint. Even though Cabrini names the order she establishes in Italy The Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Jesus is never named in the film. Nor are Cabrini’s miracles mentioned since they take place after the movie’s time frame.

True to that vision, one of the film’s screenwriters Rod Barr (“What is True in the Cabrini Movie:), was quite candid about his aim: We had “no interest” in a “strict adherence to factual accuracy.” Maybe that is why the New York mayor in the film is a purely fictional character. Of course, that is Hollywood for you, but Angel Studios, which also produced the surprise cinema hit Sound of Freedom as well as the popular television series The Chosen, seemed to eschew the regular Tinseltown skirting of history, or at least they did.

Quoting Rod Barr again. “A good biopic is closer to poetry than it is to a book of history.”

However, Barr does do quite a bit of research, following Cabrini’s own footsteps by visiting all the main sights in Italy and interviewing historians of Cabrini’s order. Giving up her mission –at least temporarily – to lead a mission to China, Cabrini instead follows Pope Leo XII’s order to

“Go West, not East.”

The dialogue above is from is from historical records as is the Vatican dialogue below. And it is indeed riveting:

Cardinal: There has never been an independent Order of missionary women!
Cabrini: Mary Magdalen brought news of the Resurrection to the Apostles. If the Lord confided that mission to a woman, why should he not confide in us?

Moreover, the slum of the notorious Five Points region in New York, the slum where the despised Italian Immigrants sought refuge, was based on actual historical photograph.

***

A different view comes from Thomas V. Mirus in his passionate review, “Cabrini Secularizes a Saint:”

… while it admirably portrays Cabrini spending herself in service to the poor and winning the hearts of young ruffians (in impressive sets conveying old New York), the film is barely even generically Christian in its focus, stressing instead Cabrini’s personal drive (with a heavy feminist accent), social work, and the pervasiveness of anti-Italian discrimination in 19th-century New York (but nothing at all about the accompanying anti-Catholic bigotry).

The story’s trappings of priests, bishops, and habited nuns are, for the most part, mere trappings. Cabrini almost never mentions God even when trying to convince the clergy to support her work, and is virtually never seen praying, even when at a deathbed. At one point she tells her sisters that they can do “all things in Him Who strengthens us”, but far more emphasis is placed on her own strength as a woman.

What we have in Cabrini, then, is not so much the failure to portray a saint well, as the choice barely to attempt to portray a saint at all.

Different Drummer’s take lies somewhere in between these two views of the film, perhaps leaning a bit more toward Mirus’s “secularizing” review. Also, as a second-generation Italian, I never experienced the rabid anti-Italian animus pictured in the film, though it apparently was very real. Neither did my first-generation mother or my aunts, at least that I remember. (Mother on top left.)

However, in 1888, it was very different:

They are of a very lower order of intelligence. They do not come here with the intention of becoming citizens. . . . They live in miserable sheds like beasts; the food they eat is so meager, scant, unwholesome, and revolting, that it would nauseate and disgust an American workman, and he would find it difficult to sustain life upon it. Their habits are vicious, their customs are disgusting, and the effect of their presence here upon our social conditions is to be deplored. They have not the influences, as we understand them, of a home; they do not know what the word means; and, in the opinion of the committee, no amount of effort would improve their morals or “Americanize” this class of immigrants.

As Mark Tooley states In “Juicy Ecumenism,”

Such conclusions would not age well. Within a decade three quarters of New York’s construction workers went from being Irish to Italian. The Italians were more than Americanized. In the film, Cabrini prophesies to the mayor that inevitably New York will have mayors and governors who are Italian. Of course she was right.

Yet Italians like Cabrini and millions of others blasted away against this prejudice with their perseverance, faith and hard work. They understood and loved America more than their too proud opponents. They knew America offered difficulty but also almost unlimited opportunity. Within decades they were ensconced within American society, prosperous and respected.

And Different Drummer agrees with his eloquent conclusion wholeheartedly.

Mother Cabrini, in her endless good works of orphanages and hospitals, served the Greatest Story Ever Told. America, in an earthly sense, with its endless, churning incorporation of new peoples into its success, is maybe the second greatest story ever told. For those with eyes to see, the Cabrini film illustrates the power of both stories.

Maybe this generic version of a “secularized saint” is all American is ready for right now. I will quote Voltaire, certainly no saint, even a secular one: ”Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.”

Even a flawed film about Cabrini is better than no film at all. Watch it and let me know what you think.

–Kathy Borich
🥁 🥁 🥁 🥁

Trailer

Film-Loving Foodie

Mother Cabrini does everything to lure feral rag tag street kids to her orphanage. At first it is just a filthy rat-infested flat in the slums of Three Points in New York City. She and her loyal sisters scrub everything down until it sparkles, evict the rats, and look for new and better residents. Although, perhaps only marginally so.

One of the older street kids tries to steal her basket of bread, but Mother Cabrini is not deterred. She gives him a choice. Take the bread, or instead, come to the new place and have not only the bread, but rigatoni and crostada, too. His little companion opts for the whole meal, especially when he hears about crostada. Here is a little about the relatively unknown Italian dessert (or even breakfast dish).

When I first came to Italy I was offered some wonderful Italian food to try, from my mother-in-law’s Baked Cannelloni to my sister-in-law’s amazing Tiramisu.

But one sweet that was always offered was a Crostata. Considered one of Italy’s most popular recipes.

This Italian Pie is made with a delicate homemade pastry dough / pasta frolla and filled with a simple Jam filling. –Rosemary Molloy

Crostada reminds me of the simple jam tarts my Italian mother made when she had leftover pie dough. I wonder now, if this is her simple American version of crostata. (In the 50s and 60s, pie was the ultimate dessert, and my mother was an expert, especially her cherry pie – always made with tart not sweet cherries, and her lemon meringue pie, authentically tart with grated lemon rinds adding just the right touch.)

If you want, you can use pie dough for this recipe. It might not be completely authentic, but it is certainly easier.

Crostada:Italian Jam Tart

Ingredients

· 3/4 cup (170g) unsalted butter, softened

· 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar

· 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

· 1/4 teaspoon almond extract

· 1/4 teaspoon salt

· 1 & 1/2 cups (180g) all-purpose flour

· 1/3 cup jam

· 1/3 cup sliced almonds

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Set aside a 10-inch springform pan.

2. Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and almond extracts and the salt. Mix just until combined.

3. Reduce mixer speed to low. Gradually add the flour, mixing just until combined. The dough will be crumbly.

4. Remove 1/2 cup of the dough. Lightly flour your fingers, and press onto a small plate until it's about 1/4-1/2 inch thick. Cover with plastic wrap. Place in the freezer.

5. Transfer the remaining dough to the pan. Lightly flour your fingers, and press the dough firmly and evenly into the bottom of the pan.

6. Spread the jam over the dough, leaving about a 1-inch border around the edges. Crumble the chilled reserved dough over jam. Sprinkle the almonds over the jam and crumb.

7. Bake 45-50 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool before removing sides of pan. Cut into wedges with a sharp knife.

An Italian in My Kitchen