This Is My New Jersey

This Friday is International Women’s Day. The day we should all stop and recognize the contributions of woman from all over the world.

We Jersey Girls know there is something truly unique about us. We can go from perfect lady to Tony Soprano in 2.3 seconds. We may not know how to pump gas, but we can definitely dig a hole. That’s why in my opinion, Cabrini, the movie coming out on International Women’s Day, is the perfect day to share it with the world.

If you ask me, Mother Cabrini, the first American citizen to become a saint, is the personification of a Jersey Girl. And I count her among our ranks.

Born in Italy, Frances Cabrini, who was born prematurely, orphaned, suffered with health issues her entire life, gave of herself her entire life and touched the world. Including New Jersey. In 1899, Newark Monsignor, Ernesto D’Aquila contacted Mother Cabrini who began the parochial school first in the basement of the old Our Lady of Mount Carmel at Ferry and McWhorter streets and later moved the school to two adjoining store fronts.

Cabrini died of complications from malaria at age 67 in Columbus Hospital in Chicago on December 22, 1917, while preparing Christmas candy for local children.

There is a statue of Mother Cabrini at Independence Park, outside of Penn Station in Newark, which is the site of the old Mount Carmel Church where she founded a school for Italian immigrant children. She also founded an orphanage in Kearny, St. Anthony’s Orphanage, which is now the site of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary.

So I think not only is she a Jersey Girl, she’s the one that broke the mold.

You go girl.