Frances Xavier Cabrini, known universally as Mother Cabrini, founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She established 67 missionary institutions, including one in New Orleans, to which she came in 1892. Exhibiting the energy for which she would become legendary, Mother Cabrini devoted herself to caring for the poor, especially Italian immigrants concentrated in the lower French Quarter and the objects of discrimination.

Working with her nuns, Mother Cabrini also established a "day home" for children as well as an orphanage. When she needed more space, she headed down Esplanade Avenue until she found a suitable tract near Bayou St. John, which today is the site of Cabrini High School. In 1946, Pope Pius XII declared her a saint. Four years later, she was named the patron saint of immigrants.