Chicago filmmaker Lucia Mauro has wrapped shooting on her third film, a documentary titled Frances Xavier Cabrini: The People’s Saint, in honor of the first American citizen saint’s 100th anniversary. Filming took place over the summer in Mother Cabrini’s native Italy (Milan, Sant’Angelo Lodigiano, Codogno, Rome) and in Chicago, Ill, where Mother Cabrini founded hospitals and schools. It is scheduled to premiere in December 2017.

Frances Xavier Cabrini: The People’s Saint presents a living portrait of the Italy-born humanitarian that showcases her relevance and global reach in an ever-changing world. The Patron Saint of Immigrants and Hospital Administrators is explored as a fearless, rollup-her-sleeves woman who, despite frail health, traveled the world at the turn of the 20th century to serve the less fortunate. It shows the environment in Lombardy, Italy that shaped her compassionate vision and includes interviews with individuals from all walks of life, who carry on Mother Cabrini’s work today as the needs of immigrants and other populations continue to evolve.

Mother Cabrini spent the last years of her life at the former Columbus Hospital – where she passed away on December 22, 1917 -- in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. The site of the hospital she founded is now home to the restored National Shrine of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, also highlighted in the film. Other Chicago locations include Little Italy/Taylor Street and St. Ita Church in Edgewater, home to one of the city’s most diverse parishioner bases.

Interviews include author-scholar Achille Mascheroni; Sister Bridget Zanin, Director of the National Shrine; architect Christopher Payne; Father Richard Fragomeni, Rector of the Shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii; artist Meo Carbone; youth ministers from the Archdiocese of Chicago; and more individuals who embody Mother Cabrini’s mission.

The documentary features a live performance by Il Grande Coro di Roma singing an original hymn to Mother Cabrini, written by Enzo De Rosa, at the Church of St. Alessio in Rome.

Frances Xavier Cabrini: The People’s Saint is produced by Joe Orlandino of Atlas Media and is part of In My Brother’s Shoes, Inc., a not-for-profit 501 (c)(3) corporation founded by Lucia Mauro and her husband, producer Joe Orlandino, dedicated to helping individuals and families suffering from the many forms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Lucia collaborated with DP Andrea Labate, AD Giulio Origlia and Federico Masetti (location sound) of the Milan based Aleph Films; and AD Kevin Conway and Brendan McClorey (location sound) of Chicago’s Flightless Bird Creative. Original music by Montreal-based Enzo De Rosa.
The documentary follows on the heels of Lucia’s feature, One Year Later, about a cancer survivor who takes a life-affirming trip to the Italian Alps one year after completing cancer treatment. It screened at Montreal’s 2016 Visions of the World Film & Music Festival, where it was nominated for Best Original Score. Her short film, In My Brother’s Shoes, starring Danny McCarthy (Elvis & Nixon, Boardwalk Empire)
as the brother of a fallen U.S. Marine who takes a healing pilgrimage to Rome in his sibling’s combat boots, won Best Short Film at the 2015 Mirabile Dictu International Catholic Film Festival in the Vatican
and was featured in the 2015 Cannes International Film Festival’s Short Film Corner. Lucia is also the creator/host of the Italian TV pilot, The Cooking American.

More information at: https://www.mothercabrinifilm.com/