NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Gov. Andrew Cuomo unveiled a new statue commemorating Mother Cabrini, an Italian-American saint, in lower Manhattan on Monday.
At a ceremony in Battery Park City on Monday afternoon, Cuomo called the Roman Catholic nun a woman who “broke the mold and… achieved great things.”
“Saints are often forged in the crucible of adversity," he said. "Mother Cabrini was tested by seemingly insurmountable challenges. She was in a new country. A woman, a nun, and it was 1889.”
“Women were not empowered, the traditional role of the nun was to serve the priests, and on top of it all, Italians were victims of intense discrimination,” he added.
Mother Cabrini, whose full name was St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, founded dozens of schools, hospitals and orphanages dedicated to serving people living in poverty.
The patron saint of immigrants, she moved to the United States from Lombardy, Italy in 1889. She was canonized in 1946, after passing away in 1917.
Cuomo announced the state would commission a statue of Mother Cabrini last year, after a New York City initiative tasked with building statues to honor famous women didn’t include her on a narrowed-down list that included Rep. Shirley Chisholm, Billie Holiday, Katherine Walker and Elizabeth Jennings Graham.
In a tweet on Saturday, the governor said the statue would “(celebrate) our Italian American heritage and all immigrants.”
“Mother Cabrini is the personification of the Italian American legacy and an inspiration to all,” he said.