Frances Cabrini, American Exceptionalism, and Returning to Rome

By analyzing Frances Cabrini as a canonized saint, a U.S. citizen, and an immigrant, this essay shows that American exceptionalism has shaped U.S. Catholic historiography as well as hagiography, and suggests that emphasizing the centrality of the Holy See to the American Catholic story can help historians consider U.S. Catholicism in local, national, and transnational registers. This essay also suggests that Cabrini's story can inspire a new generation of historians to integrate the approaches of several previous generations, by adopting a more expansive vision of the institutional Church that also includes the ordinary people who had little or no direct engagement with its structures.