Bringing 'Cabrini' To Life: The Movie About the Patron Saint of Immigrants Had an Avalon Connection
A screenshot from ‘Cabrini’.
Like many superheroes in movies, Francesca Cabrini is courageous. She has incredible powers, wears a cape, and vanquishes powerful enemies.
Yet, Francesca Cabrini is unlike any superhero who’s ever graced the screen. For starters, she is a real person. Her only superpowers are her own determination, resilience, clever mind, compassionate heart, and relentless hope. And she is a nun … and a saint.
The recent hit movie, “Cabrini,” executive produced by local businessman and philanthropist J. Eustace Wolfington, brings Cabrini’s incredible, yet forgotten, story to life. Though she built an empire as vast as the Rockefellers or Vanderbilts, Cabrini has been all but lost to time. Few people know who she is. Even fewer know her inspiring story.
“Cabrini” is poised to change all that.
A movie about Francesca Cabrini, also known as Mother Cabrini, had been tossed around Hollywood for decades. In fact, Loretta Young, Sophia Loren, and Martin Scorsese had all been tied to the project at different times. But it ultimately took the purpose and vision of Eustace Wolfington to bring Cabrini’s stunning life story to the screen. (“Cabrini” premiered in U.S. theaters in March and is available to purchase on U.S. and Canadian digital platforms beginning June 25 and available to rent beginning July 19 – see sidebar).
“People had asked me to help make this movie for years,” explains Wolfington. “Finally, I said I’d do it on one condition, that we make a movie about a great woman. Yes, she’s a nun. But that’s not going to get in the way. There will be no preaching of any kind. We want the movie to have a quality of cinematography, music, acting, and script that for no other reason, people will want to see it. We want this to be universal. We were making this for the world. That was our goal, and I think we achieved that.”
If reactions to the film are any measure, the goal was indeed achieved. “Cabrini” premiered to rave reviews in U.S. theaters on International Women’s Day, March 8. It has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 91%, an Audience Score of 98%, and an “A” Cinemascore. “We’re certified fresh by a mile,” says Wolfington. “To be certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes – it means that over 80 critics have to see the film and you have to have the top five critics. We had the top 15 critics.”
Audience response was instant and passionate. “When we saw the emotion was so strong, we started taking testimonies after screenings of the movie,” Wolfington explains. “We put two cameras outside the theater, and people were waiting in line to give testimonies. Some of them are spectacular and they’re all spontaneous.”
Who was Francesca Cabrini?
When you learn about Mother Cabrini, it’s easy to see why her story can make an impact. And it’s hard to imagine how she could have ever become an enigma.
Born in Northern Italy in 1850, Francesca Cabrini was the youngest of 13 children. She overcame a near drowning, smallpox, and tuberculosis in her youth, and suffered from poor respiratory health the rest of her life.
In 1880, she founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus that’s still operating globally today … 144 years later. Deployed by Pope Leo XIII to New York in 1889 to assist the poor Italian immigrant population in the city, Mother Cabrini found deplorable chaos and intense discrimination. Yet, in the face of unending obstacles, she built orphanages, schools, and hospitals to care for and educate the immigrants and orphaned children, some of whom she’d found living on the streets and in the sewers.
As word spread, requests for her to help other communities poured in. She ultimately established 67 schools, orphanages, and hospitals around the world. Through it all, her diminutive stature belied her mettle, the force of her intellect and her unwavering inner strength.
With a star-studded cast, sweeping cinematography, and a stirring script, “Cabrini” brings all these qualities to vibrant life. As she battles forces of nature, poverty, and the powerful men who ran New York City, Mother Cabrini, played by Italian actress Christiana Dell’Anna, practically hums with resolute ambition. “The world is too small for what I intend to do,” is one of her many lines that resonate long after the movie is over.
“She was all business,” says Wolfington. “People were always trying to take advantage of her. Like when she bought a hospital in Chicago, she walked every inch of that ground personally. When she got to the closing table, they tried to cheat her, but they couldn’t. They all thought she was going to be a pushover. But she had so much common sense.
“Cabrini was an incredible administrator. Everybody had a job mapped out, down to the guy mopping the floor, and she knew how to train good administrators,” Wolfington continues. “She just had amazing executive gifts. She did all the zoning. She bought the ground. She got the architects. She did everything.”
And she did it all at a time when women were still decades away from rights as simple as voting in an election.
Mother Cabrini died in Chicago in 1917 and was canonized by the Pope in 1946, becoming the first American saint, ultimately known as St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, the Patron Saint of Immigrants.
Wolfington, Meet Cabrini
Just nine years after Cabrini was canonized, an ambitious young entrepreneur in Philadelphia was looking for a church close to his office. “I had to find a church with a 6:30am Mass because I started work at 7:30,” explains Eustace Wolfington. “So, I found this church and I walked in and there was a statue of Mother Cabrini, but I had no idea who she was. The priest told me he was doing a nine-week novena to Mother Cabrini, so I went to it and thought … wow! I always say, she was a ‘make it happen’ lady. And I wanted to ‘make it happen’ too. So, I decided I was going to make her my role model and that’s how it all started. I was 23 years old.”
Today, Eustace Wolfington is 91. A father of 10, grandfather of 32, and an incredibly successful businessman, he’s known as much as the man who “invented car leasing” as he is a gentleman who is a generous philanthropist and inspiring leader.
“He’s such an amazing man,” says his daughter Mimi Wolfington Heany, also an executive producer of “Cabrini.” “I think his connection to Mother Cabrini pushed him through his whole life to persevere, to never give up, and to just keep moving along. He’s very much that way. It’s just evident and he’s passed it down to his children and mentored so many people.”
As a mentor, Eustace Wolfington frequently invoked Cabrini. “I traveled the world for business, and I talked about her to everybody,” he says. “Literally nobody knew about her. And even those who knew about her, knew very little. Turns out she was the most unknown person in history.”
To the Big Screen
Now, more than a century after her death, Eustace Wolfington has proved to be the ideal steward to reintroduce Cabrini to the world. Like Cabrini, Wolfington has the ability to tackle an epic challenge with meticulous logic, persistence and humility. In fact, one of his first moves as executive producer was to designate the movie a 501(c)(3), with all net revenue going to charity.
Next, he hired screenwriter Rod Barr and began an immersive research process.
“I took Rod to Italy, outside of Milan. We lived in a convent for 10 days with all the historians. They got out all the old newspapers to show us the stories. In fact, there’s a scene in the movie where Cabrini speaks in front of the Italian Senate, and that was in the newspaper but not in any history books. We wouldn’t have had that if we hadn’t lived in the convent. And that was true about a lot of things.”
Wolfington and Barr read 27 books on Cabrini’s life and walked her footprints in America. “This all took two-and-a-half years before I even let him pick up a pen to write the script,” Wolfington says. “We really did our research.”
Once they had the script, Wolfington began assembling the rest of the team, including director Alejandro Monteverde, with whom he’d worked on the movie “Bella” in 2006. The cast took shape via Zoom auditions, as COVID hit right in the middle of production planning.
“We were just getting started when the world shut down,” explains Heany. “Our offices were all closed, so we actually ended up creating a ‘war room’ on the third floor of my father’s house where we would go every day and Zoom with people in California like Rod, Alejandro, and the casting people.”
For the pivotal casting of Mother Cabrini, Wolfington took some advice from a master. “I had a tip from Martin Scorcese, who said, ‘Get an Italian actress,’” he explains. “We ended up with Christiana Dell’Anna, who was phenomenal. She was perfect for the role. In fact, almost our entire Italian cast was from Italy.”
A trio of superstars were cast to play the men who would alternatively enable and obstruct Cabrini’s endeavors. “David Morse could not have been a better archbishop,” Wolfington says. “John Lithgow was a great mayor of New York, and Giancarlo Giannini was a fantastic pope.”
The Avalon Connection
With the cast assembled, and shooting set to begin in Buffalo in 2021 on Cabrini’s birthday, July 15, Wolfington held an April retreat at the ICONA Avalon that would ultimately set the tone for the entire production. “My father has always been very much about the fact that nobody is ‘better’ than anybody else,” says Heany. “It’s really an amazing culture. So, he wanted to instill that same type of culture in the team we built to create the film. He just wanted to make sure we were all on the same page and that everybody came out excited.”
Beyond the team building, the Avalon retreat also inspired a momentous decision. “We came up with the idea to make Mother Cabrini an executive producer of the film, for no other reason than she was always a forgotten person. So, at least in her own film, we’ll make her an executive producer,” explains Wolfington. “The effect that had – unknowingly when we did it – on the crew, on the cast, was overpowering. They all felt Mother Cabrini was running the show. And in fact, a lot of crazy things happened that you could attribute to her.”
“Our director was inspired, everybody on the set was excited about it. Everyone was talking about ‘Cabrini’ – even the union,” Wolfington continues. “When we got to Rome to begin shooting there, it was pouring rain. The day after we got there, the sun came out. It was probably the best December they had in Rome in 100 years. The day we left; it started raining again. The same thing happened in Buffalo. We never missed a day of shooting because of weather. In nine weeks in Buffalo we had rain, but it always came at night.”
“All kinds of crazy things happened. To get a good movie – things just have to come together. You have to have the right cast, the right players, the right story. And luckily for us, it all came together.”
And then some.
The Cabrini Effect
“It’s just really kind of overwhelming and emotional,” says Heany. “I still cry at certain parts, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen this movie. It’s really incredible.”
Audience reactions mimic Heany’s. “From the day of our first screening, the audiences were genuinely, emotionally, physically moved by the movie,” he says. “I really just hope that it touches people’s lives in a way. Everybody experiences different things in life, and I hope that it moves them to do something they want to do, to be stronger, to have a new inspiration, or to just go out and help others. We really are put on this earth to serve, to help each other.”
Eustace Wolfington, who has lived his life by those sentiments, is also pleased with the results of the film. “Truthfully, our objective was to make an epic film that would stand the test of time. We didn’t want Cabrini to be forgotten again,” he says. “I think we achieved that goal.”
For Eustace Wolfington, this has clearly been a gratifying journey ... though his daughter Mimi has a slightly different perspective.
“I always say to him, ‘Dad, before you were a twinkle in your parents’ eyes, Mother Cabrini knew you.’ I feel it in my heart that this was God’s plan,” she says.
“He was going to model his life after her. And he would always ask, ‘How can she be this amazing woman, and nobody knows her or what she did?’ I truly believe he was pegged from Day 1. He didn’t know it. But this was probably going to be his greatest mission in life – to bring this woman to the world.”
Where Can You Watch “Cabrini”?
Beloved by audiences and critics, “Cabrini” is a must-see movie event. It premiered in U.S. theaters in March 2024 and will be available for purchase on the following U.S. and Canadian digital platforms beginning on June 25 (and available to rent beginning July 19).
Prime Video
Apple TV
All Google-related services: Google Play Movies, Google TV, YouTube Movies
Fandango at Home (formerly Vudu)
Microsoft Movies/Xbox
“Cabrini” is also continuing the process of worldwide theatrical release, with upcoming premieres scheduled in Spain, Italy, and other countries around the globe.
A Family Film
While Eustace Wolfington was the driving force behind the making of the movie “Cabrini,” he was not the only member of the family involved in the production. The “Cabrini Team” also included Wolfington’s sister, Martie Gillin, daughters Mimi Heany and Tara Wolfington, son-in-law Zach DeCarlo, grandson Richard Heany, granddaughter Jennifer Heany (who worked on the film and was also the assistant to the producer), and grandsons Patrick Kelley and AJ Reid, who got to play extras in the film.
Working together as a family, is nothing new for the Wolfington clan, which has a long history of business and philanthropic endeavors in both the Philadelphia region and Seven Mile Beach. While their business ventures began with horse-driven carriages in 1876, they began to make their mark in Avalon in 1944 when J. Eustace Wolfington Sr. and his friend Joseph Mullray purchased The Puritan Hotel, located on the beach between 20th and 21st streets. Wolfington ultimately bought out Mullray’s share of the business and ran the hotel (eventually renamed The Whitebrier) as a family business for 20 years. In fact, J. Eustace Wolfington II, who is the executive producer of “Cabrini,” likely picked up his strong work ethic right on that Avalon beachfront, as he and his nine siblings all had jobs in the operation of the hotel.
The Cabrini movie extends the tradition of working together for the Wolfingtons, this time with three generations happily contributing to the project.
“Working with my father – everyone is even,” explains Mimi Heany. “It’s all about family, respect, and everybody counts.”
Sounds just like Mother Cabrini would want it.
