Cabrini, Mother Incarnate

The Dark Mother's work in the real world.

This post for paid-subscribers is a working excerpt from my book about the Black Madonna and my life with Her. Want more? Join the party and up your level to paid.

As I read about “Alligator Alcatraz,” the rollback of inclusion programs, the scrubbing of history to fit a fantasy narrative cooked up by the crazies, the dread faced by our immigrants (canaries in the Stygian coal mine of America), I think of the Dark Mother, who She is, what She offers us, what She demands, but I also think of Mother Cabrini, one of the Black Madonna’s avatars. Below are two selections about Cabrini from the book.

The year my husband and I moved to the Big Apple a movie about Mother Cabrini came out. I didn't see it at first, busy as I was setting up a new life, walking through Central Park, spending too many hours at my neighborhood patisserie. Living in New York for the first time, I re-read La Storia by Jerre Mangione and Ben Morreale, a history of the Italian immigrant experience in America, and naturally, Cabrini was mentioned. Curious about her life, I dug into her biography and found not just a nun with a focus on justice, but the Great Mother Herself.