successfully applied to Rome to turn the institute in to a full religious congregation with a worldwide mission. She took as the congregation's motto the words of St. Paul: "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me."

Frances would often need the Lord to do "all things" on her behalf, for numerous times the orphanages and schools run by her congregation ran short of money. Whenever this occurred, she would simply tell the sisters to pray and have faith, and the money would be found to carry on: sometimes, miraculously, even in a particular drawer or a cupboard where Frances had told the sisters to look.

Meanwhile, Bishop Scalabrini of Piacenza made known to Mother Frances the terrible plight of the Italian immigrants in America. Shamelessly exploited aslaborers, they suffered also due to their limited knowledge of English, and many of them lived in dire poverty. Sisters were badly needed in America to educate the children of these immigrants--especially in English and in the Catholic faith--to care for their orphans, and to provide them with affordable hospitals. Mother Frances was sympathetic, but she had already set her heart on sending her sisters to work in China. However, when she went to the Pope and knelt for his blessing on her work in the Far East, he replied, "No, not the East, but the West." Thus commissioned by the Holy Father himself, she made her way to America with seven sisters in 1889. Starting out with almost no money at all, they began to establish orphanages,