Mother Cabrini, Pope Leo, and Chicago’s Catholic Legacy
April 8, 2026
4:00 PM - 5:30 PM
Location
BH 121
Calendar
Download iCal FileThe talk: In August 1955, Cardinal Samuel Stritch dedicated the National Shrine of St. Frances of Cabrini in Lincoln Park, the Chicago neighborhood where the saint had lived and died. Just one month later, Robert Prevost was born on the city's South Side. This lecture traces the parallel journeys of the first U.S. saint and the first U.S. pope, examining what they reveal about the study of Catholicism in the U.S. and around the world.
The speaker: Kathleen Sprows Cummings is the John A. O’Brien Collegiate Professor of American Studies and History at the University of Notre Dame. She teaches classes on the history of global Catholicism, women and gender, sanctity, and American religion, and also serves as the Director of the University’s Global Catholic Research Initiative. Cummings is the author of A Saint of Our Own: How the Quest for a Holy Hero Helped Catholics Become American, which was published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2019. This month, Paulist Press will publish Holy Women Making History, an expanded version of her April 2025 Madeleva Lecture in Spirituality. Cummings is currently writing a history of the globalization and modernization of the canonization process. At present Cummings is Chair of the Board of Directors at the National Shrine of St. Frances Cabrini in Chicago, Illinois. A papal analyst for NBC/MSNBC since 2014, Cummings is often quoted in multiple media outlets on Catholic topics.
Date posted
Mar 17, 2026
Date updated
Mar 17, 2026