Arriving in New York City in 1889, Italian immigrant Francesca Cabrini is greeted by disease, crime and impoverished children. She soon sets off on a daring mission to convince the mayor to secure housing and health care for society's most vulnerable.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00 (dramatic music)
00:02 - I was told that you were rejected
00:09 by three different orders,
00:11 each time for weakness of constitution.
00:14 - Your Holiness, we can serve our weakness
00:18 or we can serve our purpose, not both.
00:21 My sisters, if we are to build an empire of hope,
00:29 (humming)
00:30 it seems we must first conquer New York.
00:34 - A filthy day goes, they just keep coming.
00:40 - In America, the greatest nation on earth,
00:49 rats have it better than the children of five points.
00:53 - It's not safe, not for you.
00:54 Be careful, this place will eat your life.
00:57 (coughing)
00:59 - Doctors tell me five years.
01:03 - Five would be a miracle.
01:07 - In that case, I should not do it.
01:10 - I need an orphanage with more room,
01:15 where my children can be children.
01:16 - I'd like you to keep your crime
01:22 and your filth out of this neighborhood.
01:25 - The mayor will find a way to get you out.
01:27 - You have an election coming up, do you not?
01:31 - I believe I am being threatened by a nun.
01:35 - You have swatted the hornet's nest.
01:39 - Get out, jagged, go!
01:43 - I built the best hospital for your people and for mine.
01:52 - We have to show America we are all people of dignity.
01:56 - This project is overly ambitious, perhaps unrealistic.
02:01 - We are bold or we die.
02:05 - This is how I learned to live in America.
02:08 - Cabrini, you would have made an excellent man.
02:14 (dramatic music)
02:17 (whooshing)