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But Mother Cabrini's mission was not only to America. She somehow found time, energy and means to visit and establish her order in London, Paris, Madrid, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Nicaragua.
Saintly Mystic. Mother Cabrini had her Mary as well as her Martha side. From childhood she had the mystic's hunger for communion with God that gave everything she did the quality of prayer. Legends about her grew up in her lifetime: that she was saved from drowning as a child by an unknown hand; that a locked church door opened to her touch. It is said that a sister who shared her room once woke to find it flooded with a strange light. But the most revealing evidences of her inner life were the intimate notes she kept in her private journal.
To Jesus she wrote in the mystic's language of love: "I feel myself consuming with love for You, and this is a great torture to me, a slow martyrdom at not being able to do something for You. . . . Convert me, Jesus, convert me completely to Yourself, for if You do not make me a saint, I will not know how to work in Your vineyard and will end by betraying Your interests, instead of rendering them successful."
Long-drawn Process. But good works and great sanctity are not all it takes to make a saint. One of the things it takes is a lawsuit—long-drawn, intricate and complex. In the first step toward canonization a diocesan tribunal is appointed in each diocese where the candidate has lived. Before this tribunal a local Vice Postulator pleads the candidate's "Cause" while a Promoter of the Faith (the "devil's advocate") makes all possible objections at every turn.
When all local examinations are completed, the documents of the case proceed to the Congregation of Rites in Rome, where they are meticulously reviewed, approved by the Pope (in his Christian name, so as not to compromise papal authority) and returned to the diocesan tribunals for a second pleading. Once again the postulators and devil's advocates examine the Servant of God's writings, study her local reputation for saintliness, make sure that no public act of homage, prayer, or religious devotion has ever been paid to the individual under examination. If they and the Congregation of Rites find that the Servant of God was not just an extremely virtuous person but practiced in "heroic degree" the Seven Theological Virtues of Faith, Hope, Charity, Prudence, Justice, Fortitude and Temperance, the primary degree of Venerable is awarded.
For a Venerable to become Blessed and finally a Saint, two miracles are required at each stage. Miracles must be "of the first order": i.e., instantaneous healing of a grievous disease of a nonpsychological or nervous nature, attested to by doctors of known reputation, preferably non-Catholics.