Longtime Philadelphian David Morse stars in ‘Cabrini,’ a new film about the patron saint of immigrants

In Cabrini, the new movie that tells the story of the Catholic sister and saint Mother Cabrini, veteran actor and longtime Philadelphia resident David Morse plays a Catholic archbishop in 19th-century New York. Donning the priestly collar is something Morse has gotten used to throughout his more than 40-year career on the stage and screen.

“I’ve played three priests in the past,” Morse said in an interview. “I played one a long time ago with Valerie Bertinelli in one of the first TV movies I ever did, called Shattered Vows.” He also played priests in a Broadway staging of On the Waterfront and in the one-man play An Almost Holy Picture.

The actor’s latest priestly role is that of Archbishop Michael Augustine Corrigan, who led the Archdiocese of New York at the time of Mother Cabrini’s arrival, and was initially skeptical of her efforts before coming to her side.

“He’s not an attractive man,” Morse said of the archbishop. “He becomes more so over the course of the movie, as he remembers who he is in this world. And that’s really what appealed to me, his journey.”

Morse, who was raised Episcopalian, was mostly unfamiliar with Cabrini’s story before his work on the film, which he said was also the case with most of the people who worked on it.

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, also known as Mother Cabrini, was an important figure in the history of the Catholic Church in the United States. The founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and a builder of schools, orphanages, and hospitals, Cabrini was the first American citizen ever canonized by the church. She was proclaimed the patron saint of immigrants in 1950 by Pope Pius XII.

While she was known for her frequent travels, Mother Cabrini left quite a footprint in the Philadelphia region.

Her story may be less well-known among non-Catholics and non-Italians, but locally based executive producer J. Eustace Wolfington is trying to change that. Cabrini, about the saint’s life, stars Italian actor Cristiana Dell’Anna in the title role and will open in theaters on March 8.

The Italian-born Mother Cabrini came to the United States in 1889, and while she first arrived in New York City, she made numerous visits to Philadelphia over the ensuing years. As The Philadelphia Inquirer reported in 1946, when she was canonized, Mother Cabrini “worked in Philadelphia and visited this city many times during her travels.”

In 1912, she purchased a pair of houses on N. 65th St., which were used as an orphanage and a convent in the neighborhood that housed the city’s Italian immigrant population. During her visits to the city, she worshiped at St. Donato’s Church at 65th and Callowhill, which currently hosts the St. Frances Cabrini Regional School.

Cabrini University, in Radnor, was founded in 1957 and is now marking its final year of independent operation. The Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, founded by Mother Cabrini in 1880, maintains a presence in the Philadelphia region. In addition, the Society of St. Frances Cabrini of Philadelphia is undertaking efforts to preserve St. Donato’s Church.

According to Anne Schwelm, director of the Holy Spirit Library at Cabrini University since 1988, Cabrini would also take trains from 30th Street Station to Strafford and Wayne, which had Italian neighborhoods at the time.

Those at Cabrini University and other associated institutions are excited about the arrival of Cabrini. Multiple early screenings were held in the area, including one at Cabrini University last November for her feast day and another in King of Prussia in January.

Schwelm saw the film in November and called it “inspiring, heartwarming, and inspirational …. Mother Cabrini came across as a strong and powerful woman who just went wherever she needed to get funds, to meet people.”

“I have seen the movie twice, and I think it is beautifully done, authentic, and exceptionally responsive to the needs of a very divided society,” Helen Drinan, interim president of Cabrini University, said. “Cabrini is an inspiration for our day.”

Cabrini was executive produced by King of Prussia-based businessman J. Eustace Wolfington, working with the faith-based distributor Angel Studios and director Alejandro Monteverde. Wolfington, Monteverde, and Angel Studios were all associated with last year’s controversial box office hit Sound of Freedom, which has been criticized for its inaccurate depictions of child trafficking. Wolfington, a devotee of Mother Cabrini’s story, named his asset management company Cabrini Asset Management and raised $50 million for the production.

In addition to telling the story of Cabrini’s arrival in the United States, the film also depicts the discrimination faced by Italian American and Catholic immigrants in the 19th century. Also covered in the film are her early missionary work and her tension with New York’s local church leaders and politicians, including a corrupt mayor played by John Lithgow and the archbishop played by Morse.

David Morse moved to Philadelphia in 1994 after he lost his house in Southern California in the Northridge earthquake, and this year, he marks 30 years of living in the city, the hometown of his wife, actress Susan Wheeler Duff. Wheeler Duff’s father was Michael von Moschzisker, chairman of the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority in the 1950s and ‘60s, and the man credited with the city’s Percent for Art Ordinance, which requires that 1 percent of all new construction be set aside for the arts.

Morse’s local roles have included Dr. Peters, the “apocalypse nut” responsible for the virus that wipes out most of humanity, in 1995′s 12 Monkeys, which The Inquirer recently named the sixth-best Philadelphia movie. Morse also starred in Hack, a Philly-shot TV series about an ex-cop-turned-cabbie who investigates crimes. Morse was so insistent that the show remain in Philadelphia, rather than relocate to Toronto, that he let it be canceled after two seasons rather than move.

He also echoed Wolfington in stating that “there is no specific faith attached to this. It’s really the story of a woman who — she’s within, obviously, that Catholic world and Catholic tradition — but really is a woman who’s standing up to the machine, the big male machine, and that story is what this is really about.”

“Cabrini” will open in theaters on March 8.