Chiesa di Santa Francesca Cabrini

In 1948, the Vicariate of Rome entrusted the pastoral care of the Society of Mary of the Marist Fathers with a new parish in the populous Italia district. Named after St Francesca Xavier Cabrini, the parish was canonically erected on 22 December 1949 with the decree Pastoris vigilantis by Cardinal Vicar Francesco Marchetti Selvaggiani.There is still no trace of the present church: the first two Marist Fathers initially settled in the Sant'Orsola Institute, in Via Livorno, celebrating in the nuns' church, which, however, soon proved to be too small to contain the ever-increasing influx of faithful. On 15 October 1949, the new St John the Evangelist School Institute was inaugurated, which was to house the temporary parish church: a hall of about 320 square metres.Presiding over the erection ceremony of the new parish, reading the relevant decree, conferring the investiture on the bursar-parish priest Father Antonio Giamboni and imparting the first Eucharistic blessing in front of the altar dedicated to the patron saint of migrants, is the vicegerent of the diocese, Monsignor Luigi Traglia, on 22 December 1949.It would, however, take another nine years for the final church, which was built according to the plans of architects Enrico Lenti and Mario Muratori and consecrated on 6 December 1958, still by Monsignor Traglia.