Maria Francesca Cabrini was born July 15, 1850, in the town of San Angelo, south of Milan in Italy. She was the youngest of thirteen children. She helped her parents work the family farm, but from an early age she was drawn to a missionary life and service to God. In 1909 Mother Cabrini became an American citizen. Mother Cabrini died in Chicago on December 22, 1917. Her remains are laid to rest in Mother Cabrini High School at 701 Fort Washington Avenue New York, New York. It is now a place of pilgrimage. Mother Cabrini was beatified in 1938 and canonized a saint in 1946.

John Carroll was born on January 8, 1735 to a distinguished Irish merchant family in Upper Marlborough, Maryland. At the age of thirteen, he began studies at St. Omer, a Jesuit college, and entered the Society of Jesus following his graduation. Soon after, he began intensive studies in philosophy and theology in what is now Belgium. Fourteen years later, at the age of thirty-four, John Carroll was ordained a priest. He dedicated the next four years of his life to teaching philosophy and theology in Belgium, and then returned to America in 1774. As a strong and respected Catholic leader, he assisted in gaining acceptance for Catholics in America. In addition, Rome gave him the task of organizing the Catholic Church in the new nation. In November of 1789, he was named Bishop of Baltimore by Pope Pius VI, thus becoming the first American Bishop.