There were many obstacles Mother Cabrini had to overcome on her voyage to the New World. The first adversity she had to conquer was the Atlantic Ocean. She'd had a bad experience as a child, where she fell into the river in search of some little dolls which had fallen from a ledge into the water. She was saved from drowning by her guardian angel, but he had never taken her fear of water.

She was now going to tackle one of the largest bodies of water in the world, and not the most pleasant. In addition, she left on March 19, the Feast of Saint Joseph, smack in the middle of the winter months, which are the most fearful ones in which to attempt to cross the Atlantic. She and her sisters were extremely sick during the crossing, but she never let on. She walked around, trying to cheer them up, as well as some of the other 1500 Italians aboard ship, most of whom had never made a transatlantic voyage before.

When they finally arrived in New York, some of Bishop Scalabrini's priests met them and gave them dinner at the rectory. Everything went well, until the sisters asked to go to their convent. That's when they had the first inkling that all was not as had been presented to them. They had no convent! Not only that, they didn't even have a place to stay that night. The priests brought them through the city to a series of rooming houses, one worse than the other. When they finally found one that met their pocketbook and didn't look too bad, they took it. But they were in for a surprise. The mice and bugs waited until they had paid for the room before they came out to meet them. Mother and her little brood spent that night in a terrible position, sitting on wooden chairs trying to defend themselves from the attackers.

The priests of Bishop Scalabrini's community could not explain why the sisters had no convent to greet them upon their arrival. They hemmed and hawed over where the glitch was. They were sure the archbishop would be able to unravel the mystery. To that end, Mother Cabrini prayed all night to the Sacred Heart, as she sat on the hard chairs, protecting her girls from the New York vermin. They also offered their Mass and Communion that their meeting with the Archbishop of New York would turn out better than this, their first day in the United States.

But when the first words the Archbishop said to them were "How is it that you are here? I wrote you not to come at this time." Mother Cabrini almost lost it. The archbishop covered his tracks by explaining the offer for the convent and orphanage and the funds suddenly disappeared. The truth, as related later on, was that he had a falling out with Countess Cesnola, the benefactress, and the funds were not forthcoming.

There was no orphanage! There were many students for the school; however, there was no school building. The archbishop could not see anything but that the sisters return to Italy on the same boat which had brought them to New York. The nuns became almost ill at the prospect of another trip across the ocean like the one they had just endured.

No one knew with whom they were dealing, however; not the sisters, not the Archbishop of New York. We don't know if Mother Cabrini had ever spoken to a bishop in the way in which she was about to address the archbishop. To his suggestion that they go back to Italy on the same boat, she responded: "We were sent here by the Holy Father, your excellency, and we cannot go back. We have been entrusted with a special duty, and we must fulfill it."

He asked for her letters of credit. Mother Cabrini had been very thorough before she left Rome. She had gotten letters from various cardinals, bishops, and her trump card - a letter from the Pope, explaining the urgency of their mission. Archbishop Corrigan backed down. "Of course you will remain; it is the Holy Father's wishes."