Villa Cabrini Academy was a private Catholic elementary and high school for girls that operated from 1937 to 1970, under the authority of the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles The Archdiocese of Los Angeles ( la, Archidiœcesis Angelorum in California, es, Arquidiócesis de Los Ángeles) is an ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church ( particularly the Roman Catholic or Latin Church) located in th ...

. The academy was located in

Burbank, California Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank has a population of 107,337. The city was named after David Burbank, w ...

, and served the Catholic population of the

San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, California. Located to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it contains a large portion of the City of Los Angeles, as well as unincorporated ar ...

. It was sponsored by the

Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus The Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a Roman Catholic female religious congregation, founded in 1880 by Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini. Their aim is to spread devotion to the Sacred Heart by means of spiritual and corporal works ...

, founded by St.

Frances Xavier Cabrini Frances Xavier Cabrini ( it, Francesca Saverio Cabrini; July 15, 1850 – December 22, 1917), also called Mother Cabrini, was an Italian-American Catholic religious sister. She founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a ...

, the first citizen of the United States to be declared a saint by the Catholic Church. The school closed in June 1970. Its campus was first acquired by Los Angeles Lutheran High School in 1977 then acquired in the mid-1980s by

Woodbury University Woodbury University is a private university in Burbank, California, with a satellite campus in San Diego. History The school was founded in 1884 as Woodbury's Business College by its namesake, F. C. Woodbury, formerly a partner in Heald's Busi ...

, which moved its operations from its original urban site in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

to the grounds of the former high school in 1987. The academy

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

was converted into the university library, and the chapel's statues and stained-glass windows were re-installed at the

Mother Cabrini Shrine Mother Cabrini Shrine is a shrine to Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, known as Mother Cabrini, located in Golden, Colorado, United States. The shrine site includes the Stone House, listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Queen of ...

on Colorado's Lookout Mountain.

Notable alumni

Joan Freeman (actress) Joan Leslie Freeman is a retired American actress. Biography Freeman was born in Council Bluffs, Iowa. She attended Mother Cabrini School in Burbank, California, and later attended John Burroughs High School where she graduated in 1959. Freem ...

References

Cabrini Sisters schools Girls' schools in California Defunct Catholic secondary schools in California Educational institutions established in 1937 Educational institutions disestablished in 1970 Woodbury University 1937 establishments in California {{LosAngelesCountyCA-school-stub