The line, "The world is too small for what I intend to do," is a direct quote from the actual Frances Cabrini.
Frances Cabrini is the first United States citizen to have been canonized a saint by the Catholic Church.
The film was screened by the nuns of Mother Cabrini's order, some of whom were in their nineties. By the end of the film, many of them were reported to be crying with several of them exclaiming, "THAT'S Cabrini!"
According to John Lithgow he agreed to make the film because he liked the script, explaining, "It's wonderful to see a single person, a single character from history who is a real fighter and who will not give up and has right on her side and who makes enormous changes. This is Martin Luther King, and Frederick Douglass, people like that, and we are just not that aware of Mother Cabrini."
When she finished shooting all her scenes for the film, Cristiana Dell'Anna felt as if she (in her words) "was forgetting something" and later explained that while working on the film she had formed a strong emotional connection to the character she was playing. Once it was over, Dell'Anna felt she had left a part of herself with the role of Cabrini. "It was a strong emotional moment that I will never forget," she explained, "I think it was a part of me that stayed with her, rather than the other way around. You know? I miss a part of me that's now with her." When asked if she ever thought she would get that part of herself back, Dell'Anna immediately responded, "I don't want to. I like it this way. Because what's missing is the one thing that will always leave a little space in me to search for her."