Today we have a saint who is more well-known. Saint Katharine Drexel was born on November 26, 1858 in Philadelphia, PA. She was born into wealth to her parents Francis Anthony and Emma (Bouvier) Drexel. From an early age her parents taught her to use her wealth to benefit others. They even opened their home to the poor several days a week. One of her sisters founded a trade school for orphans and another sister founded a liberal arts and vocational school for poor black children in Virginia. Katharine nursed her mother through a three-year illness before she was able to set out on her own. Her mother died in 1883.
She was interested in Native Americans and their conditions. And during an audience in 1887 she asked Pope Leo XIII to send more missionaries to Wyoming for her friend Bishop O'Connor. And the pope responded "Why don’t you become a missionary?"
She visited the Dakotas, met the Sioux chief and became aid to the Indian missions. She spent millions of the family fortune. She entered the novitiate of the Sisters of Mercy, but founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored but now they are known as Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. Mother Frances Cabrini advised her of getting the Order's rule approved in Rome. She received approval in 1913.
By 1942 she had black Catholic schools in 13 states, 40 mission centers, 23 rural schools, 50 Indian missions, and Xavier University in New Orleans. She was harassed by segregationists for her work. After having suffered a heart attack, she spent her last 20 years in prayer and meditation. Her shrine at the mother-house was declared a National Shrine in 2008. This is one place that is on my list of pilgrimages.
She died on March 3, 1955 at the mother-house in Bensalem, PA. She was almost 100 years old.
"If we wish to serve God and love our neighbor well, we must manifest our joy in the service we render to Him and them. Let us open wide our hearts. It is Joy which invites us. Press forward and fear nothing."
What impressed me what that she had an audience with the pope before she was even a professed religious sister. I know I have said he before in this blog, but one of my dreams is to meet the Holy Father.
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