A PHILADELPHIA SAINT FOR HER TIMES

On March 3rd the Church in the United States will celebrate the feast of St. Katharine Drexel, the second daughter of Philadelphia banker Francis Anthony Drexel. Katie, as her family called her, and her older sister Elizabeth, who had lost their mother shortly after Katie’s birth, were lovingly raised in a Catholic household by Francis and his second wife, Emma after they married in 1860. Together they had a daughter named Louise. The Drexels were generous with their wealth to the poor, distributing from their home three days a week food, clothing and rental assistance. When the Drexels would learn of a widow or single woman who was too ashamed to come to the house, they would seek her out and quietly provide assistance. Emma taught her daughters that “Kindness may be unkind if it leaves a sting behind.”

When she was twenty-one years old Katharine cared for her mother who was suffering from cancer. During that time, she thought about becoming a contemplative religious. Meanwhile, the family continued their charitable works. They were introduced to the plight of the Native Americans living on reservations in the mid-west by Bishop James O’Connor, who had been the pastor of Saint Dominic Parish in the Torresdale section of Philadelphia, where the Drexels made their home after moving from Center City. In fact, Father James O’Connor had regularly given spiritual direction to Katharine. When the three Drexel sisters visited Rome in 1887 they met Pope Leo XIII, and she pleaded with him to send priests to the Indian missions in the United States. Instead, the Pope startled her by suggesting that she herself become a missionary.

The sisters used their wealth to build schools on the reservations and to assist churches that served Native and African Americans, who labored under the effects of discrimination and government neglect. Katharine, however, continued to feel called to religious life, and with the guidance of Bishop O’Connor gave up her desire to be a cloistered nun and made vows as the first of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament on February 12, 1891. On hearing about her choice for vocation, high society in Philadelphia was thrown in turmoil, and the Philadelphia Public Ledger ran a banner headline, “Miss Drexel Enters a Catholic Convent – Gives up Seven Million.” Indeed, at the time she was one of the richest women in the United States. From then on, as she embraced evangelical poverty, her inheritance from her father was dedicated to the works of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament.

The Sisters established a convent and a school for black children in Bensalem, PA in 1892. In a few years they branched out and established schools in New Mexico, Virginia and Arizona. Sometimes they had to confront resistance. But they remained focused on their mission, to lift up the young victims of racism by teaching them the Faith and giving them a good education and other material assistance. A sign of their success was the granting of a charter to Xavier University in 1925 in New Orleans, Louisiana, which had begun as a mission school in 1917. Today, it is the only historically black Catholic college in the United States. In all, St. Katharine Drexel established 145 missions, 50 schools for African Americans, and 12 schools for Native Americans.

St. Katharine spent the last twenty years of her life in religious retirement, after suffering a massive heart attack, and died on March 3, 1955 at the age of 96. She was canonized by Pope St. John Paul II on October 1, 2000. St. Katharine resisted the evil of bigotry by respecting and loving its victims, using the considerable resources that were available to her to provide them with a way to better their lives. She was truly a Saint for her times, and for ours.

FATHER SCOTT