St. Katharine Drexel, Pray for Us!

We live in a culture where the rich are often demonized as selfish monsters exploiting everyone around them. But today's optional feast day is a celebration of the wealthy who exhibit a proper attitude toward the use of their possessions. Katharine Drexel (1858-1955) was the second child of a wealthy banker and philanthropist in Philadelphia, Francis Drexel. Her mother, Hannah, died several weeks after her birth. Later, her father remarried and he and his new wife, Emma Bouvier, taught their children that all they had was loaned to them by God to be shared with others.

On a trip out West, Kate's heart was moved by the sad condition of the native American Indians. In 1887 she financed her first mission in Sante Fe. Later she personally asked Pope Leo XIII to send missionary priests to staff some of the missions she was personally financing. He responded by inviting her to become a missionary herself. That was the beginning of her lifelong commitment to poverty and service. She founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament to work among native Americans and Afro-Americans.

She was far ahead of her times working to increase educational and social opportunities for America's oppressed minorities. Her love and great devotion for the Holy Eucharist empowered her ministry which continues today through the order she founded. Like St. John Bosco, Mother Drexel believed that to bring children to Christ the sisters "must attract them with joy." The first school she founded staffed by her sisters was a high school for black girls, St. Francis de Sales, in Powhaten, VA. She also founded Xavier University in New Orleans, one of the earliest Catholic colleges for black youth.

What an example she is for those who dream of serving God. Her own words bear witness to how He acts in our lives:

I looked up in wonder at God's wonderful ways and thought how little we imagine what may be the result of listening and acting on a desire he puts into the heart. If He puts it into the heart, He will bless it; if we try to act upon it, great will be the effect before God.

Mother Katharine Mary Drexel was canonized October 1, 2000. Her national shrine is in Bensalem, PA

For more about this wonderful woman of God visit these websites:

KATHARINE DREXEL (1858-1955)

National Shrine of St. Katharine Drexel