St. Katharine Drexel, Foundress and Advocate

Optional Memorial - March 3rd

Our Lord said that it is "...easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 19:24).  Though such a thing is difficult, it is, however, not impossible, especially if the rich person, in this case, rich woman, sees their wealth as a gift from God, given to help bring about His kingdom on earth. For them, affluence is an opportunity.

Such was the story of Saint Katharine Drexel. Born in Philadelphia into a family of wealth and privilege in 1858, Katharine had advantages that many people then, and even now, could only dream of. Her family’s fortune was made in banking. Her uncle Anthony founded Drexel University in Philadelphia. On her stepmother’s side, Katharine was a distant cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. She received an excellent education, traveled widely in the United States and Europe, and, like other young women in her social class, made a grand debut into society.

But she also had other, spiritual advantages as well, ones that eventually set the course for her life’s work. Her stepmother, Emma (Katharine’s mother had died shortly after her birth), opened the family’s home to the poor three days every week, and her father, Francis, spent a half-hour each night in prayer and solemn meditation. Both parents instilled in their children the sense that their wealth was meant to be shared with the community at large, especially those in need.

As a young woman, Katharine was appalled at the plight of Native Indians and African-Americans in the western and southern United States. She gladly donated some of her considerable fortune to help ease their suffering, and later, when the family visited Rome during a European tour, Katharine asked Pope Leo XIII if he would send more missionaries to Wyoming. He replied: "Why don’t you become a missionary yourself?" His words opened her up to a new world of possibilities.

Upon her return to the United States, Katharine became even more involved in aiding the Indian missions. Finally, in 1889, Katharine made the decision to give up a life of privilege and use her talents — and her money — to fully serve the needs of Native and African Americans. Her goal was to not only spend her fortune ($20 million, a staggering amount in 1889) to make life easier for them, but to establish a means of providing their education as well. She and her group of nuns (Katharine founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Black and Native American Peoples) proceeded to set up schools throughout the U.S.

Violent segregationists, who disagreed vehemently with what she was trying to accomplish, burned one building in Philadelphia, but she was not deterred. Her crowning achievement was the founding of Xavier University in New Orleans in 1915, the first and only Catholic university in this country established primarily for African-Americans. By the time of her death in 1955, there were over 500 Blessed Sacrament sisters teaching in 63 schools throughout the nation.

At the age of 77, Katharine suffered a massive heart attack that forced her into retirement, but led her also to a life of intense prayer and meditation. For nearly twenty years, she occupied a small room overlooking the sanctuary, where her notebooks recorded her deep contemplation. She died on what became her feast day, March 3, in 1955. Katharine was 96 years old. She was canonized in 2000 by Saint John Paul II, becoming the second American-born saint to be so honored.