A Saint for the Minorities

Today's saint knew that SOMEONE needed to help the natives and blacks in America, but it took a visit to the pope to find out that SOMEONE was her!  Her story is a great example of how we should think about what God is calling us to do for others.

St. Katharine Drexel

Feast day: March 3
Born:  1858
Death: 1955
Philadelphia
Wealthy

Katharine lived a privileged life surrounded by a loving family, in spite of the fact that her mother died shortly after her birth.  She and her sister would live with her aunt and uncle until their father remarried.  Katharine was actually quite sheltered from the ways of the world into adulthood.  However, she was also very gentle and kind to all and loved God above all else.

Private tutors educated the girls at their home. They toured parts of the United States and Europe with their parents.  Twice weekly, the Drexel family distributed food, clothing and rent assistance from their family home.  When Katherine learned the needs of the Native Americans and Blacks in America through stories her father would read to her, she began sending money to assist them.  She would later visit some of the Western states and see their needs first hand.  This visit brought her greater resolve to find the help they needed.

When Katharine wrote to lifelong family friend, Father James O'Connor, about her desire to join a contemplative order, he suggested, “Wait a while longer....... Wait and pray.”

In 1886, soon after their father's death and still mourning his loss, the girls set out for a European trip.   In January 1887, the sisters were received in a private audience by Pope Leo XIII. They asked him for missionaries to staff some Indian missions that they had been financing. To their surprise, the Pope suggested that Katharine become a missionary herself.  She entered the Sisters of Mercy Convent in Pittsburgh in May 1889 to begin her six-month postulancy. Her decision rocked Philadelphia social circles.  How could a wealthy heiress do such a thing?

In 1891, Katharine founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Black and Native American peoples, whose members would work for the betterment of those they were called to serve.  There were many who do not see her cause as a good thing and tried to dissuade her.  When they broke ground on their new convent, a stick of dynamite was placed at the foundation.

In 1894, Mother Drexel took part in opening the first mission school for Indians, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Other schools quickly followed - for Native Americans west of the Mississippi River, and for the blacks in the southern part of the United States. In 1915 she also founded Xavier University in New Orleans.

From the age of 33 until her death in 1955, she dedicated her life and a fortune of 20 million dollars to this work.  At her death there were more than 500 Sisters teaching in 63 schools throughout the country.

Mother Drexel was canonized on October 1, 2000, one of only a few American saints and the second American-born saint. Canonization occurred after the Vatican determined that two-year-old Amy Wall had been miraculously healed of nerve deafness in both ears through Katharine Drexel's intercession in 1994.

The Vatican cited fourfold aspects of her legacy:

• a love of the Eucharist and perspective on the unity of all peoples;
• courage and initiative in addressing social inequality among minorities - one hundred years before such concern aroused public interest in the United States;
• her belief in quality education for all and efforts to achieve it;
• and selfless service, including the donation of her inheritance, for the victims of injustice.

“The patient and humble endurance of the cross—whatever nature it may be—is the highest work we have to do.” “Oh, how far I am at 84 years of age from being an image of Jesus in his sacred life on earth!” (St. Katharine Drexel)