Saint Who?
Saints Who Established Schools
Saint Katharine Drexel
Foundress († 1955)Feast: March 3
Katharine Drexel was born in Philadelphia in 1858. She was raised by her father, a wealthy banker, and her stepmother, a generous woman who opened her home to Philadelphia’s poor three times a week. Educated at home, she learned from both parents to love her faith and to use her material benefits for the good of others.
As a girl, she taught catechism at the parish church near the family summer home. The pastor there became her spiritual director, and guided her increasing concern for Native and African Americans. When Katharine’s father died, she and her sister were left an annual income of $750,000; much of Katharine’s portion she dedicated to establishing schools for Native Americans. But she felt more had to be done. She visited Pope Leo XIII and asked him to send religious to minister to them. He replied that she should found such a community herself.
This sentiment was echoed by her spiritual director: “I was never so sure of any vocation, not even my own, as I am of yours. If you do not establish the order in question, you will allow to pass an opportunity of doing immense service to the Church which may not occur again.” Katharine founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, and opened over fifty missions and schools. She died in 1955 at the age of ninety-six, and was canonized forty-five years later.
Loving Father, through the intercession of
Saint Katharine Drexel, help us to be generous
with our wealth and our time in service to souls.
