The Life of Saint Katharine Drexel

In 1883, Catherine’s life was jarred by the death of her step-mother, Emma to whom she was extremely close. Two years later, her father, Francis died. At the time of his death, her father left Catherine and her sisters the largest fortune ever recorded in Philadelphia history, at the time. Their father’s bequests, provided Catherine and her sisters with an extremely generous income for their lifetimes. The remainder of his fortune was donated to Francis’s favorite charities. Catherine and her sisters continued to use their great wealth to meet the requests of many churchmen from around the country. 

Early in life, Catherine developed a deep devotion to serving the needs of others, particularly children. In 1885, after travelling to the western United States visiting Indian reservations with her sisters, Catherine saw first-hand the poverty of Indian communities. She began to supply food and clothing and build schools and provide salaries for teachers on the reservations. She was also able to find priests to serve the spiritual needs of the people. She soon devoted her life and her inheritance to the needs of Native American and African American children in the west and southwest United States. She founded over 60 missions and schools including Xavier University, the first university devoted to African American students. St. Catherine’s Indian and Industrial School, in Santa Fe, New Mexico was her first school, named after St. Catherine of Sienne. The main building was constructed in 1887. 

The same year, Catherine Drexel had an audience with Pope Leo XIII, whereby she sought missionary support for the schools she had been funding as a lay person. Pope Leo XIII suggested that she herself become a missionary. Surprised by the Pope’s suggestion, she returned home and pursued spiritual guidance that led to her taking religious vows in 1889 to the order of Sisters of Mercy in Pittsburgh. In 1889 she received the religious name of Sister Mary Katharine. 

In two years, she founded her own order, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. She vowed to “be the mother and servant” of Native Americans and African Americans. Thirteen women joined the new order as her first Sisters and the motherhouse of the new order was established at St. Elizabeth’s Convent, Cornwells Height, Pennsylvania. She was now referred to as Mother Katharine. Mother Katharine’s new religious order was The Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament devoted to serving the needs of Native American and African American children. 

Mother Katharine founded and staffed dozens of schools for both Native and African Americans throughout the country. Mother Katharine made it a priority to visit all the schools she founded and helped. She lived a very frugal life, wearing the same shoes for 10 years and using pencils down to the erasure. From the age of 33 until her death, Mother Katharine dedicated her life to the poor and used her personal fortune to do her work. She worked tirelessly in reviewing every request for assistance herself and in supporting the many schools she started.

In 1935 Mother Katharine suffered a heart attack and was confined to a wheelchair. She lived the next twenty years in prayerful retirement at St. Elizabeth’s Convent. She died on March 3, 1955 at the age of 96. At the time of her passing, 501 members of her order were teaching in 63 schools and missions in 21 states. 

Her inspired following began the cause of her sainthood. In 1987 she was credited with the miraculous healing of a man’s deaf ear. Pope John Paul II bestowed upon her the titled “Blessed” and in 1999 her intervention was declared to have resulted in the cure of deafness in a 17 month old child. Mother Katharine’s lifelong dedication to her faith and her selfless service to the oppressed led to her canonization by Pope John Paul II on October 1, 2000. Saint Katharine Drexel is only the second American born saint, after Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton in 1975.