St. Katharine Drexel

Their story

Katharine Drexel was born in Philadelphia on November 26, 1858, into one of the wealthiest banking families in America. Her mother died when she was a baby, and she was raised by her father and stepmother, who taught their daughters that wealth was a gift to be shared. Three afternoons a week the family opened their home to the poor, giving food, clothing and help with rent. On a trip to the western United States, Katharine saw the poverty of Native American communities, and she began giving generously to missions among them. In 1887, during a private audience, she asked Pope Leo XIII to send more missionaries. He answered by asking her, "Why not become a missionary yourself?" After her father's death left her a vast fortune, she gave her life and her inheritance to God. In 1891 she founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, dedicated to serving Native Americans and Black Americans. At a time when segregation and racism were deeply rooted in American life, Mother Katharine opened dozens of schools and missions across the South and the West. In 1925 she founded Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans, the only historically Black Catholic university in the United States. She faced threats and opposition, but she kept going, convinced that every person is equal in the eyes of God. Over her lifetime she gave away about twenty million dollars. After a stroke in 1935 she spent her last twenty years in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. She died on March 3, 1955, and Pope St. John Paul II canonized her in 2000.