Saint Katharine Drexel

Katharine Mary Drexel was born in Philadelphia, PA on November 26, 1858, the second child of Francis Anthony and Hannah Langstroth Drexel. Her birth was a difficult one, however, for both mother and baby, and a month after Katharine’s birth, her mother succumbed to a fever and died. Two years later, her father, a well-known banker and philanthropist, married Emma Bouvier.

Emma was a devout Catholic and personally supervised the construction of a private oratory in the Drexel home. It was beautifully furnished with an altar, crucifix, many paintings and an impressive statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The family’s daily gathering for prayer had a profound effect on Katharine and her sisters.

Another strong influence on Katharine was her parents’ devotion to helping those less fortunate. Although millionaires, her parents were careful to instill in their children the idea that wealth was meant to be shared with others, especially the poor. Three days each week, Francis and Emma opened the doors to their home to those who were in need of money for food, clothing, shelter or those seeking counseling or knowledgeable advice.

As a young girl, Katharine traveled widely and was well-educated in the family’s private home school. She especially enjoyed her stepmother’s Sunday night sessions on the lives of the saints. It was in these sessions that Katharine developed a devotion to St. Francis of Assisi. As St. Francis had given his inheritance to help the poor, so would she do the same one day.

While Katharine had begun to discern her religious vocation early in her teens, she began to consider it much more seriously after nursing her stepmother through a long and painful fight with cancer.  She wrote often to her spiritual director, Bishop O’Connor of Omaha, NE who advised her to “wait and pray.”

A short time after the death of her mother, Katharine and her sisters took a trip to Europe, during which she had an audience with Pope Leo XIII. Having heard and read much about the plight of the Native Americans in Wyoming and the Dakotas, Katharine begged Pope Leo XIII if he could help send more priests to serve as missionaries. His answer marked a defining moment in her life: “Why not, my child, become a missionary yourself?”  She protested, asserting that she was asking for priests, but the pope’s suggestion seemed a blessing on her emerging vocation.

In May of 1889, Katharine entered the novitiate at the convent of the Sisters of Mercy in Pittsburgh. She professed her vows as the first Sister of the Blessed Sacrament on February 12, 1891, dedicating her life to serving Native Americans and African Americans.  Pius X gave preliminary approval of this order in 1907, and Katharine was elected superior general.   In 1915, she established Xavier University in New Orleans, the first U.S. Roman Catholic institution of higher learning for African Americans.  By 1942, she and her sisters had thirty convents, forty mission centers, and twenty-three rural schools in thirteen states.  In 1935, after a severe heart attack, Mother Katharine retired as superior and moved to the Cornwells Height infirmary.  She remained there for the next twenty years spending the majority of her time in prayer.  From this time on until her death, Katharine dedicated her life and her fortune of 20 million dollars to improving the lives of Native American and Black people in the United States.

When Katharine Drexel died on March 3, 1955, on newspaper wrote, “She belongs so truly to all America, but especially to the poor and forgotten people of the land….She was indeed a heroine of God.”

Mother Katharine Drexel Canonized

The process of canonization of Mother Katharine Drexel was begun in December 1964, when John Cardinal Krol officially introduced her cause in Rome.

On October 1, 2000, after investigation of two miracles by several boards, approximately 70,000 people from around the world gathered in St. Peter’s Square to witness the canonization of Blessed Mother Drexel and 3 other individuals.

In his address to the crowd, Pope John Paul II hailed Katharine Drexel as a compassionate woman who expanded on her parents’ teachings on sharing wealth. “She began to devote her fortune to missionary and educational work among the poorest members of society. Later, she understood that more was needed. With great courage and confidence in God’s grace, she chose to give not just her fortune but her whole life totally to the Lord.”

For more information about Saint Katharine Drexel, visit this web site:

Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament - The Order founded by Katharine Drexel