Today, March 3, is the memorial of Saint Katharine Drexel.
Foundress of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament.
Catherine Mary, the saint was the daughter of the extremely wealthy railroad entrepreneurs and philanthropists Francis Anthony and Hannah Langstroth. She was born in 1858 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her mom died when she was still a baby. Francis later married Emma Bouvier.
Both Francis and Emma taught her, from an early age, to use her wealth to help the needy. The Drexels opened their home to the poor several days each week. Both her siblings opened schools for the indigent and people of color.
She was so interested in the condition of Native Americans that, during an audience in 1887, she asked Pope Leo XIII to send more missionaries to Wyoming. Pope Leo XIII replied, “Why don’t you become a missionary?”
She visited the Dakotas, met the Sioux chief, and began her systematic aid to Indian missions, eventually spending millions of the family fortune.
Upon entering the religious life in 1891, she took the name Katharine and thereby founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. Her friend St. Frances Cabrini advised her to get her congregation’s rule approved in Rome. She received the approval in 1913.
By 1942 she had a system of black Catholic schools in 13 states, 40 mission centers, 23 rural schools, 50 Indian missions, and Xavier University in New Orleans, Louisiana, the first United States university for blacks. Segregationists harassed her work, but her faith in God allowed her to persevere.
Following a heart attack, she spent her last 20 years in prayer and meditation. She died in 1955 at age 96.
She was beatified in 1988 by Pope St. John Paul II. He also canonized her in 2000.