Saint Katharine Drexel was born in Philadelphia in 1858. She had an excellent education and traveled widely. As a rich girl, she had a grand debut into society. But when she nursed her stepmother through a three-year terminal illness, she saw that all the Drexel money could not buy safety from pain or death, and her life took a profound turn.

She had always been interested in the plight of the Indians, having been appalled by reading Helen Hunt Jackson’s A Century of Dishonor. While on a European tour, she met Pope Leo XIII and asked him to send more missionaries to Wyoming for her friend Bishop James O’Connor. The pope replied, “Why don’t you become a missionary?” His answer shocked her into considering new possibilities.

Back home, she visited the Dakotas, met the Sioux leader Red Cloud and began her systematic aid to Indian missions. She could easily have married. But after much discussion with Bishop O’Connor, she wrote in 1889, “The feast of St. Joseph brought me the grace to give the remainder of my life to the Indians and the Colored.” Newspaper headlines screamed “Gives Up Seven Million!” After three and a half years of training, she and her first band of nuns (Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored) opened a boarding school in Santa Fe. A string of foundations followed.

By 1942 she had a system of black Catholic schools in 13 states, plus 40 mission centers and 23 rural schools. Segregationists harassed her work, even burning a school in Pennsylvania. In all, she established 50 missions for Native Americans in 16 states.

 Two saints met when she was advised by Mother Cabrini about the “politics” of getting her Order’s Rule approved in Rome. Her crowning achievement was the founding of Xavier University in New Orleans, the first Catholic university in the United States for African Americans.

At 77, she suffered a heart attack and was forced to retire. Apparently her life was over. But now came almost 20 years of quiet, intense prayer from a small room overlooking the sanctuary. Small notebooks and slips of paper record her various prayers, ceaseless aspirations and meditation. She died at 96 and was canonized in 2000.

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23 COMMENTS

  7. Please pray for me and my family. Pray that God may grant my husband a job. Ask for me cleansing from sins and a heart of peace and joy amen

  15. St. Katherine Drexel please pray for this country in which you worked tirelessly to bring the Gospel of love to black and Native Americans. We need a miracle!

  16. Saint Katherine, please pray for my son Patrick to convalidate his marriage and have Audrey Corinne, his daughter and my granddaughter Baptized!!! Pray for my, a former Priest of the Archdiocese of Newark and miss my Priesthood very much!!!!

  17. Saint Katherine please pray for the healing from cancer for Paula Strok Robin, and Debbie Johnson. Also, please pray for the healing from Parkinson’s disease for my Uncle John Dallos Sr. Thank you holy Saint Katherine.

  19. St. Katharine please pray for my son that he may return to the church and for my daughter-in-law that she may desire to become Catholic. Please pray that they have their son, Jacob, baptized instead of “leaving it up to him to be whatever he wants to be”. Thank you St. Katharine. Amen.

  21. Grant me, O Lord, your protection. Within your protection, strength. And within your strength, understanding. And within your understanding, knowledge. And within your knowledge, the power of justice. And within the power of justice, the love of all of Creation. Guide and protect my body, my mind, and my best judgment in all things. For you, O Lord, will never leave my side. In this I trust. Amen.

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