Saint of the day March 3, 2025

Katharine was born in Philadelphia in 1858, the second daughter to wealthy parents, Francis and Hannah Drexel. Hannah died shortly after Katharine’s birth. Francis married Emma Bouvier, and a third daughter was born to the family in 1863.

A faith-filled woman, Emma opened their home to serve the poor three times a week. Her daughters learned early on that caring for the poor was a Christian virtue and duty. “Kate,” as Katharine was called, had the opportunity to practice what she’d learned when Emma later developed cancer, and Kate became her caregiver for the final three years of her life.

Through their many travels, Katharine and her siblings saw first-hand just how poorly the Native Americans lived and were treated.

Upon Francis Drexel’s death in 1885, each daughter inherited several million dollars. In turn, each gave money to support the St. Francis Mission on South Dakota’s Rosebud Reservation.

While vacationing in Europe, two years later, the sisters were granted a private audience with Pope Leo XIII in Rome.

She questioned her spiritual director, the future Bishop James O’Connor, further, and he responded, “I was never so sure of any vocation, not even my own, as I am of yours. If you do not establish the order in question, you will allow to pass an opportunity of doing immense service to the Church which may not occur again.”

Saint Katharine entered the Sisters of Mercy in 1889. When the time came to take her final vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, Katharine added a fourth: “To be the mother and servant of the Indian and Negro races.” She founded a new order, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, in 1891.

Her work was not without its share of enemies, however. Dynamite was found near their motherhouse in Pennsylvania; Ku Klux Klansmen threatened the nuns with violence in Texas; segregationists burned one of their schools; and even some priests did not share Katharine’s convictions for social change.

Saint Katharine lived a life of mercy towards others, nonetheless, exemplifying the virtues of St. Faustina petitioned the Lord for in her Diary: “I want to be completely transformed into Your mercy and to be Your living reflection, O Lord. May the greatest of all attributes, that of Your unfathomable mercy, pass through my heart and soul to my neighbor” (Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, 163.)

Fellow sister, Ruth Catherine Spain, who aided the cause for Katharine’s canonization, said Katharine “was a pioneer for the most downtrodden and the poorest of the poor. She didn’t have a prejudiced molecule in her body, never mind a bone. She believed that everyone was a child of God.”

Working hard until she suffered a major heart attack in 1935 at the age of 77, St. Katharine assumed a life of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament for the remainder of her years until her death at 96 on March 3, 1955.

Canonized by Pope St. John Paul II in 2000, St. Katharine founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament and dozens of schools, missions, and churches for Native and African Americans beginning in the late 19th century. The most famous is Xavier University, the first black Catholic institution in the U.S., located in New Orleans.

Reflection

Many people dream of being rich. Saint Katharine Drexel teaches us that money is not the source of fulfillment in life. Love is. Whether you are rich or poor, your happiness comes from lovingly serving the will of God. Be inspired by this holy woman and learn from her example by choosing the poverty of Christ over the riches of the world, and you will discover the true riches of Heaven.