Katharine Drexel: The First All American Saint
Mother Katharine Mary Drexel (1858 – 1955) is a fitting intercessor for the racial tensions afflicting her native United States. For one thing, she is the first natural born canonized American citizen (Elizabeth Ann Seton was born in 1774, in what would become that nation a few years later). A young debutante who inherited her father’s fortune (about $7 million back then, worth many times that in today’s deflated dollars), she could have ‘had it all’. Her birth mother had died five days after Katherine’s birth, and her father re-married well, to Emma Bouvier, who was a fine example of holiness to Katherine and her two sisters, caring for the poor, and even seeking out those too ashamed to come to the door: As the new Mrs. Drexel was to say, Kindness may be unkind if it leaves a sting behind, words which all of us could take to heart.
As she pondered her vocation, Katharine was struck by the transitory nature of the world, as cancer slowly took the life of her new mother, and, with the death of her father in 1885, Katharine, who had always been devoted to helping Native Americans, empathizing with their plight, decided to enter a convent, and consecrate her life, and her fortune, to God, in helping the poor and disadvantaged. The final straw that moved her in this direction was a private meeting with Pope Leo XIII that evokes that of her near-contemporary, Therese of Lisieux. When Katherine asked the Pope for missionaries to help in their work, the Holy Father replied, ‘Why don’t you become one?’.
And so, she did, taking her first vows on February 12th, 1891 as a Sister of Mercy. Her long life was filled with setting up schools – 62 in all (!) – and missions – 145 of them (!), all of which did yeomen’s – or yeowomen’s – work for the kingdom. This work was supernaturally inspired, flowing from her devotion to the Holy Mass:
The Eucharist is a never-ending sacrifice. It is the Sacrament of love, the supreme love, the act of love.
After a life of self-giving, Mother Katharine died on this day, March 3rd, in 1955, at the noble age of 96. Good thing, we might think, that she did not live to see the tragic collapse of religious life a decade or so later. (Sadly, as a sign of our secular times and dwindling religious vocations, Katharine’s shrine closed in 2017, the convent and grounds put up for sale, and her remains transferred to the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia). Or, perhaps, she did see, but from a heaven, which we may suppose puts all things in perspective. Katherine was canonized along with Josephine Bakhita, on the feast of the Little Flower, appropriately enough, October 1st, in the Jubilee year 2000, by fellow a saint, John Paul II. In his homily, the Pope declared:
“See what you have stored up for yourselves against the last days!” (Jas 5: 3).
In the second reading of today’s liturgy, the Apostle James rebukes the rich who trust in their wealth and treat the poor unjustly. Mother Katharine Drexel was born into wealth in Philadelphia in the United States. But from her parents she learned that her family’s possessions were not for them alone but were meant to be shared with the less fortunate. As a young woman, she was deeply distressed by the poverty and hopeless conditions endured by many Native Americans and Afro-Americans. 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.
To her religious community, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, she taught a spirituality based on prayerful union with the Eucharistic Lord and zealous service of the poor and the victims of racial discrimination. Her apostolate helped to bring about a growing awareness of the need to combat all forms of racism through education and social services. Katharine Drexel is an excellent example of that practical charity and generous solidarity with the less fortunate which has long been the distinguishing mark of American Catholics.
May her example help young people in particular to appreciate that no greater treasure can be found in this world than in following Christ with an undivided heart and in using generously the gifts we have received for the service of others and for the building of a more just and fraternal world.
Saint Katharine leaves an outstanding, heroic legacy and example, using her many talents well, producing ten-fold more. May she intercede for the United States, that sanity and even sanctity return to a land now ravaged by the sad lack of both.
Saint Katharine Drexel, ora pro nobis!
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