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St. Katharine Drexel
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St. Katharine Drexel has local ties to the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux
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Guest Columnist
Father Wilmer Todd
The United States has only 10 canonized saints, and most of these were born in other countries and came here as missionaries. Catherine Drexel was born Nov. 26, 1858, in Philadelphia, PA, to Francis Drexel and Hannah Langstroth. Sister Katharine (Catherine’s religious name) died March 3, 1955, at the age of 96 at Cornwells Heights, PA.
Sister Katharine was an American philanthropist, religious sister, educator, and founder of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. The Catholic Church canonized her in 2000; we celebrate her feast day on March 3. She was the second American to be canonized a saint.
Among her many achievements, St. Katharine came to our Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux to help establish St. Luke Church in Thibodaux. She also founded the only AfricanAmerican University in the U.S., Xavier University, in New Orleans. When I was stationed at Holy Cross Church in Morgan City, some “old timers” told me they remember seeing Sister Katharine in Sacred Heart Church in Morgan City attending Mass when she was traveling by train to other cities.
We learn a lot from our families. Catherine had an older sister named Elizabeth. Her mother died about a month after giving birth to Catherine. A couple of years later, her father married Emma Bouvier, and from this union, a third daughter, Louise, was born.
In Katharine Drexel: Learning to Love the Poor, an article by Cecilia Murray,
it says, “The girls learned religion by example. Emma often took the children with her when she made visits to the Blessed Sacrament at Sacred Heart Convent. At home, there was an oratory for family and private prayer. Each business day, their father spent a half hour in private meditation upon returning from work. Francis Drexel sat on the board of nearly every Catholic charity in the city where he quietly did a tremendous amount of good.
“Mrs. Drexel preferred a more handson approach to helping the poor. Three afternoons a week, she opened her home to anyone in need, and with the help of a servant and later her daughters, she dispensed a variety of practical aid. These afternoons were known as Mama’s Dorcas work after the charitable widow in the Acts of the Apostles. They served to impress upon the girls that wealth carried the responsibility for those less fortunate.”
Catherine’s father was a renowned and successful national and international banker. Emma Bouvier Drexel was also from a well-to-do family. St. Katharine Drexel Mission’s website stated the following about Francis Anthony Drexel’s wealth when he died in 1885:
“At the time of his death, her father left the largest fortune recorded in Philadelphia at that time. His three daughters received bequests that gave them an extremely generous income for life. He donated the rest of his fortune to his favorite charities. The sisters continued to use their great a
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wealth to respond to the many requests for aid they received from churchmen throughout the country.”
Francis Anthony Drexel’s trust, valued at approximately $14 million, stated that the annual interest was to be divided into a one-third interest for each of the three daughters or their heirs but not any husbands. Additionally, if none of them had heirs, the remaining principal would be divided among the charities chosen by Francis Anthony Drexel at the time of his death. Some have estimated that St. Katharine’s income from the trust fund left by her father was approximately $1,000 per day during her lifetime.
Her two sisters died before Katharine leaving no heirs. Sister Katharine continued to use her interest for her charities. When she died, her father’s will did not include the Blessed Sacrament Sisters since she founded her order after his death. Her Community had to find other means of financial support.
After the death of her father and stepmother, Catherine and her sisters visited an Indian reservation. This visit made a huge impression on young Katharine. After seeing the poverty, she helped Native Americans by providing schools and staff along with food, shelter and clothing.
The first boarding school opened in 1887 in Santa Fe, NM, named the St. Catherine Indian School. By her early 20s, she was determined to help disadvantaged Native Americans and African-Americans by giving assistance with her own personal wealth.
Another important event for Catherine Drexel was her trip to Rome where she visited Pope Leo XIII in 1887. She expressed her concern for the Native Americans and asked for his assistance with missionaries for the schools she was opening.
Instead, the Pope suggested that she become a missionary specifically for the cause of Native Americans and AfricanAmericans. After some consideration, she acknowledged this calling and joined the religious order of the Sisters of Mercy in Philadelphia.
Two years later, she founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People. In late 1889, she received the religious habit and took the name of Sister Mary Katharine. Thirteen companions joined her to become the first Sisters of the new order.
Her Sisters went to places that could not be reached easily by rail. In Louisiana, they visited missions in Bogalusa, Baton Rouge, Mansura, Marksville, New Roads, Opelousas, Washington, Grand Coteau, Coulee Croche, Klotzville, Franklin, Bertrandville, Napoleonville, Convent, Thibodaux, Lafayette, Leonville and New Iberia.
Closer to home, on July 30, 1923, The Congregation of St. Luke’s Roman Catholic Church in Thibodaux bought a lot on Bourbon and East 12th Streets for $2,000. Sr. Katharine donated $4,000 for the church and school. They constructed a two-story building that served as a church and school; the lower floor would be the church and the upper floor would be the school. Graduates from Xavier University would teach, and the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament would supervise.
Archbishop Shaw dedicated St. Luke Catholic Church on Jan. 27, 1924. A newspaper article stated: “Thibodaux now has two Catholic Churches, the new one, St. Luke’s having been formally dedicated at services that began Sunday at 10 a.m. The new church being intended specially to minister unto local Negro Catholics who are becoming too numerous to be accommodated in St. Joseph’s Church … The building, 40 ft. x 100 ft., was crowded with both white and colored citizens who gathered to witness the ceremony and to attend the Solemn High Mass that followed the dedication. Preceding the Mass, the pastor of St. Luke’s, Father Joseph Van Baast, expressed his gratitude to Mother Katharine Drexel for providing the means to establish the foundation for his new church.”
A Feb. 24, 2000, Bayou Catholic article entitled “A Saint in Our Midst” stated: “When St. Luke began, the state was spending $40 a year for every white child in public school but only $7 a year for every Black child. Because the education that children could receive at St. Luke school was so much better than in the public school, families who were not Catholic sent their children there.”
St. Katharine Drexel once said, “If we wish to serve God and love our neighbor well, we must manifest our joy in the service we render to him and them. Let us open wide our hearts. It is joy that invites us. Press forward, and fear nothing.” (I want to thank Mrs. Gretchen Caillouet for allowing me to use material from her final paper, “Activities of Saint Katharine Drexel in the Lafourche Country,” that she wrote in Dr. Paul Leslie’s history class, “The History of Lafourche Parish.”) BC
NOTICE
In accordance with the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA) regulations, each of the 12 Catholic schools, within the parochial school system of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, has a copy of its Asbestos Management Plan on file in the Principal’s Office. Anyone interested in reviewing a particular schools’ Asbestos Management Plan should first contact the school’s principal to schedule a time for the review.
