Drexelcanonizeda saint, was taught to share with poor

by Joe Holden editor in chief

Katharine Mary Drexel, a woman who was born into a home of wealth, power and privilege and sacrificed all of it to help the poor of the country, was canonized a saint on Oct. 1 by Pope John Paul II. An estimated 80,000 pilgrims from around the world witnessed the conferring of sainthood upon Drexel and 122 other persons from three continents. The cereQ1ony,which took place in Saint Peter's Square, Vatican City, was held despite the uncooperative rainy weather. The rain failed to dampen the spirits of the crowd. The canonization ceremony began at 10 a.m. Roman time, 4 a.m. Philadelphia time. Bells pealed at the Saint Katharine Drexel Shrine, Bensalem, Pa., celebrating the beginning of the end of the long and stringent cause for sainthood in spite of the early morning hour. 'The canonization gripped you and you were very much aware of what was happening as the pope declared Blessed Katharine Drexel, Saint Katharine Drexel," Sister Ruth Catherine Spain MBS, Saint Katherine Drexel Guild director, said.

Born Nov. 26, 1858, Drexel was one of three children to Francis A. Drexel, Hannah Langstroth Drexel and later Emma Bouvier Drexel. Hannah Drexel died four weeks after the birth of Katharine Drexel.

Drexel's father shared the ownership of an international banking empire. Both her mother and stepmother came from prestigious backgrounds.

The Drexels were humble members of the Philadelphia high society. They made generous contributions to charities and taught their children that the money that they had was a gift from God to be shared with the less fortunate. Drexel's mother opened her home three days a week to personally attend to the poor and to have her daughters know the poor.

The three sisters learned that message well. All three made contributions to society for the remainder of their lives building schools and showing affection to the needy.

Drexel's parents died within two years of each other leaving her and her two sisters an estimated $14 million. Two Catholic missionaries from the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions solicited the Drexel sisters' support of the missions. Drexel empathetically responded by going to Rome and requesting a private audience with Pope Leo XIII in 1887. She pleaded for him to send more missionary priests to the Indian missions. The pope responded to her plea with the question "Why, my child. don't you yourself become a missionary?" Drexel contemplated the pope's suggestion as it stirred up confusion with what direction she wanted her life to go. She had thought about becoming a nun but was chided by family friend and Omaha Bishop James O'Connor.

Following a visit to the Indian missions in the Midwest, Drexel witnessed the mission's need for monetary support. Drexel's contributions financed the building of 13 mission schools and their staffing within four years. In 1889, following spiritual advice from O'Connor, Drexel decided that she was going to give her life to God and to the Native and African Americans by creating an order of religious. O'Connor asked that the Sisters of Mercy in Pittsburgh train her for religious life in the fall of 1889. In the spring of 1890, Drexel was dealt a hard blow upon the death of O'Connor, her biggest supporter. Philadelphia Archbishop Patrick J. Ryan volunteered to assume the position of Drexel's spiritual adviser. On Feb. 12, 1891, Drexel professed her vowels as the first Sister of the Blessed Sacrament for African and Native American peoples.

During Drexel's time as a novice, she purchased a 60-acre site in Bensalem, Pa. She accepted 10 novices and three postulants to novitiate of the order. At the end of the first year, the community had 21 members. In 1894, at the advice of Ryan, the sisters opened a boarding school in Santa Fe, N.M In the years following, and with the help of her sisters, Drexel constructed and staffed schools for the African and Native Americans throughout the country. By 1942, Drexel had established Catholic school systems in 13 states for African Americans, though she often met much resistance from prejudiced whites of the south.

During her missionary years, Drexel sought to develop a rule of life for the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. While visiting with Drexel, then Mother Frances Cabrini advised her to go to the Vatican

City and wait for the pope's approval of the order. Drexel realized Cabrini's wisdom and what could have taken five to 10 years took only four months while Drexel waited in Rome in 1907. Upon Drexel's return to Philadelphia, the community elected her superior general. One of Drexel's most notable achievements was her founding of Xavier University in New Orleans, which received its charter in 1925.

The tremendous amount of work that Drexel placed upon herself dealt her a severe heart attack in the fall of 1935 that led to her retirement from the order's superior. For 20 years, Drexel spent her days and nights in continuous prayer. On March 3, 1955, Drexel passed away, but her spirit and the work of the order has not rested. In November 1988, Pope John Paul II declared her beatified for having demonstrated heroic virtue in her lifetime. The second of two miracles needed for final consideration for sainthood came in 1996. Amy Walls, a second grader from Holland, Pa., was cured of a hearing impairment with no medical cause.

"Kate gave up every penny of over $20 million to the less fortunate. She gave her whole self to God," Spain said. "She lived like a pauper. Mother Katharine used pencils down to the last inch, mended all of her clothing and made and remade her shoes over a doz.en times." According to Spain, Drexel saw Christ in every person. "The Eucharist was the heart, soul and core of her focus. The pilgrims from the Archdiocese of Phila. assembled in the Cathedral of Saint Paul, Rome, for a Mass of Thanksgiving for Saint Katharine Drexel. 'The Mass of Thanksgiving was overwhelming, a religious and spiritual experience. It was hard not to have tears in your eyes," Spain said. "Men and women were crying, an electrifying and triumphant experience lifting you up and inspiring you."

The Shrine to Saint Katharine Drexel includes many of her personal effects. Drexel's body is entombed in the crypt under the chapel. 1be shrine receives an estimated 3,000 visitors each month. Over 8,000 people visited Oct. I, theday of the canonization. "If we learn to accept each other as children of God, how different the world would be," Spain said. 'The world was different for African and Native Americans because of this woman."