Mar
01
2022
By Anonymous (not verified)
By Matthew August
"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 which invites us. Press forward and fear nothing." - Saint Katharine Drexel
On March 3, Catholics around the world remember the life of a powerful and wealthy woman who stunned the world when she abandoned her riches to become a humble religious sister and poured out her life for others. She dedicated herself to serving indigenous peoples and African Americans during a time when these communities were excluded from society.
She is St. Katharine Drexel, the second American-born saint to be canonized (after St. Elizabeth Ann Seton).
Privileged upbringing
Katharine was born on Nov. 26, 1858, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was the daughter of a very wealthy financer and philanthropist. Katharine's mother died just a few weeks after giving birth to her.
Francis Drexel, Katharine's father, remarried to Emma Bouvier. She was a very pious and devout woman who had a profound influence on Katharine's spiritual life.
"Kindness may be unkind if it leaves a sting behind," Emma Drexel would say.
Upon her father's death, Katharine and her sisters inherited the entire family fortune. Katharine grew into a powerful and wealthy young woman, but soon learned that money wasn't a remedy to all of life's pains.
Offering hope
Katharine watched her stepmother slowly suffer and die from terminal cancer over three years. At a young age, she experienced immense pain and loss. She learned very quickly that her wealth couldn't protect her loved ones from death. But she could use it to bring hope.
Katharine was deeply moved by the suffering of indigenous peoples and African Americans she had witnessed since her early childhood.
"Christ wishes the Christian Community to be a body that is perfect because we work together towards a single end," said Katharine. "And the higher the motive which actuates this collaboration the higher, no doubt, will be the union."
Papal call
A visit to the Vatican in 1887 would change the trajectory of Katharine's life forever. When she appealed to Pope Leo XIII for missionaries to serve the Native American missions she was funding, the Holy Father challenged her to take action on the situation herself. He called her to embrace her divine baptismal call and lay down her life for these people as Christ did.
Katharine was suddenly set on fire with heavenly zeal and vigor. She knew her mission to relieve these souls and bring them to Christ.
In 1889, Katharine became a novice with the Sisters of Mercy in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She made her final vows in 1891. She, like St. Faustina, had a strong devotion to our Lord in the Holy Eucharist.
"My sweetest Joy is to be in the presence of Jesus in the holy Sacrament," said Katharine. "I beg that when obliged to withdraw in body, I may leave my heart before the holy Sacrament. How I would miss Our Lord if He were to be away from me by His presence in the Blessed Sacrament!"
Living Divine Mercy
Katharine lived the call to show Christ's Divine Mercy. She founded several ministries and schools for needy communities to learn and worship God. One of her greatest achievements was the founding of Xavier University in New Orleans, the only historically black Catholic university in the United States.
When Katharine was 77, she suffered a heart attack that would keep her from her normal active life. She would commit the rest her life to contemplation and prayer. She died 20 years later on March 3, 1955.
She left behind a template for the sisters of her convent. She advocated for them to always persevere in serving victims of injustice and to have an undying love for the Eucharist.
May we Catholics remember the life of this woman who embodied Divine Mercy and changed the world.
"There is nothing more man needs than Divine Mercy - that love which is benevolent, which is compassionate, which raises man above his weakness to the infinite heights to the holiness of God" (St. John Paul II, Shrine of Divine Mercy in Krakow, Poland, June 7, 1997)
Saint Katharine Drexel, pray for us!
BIDM
