Above: This likeness of St. Katharine Drexel is seen at the Katharine Drexel Shrine in Bensalem, Pa. St. John Paul II canonized her in 2000, making her the second American-born saint. (CNS photo/The Crosiers)
March 3rd is the Feast Day for Saint Katharine Drexel, an American heiress, philanthropist, religious sister and educator. She was the second person born in what is now the United States to be canonized as a saint and the first one born a U.S. citizen.
The American founder of the Blessed Sacrament Sisters for Indians and Colored People (now Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament), a congregation of missionary nuns dedicated to the welfare of American Indians and African Americans, she is the
patron saint of racial justice and of philanthropists. During her life she had given approximately $20 million to help people in need.
St. Katharine Drexel visited North Carolina and stayed at Holy Redeemer, now named Our Lady of Guadalupe. She provided funds for St. Mary (now the Basilica) in Wilmington, which allowed St. Thomas the Apostle to become the parish for Black Catholics. St. Katharine also provided funds for St. Alphonsus, Wilson.
Timeline of her life and service
November 26, 1858 - Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to a wealthy banking family
February 15, 1885 - Katharine, her siblings, and various charities inherit an estate valued at $15 million dollars after her father’s death
1886 - 1887 - Katharine finances the opening of St. Catherine’s Indian School in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to serve the local Pueblo-American Indians
March 1889 - Katharine seeks to found a religious order dedicated to serving African Americans and American Indians
Fall of 1899 - St. Francis de Sales School, a boarding school for African American girls opens in Powhatan, Virginia
December 3, 1902 - St. Michael Indian School in Arizona open to serve the Navajo Native Americans
1915 - Mother Katharine purchases buildings in New Orleans, Louisiana and opens Xavier Preparatory School
1925 - Founding of Xavier University of Louisiana, the only historically black Catholic college in the United States
March 3, 1955 - Mother M. Katharine Drexel dies of pneumonia
May 27, 1964 - John Cardinal Kol, Archbishop of Philadelphia, officially introduces Mother Katharine’s cause for sainthood
October 1, 2000 - Canonization
November 18, 2018 - Solemn installation of the tomb of Saint Katharine Drexel in the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, Philadelphia