St. Katharine Drexel: A Brief Biography
The Beginning
Katharine Mary Drexel was born in Philadelphia, PA on November
26, 1858, the second child of Francis Anthony and Hannah
Langstroth Drexel. Her birth was a difficult one, however, for both
mother and baby, and a month after Katharine’s birth, her mother
succumbed to a fever and died. Two years later, her father, a well-
known banker and philanthropist, married Emma Bouvier.
Emma was a devout Catholic and personally supervised the
construction of a private oratory in the Drexel home. It was
beautifully furnished with an altar, crucifix, many paintings and an
impressive statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The family’s daily
gathering for prayer had a profound effect on Katharine and her
sisters.
Another strong influence on Katharine was her parents’ devotion to
helping those less fortunate. Although millionaires, her parents were
careful to instill in their children the idea that wealth was meant to be
shared with others, especially the poor. Three days each week,
Francis and Emma opened the doors to their home to those who
were in need of money for food, clothing, shelter or those seeking
counseling or knowledgeable advice.
As a young girl, Katharine traveled widely and was well-educated in
the family’s private home school. She especially enjoyed her
stepmother’s Sunday night sessions on the lives of the saints. It was
in these sessions that Katharine developed a devotion to St. Francis
of Assisi. As St. Francis had given his inheritance to help the poor,
so would she do the same one day.
While Katharine had begun to discern her religious vocation early in
her teens, she began to consider it much more seriously after
nursing her stepmother through a long and painful fight with cancer.
She wrote often to her spiritual director, Bishop O’Connor of Omaha,
NE who advised her to “wait and pray.” A short time after the death
of her mother, Katharine and her sisters took a trip to Europe,
during which she had an audience with Pope Leo XIII. Having heard
and read much about the plight of the Native Americans in Wyoming
and the Dakotas, Katharine asked Pope Leo XIII if he could help
send more priests to serve as missionaries. His answer marked a
defining moment in her life: “Why not, my child, become a missionary
yourself?”
In May of 1889, Katharine entered the novitiate at the convent of the
Sisters of Mercy in Pittsburgh. She made her final vows on February
12, 1891 and later founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament.
From this time on until her death in 1955, Katharine dedicated her
life and her fortune of 20 million dollars to improving the lives of
Native American and Black people in the United States.
The South Dakota Connection
In 1922, Fr. Sylvester Eisenmann, a Benedictine priest, traveled to
the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament motherhouse in Pennsylvania
to plead for assistance. Fr. Eisenmann served as pastor in Marty,
SD, a small and very poor town which served as a meeting place for
the Yankton Sioux tribe. Fr. Eisenmann was not seeking financial
aid, however; what he needed was teacher for the small school in
Marty.
Upon hearing his sad story, Mother Katharine Drexel was moved to
tears because she felt she could not spare any of the sisters to go
and teach at the school. Fr. Eisenmann asked if he might gather the
sisters and relate to them what it was like to work with the young
Sioux children who were eager to learn, but had no teachers. Mother
Drexel granted his request and although there were several sisters
who were eager to help at the mission if they could be spared, she
held fast in her refusal to allow any of the sisters to go. Fr.
Eisenmann made one final plea—he asked Mother Drexel to think
and pray about his request for one more day before giving him a
final answer. She agreed.
Fr. John Sparrow, a priest form Villanova College, also happened to
be staying at the motherhouse and had heard Fr. Eisenmann’s talk
and had seen the sisters’ enthusiastic response. He went to Mother
Drexel and asked her to reconsider. He also offered a Mass the next
morning for that intention.
When Fr. Eisenmann met with Mother Drexel the next afternoon, he
was delighted to hear that she had changed her mind. She assured
him that within two months time, three Sisters of the Blessed
Sacrament would arrive at the small school in Marty to teach.
True to her word, Mother Drexel soon arrived at the St. Paul Mission
in Marty with three of the sisters. It was a small but clean wooden
house where twenty young Yankton Sioux children came to learn.
Fr. Eisenmann called them his “bronzed angels.”
Within a few months, Fr. Eisenmann had plans for an elementary
school and a high school built from materials he had salvaged.
These were inexpensive but solid structures which housed
enthusiastic students.
When Mother Drexel returned to the St. Paul Mission two years later,
she was delighted to find that the school and mission had flourished.
There were now 180 boarding students and more than 20 day
students filling every nook and cranny of the building. She was also
pleased to find that the principal of the school was a former student
of San Michel of Torresdale, PA (San Michel of Torresdale, PA was
a country home owned by the Drexel family which later became a
school).
Within a few brief years, there were more than four hundred Native
American children at St. Paul’s Mission. The Sisters of the Blessed
Sacrament had provided 23 sisters to teach at the mission. Upon
returning to the motherhouse after one of her visits to Marty, Mother
Drexel thanked God for giving Fr. Eisenmann the opportunity to
speak to the sisters and ask for their assistance. The result was one
of the most productive of all missionary efforts among Native
Americans and Mother Drexel and the Sisters of the Blessed
Sacrament were proud to have played and important role in its
success.
Mother Katharine Drexel Canonized
The process of canonization of Mother Katharine Drexel was begun
in December 1964, when John Cardinal Krol officially introduced her
cause in Rome.
In February 1974, 14-year-old Robert Gutherman contracted an ear
infection that destroyed the three bones in his right ear, causing
deafness in that ear. His family began praying to Mother Katharine
Drexel for relief of his pain. By September of that year, several
months after surgery, doctors examined Gutherman and found that
the bones had regenerated and that his hearing was restored. This
was the first of the two necessary miracles for canonization to be
attributed to Mother Drexel.
After her beatification on November 20, 1988, one more miracle was
still needed to advance Blessed Mother Katharine Drexel’s cause in
Rome. In August 1993, young Amy Wall was diagnosed with
incurable nerve deafness and was enrolled in the Katzenbach
School for the Deaf in Trenton, NJ. In November of that year, Wall’s
family began praying for the intercession of Blessed Mother
Katharine Drexel. By March, Wall’s teacher noticed that she was
responding to noise. A medical examination was ordered and
revealed that Amy indeed had been cured and now had perfect
hearing.
On October 1, 2000, after investigation of these two miracles by
several boards, approximately 70,000 people from around the world
gathered in St. Peter’s Square to witness the canonization of
Blessed Mother Drexel and 3 other individuals. Robert Gutherman,
Amy Wall and Wall’s mother Connie all sat near the papal altar
during Mass and received Holy Communion from the Holy Father.
In his address to the crowd, Pope John Paul II hailed Katharine
Drexel as a compassionate woman who expanded on her parents’
teachings on sharing wealth. “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.”
Excerpts taken from the following websites: www.katharinedrexel.org
and www.phillyburbs.com.drexel/news.
The Beginning
Katharine Mary Drexel was born in Philadelphia, PA on November
26, 1858, the second child of Francis Anthony and Hannah
Langstroth Drexel. Her birth was a difficult one, however, for both
mother and baby, and a month after Katharine’s birth, her mother
succumbed to a fever and died. Two years later, her father, a well-
known banker and philanthropist, married Emma Bouvier.
Emma was a devout Catholic and personally supervised the
construction of a private oratory in the Drexel home. It was
beautifully furnished with an altar, crucifix, many paintings and an
impressive statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The family’s daily
gathering for prayer had a profound effect on Katharine and her
sisters.
Another strong influence on Katharine was her parents’ devotion to
helping those less fortunate. Although millionaires, her parents were
careful to instill in their children the idea that wealth was meant to be
shared with others, especially the poor. Three days each week,
Francis and Emma opened the doors to their home to those who
were in need of money for food, clothing, shelter or those seeking
counseling or knowledgeable advice.
As a young girl, Katharine traveled widely and was well-educated in
the family’s private home school. She especially enjoyed her
stepmother’s Sunday night sessions on the lives of the saints. It was
in these sessions that Katharine developed a devotion to St. Francis
of Assisi. As St. Francis had given his inheritance to help the poor,
so would she do the same one day.
While Katharine had begun to discern her religious vocation early in
her teens, she began to consider it much more seriously after
nursing her stepmother through a long and painful fight with cancer.
She wrote often to her spiritual director, Bishop O’Connor of Omaha,
NE who advised her to “wait and pray.” A short time after the death
of her mother, Katharine and her sisters took a trip to Europe,
during which she had an audience with Pope Leo XIII. Having heard
and read much about the plight of the Native Americans in Wyoming
and the Dakotas, Katharine asked Pope Leo XIII if he could help
send more priests to serve as missionaries. His answer marked a
defining moment in her life: “Why not, my child, become a missionary
yourself?”
In May of 1889, Katharine entered the novitiate at the convent of the
Sisters of Mercy in Pittsburgh. She made her final vows on February
12, 1891 and later founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament.
From this time on until her death in 1955, Katharine dedicated her
life and her fortune of 20 million dollars to improving the lives of
Native American and Black people in the United States.
The South Dakota Connection
In 1922, Fr. Sylvester Eisenmann, a Benedictine priest, traveled to
the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament motherhouse in Pennsylvania
to plead for assistance. Fr. Eisenmann served as pastor in Marty,
SD, a small and very poor town which served as a meeting place for
the Yankton Sioux tribe. Fr. Eisenmann was not seeking financial
aid, however; what he needed was teacher for the small school in
Marty.
Upon hearing his sad story, Mother Katharine Drexel was moved to
tears because she felt she could not spare any of the sisters to go
and teach at the school. Fr. Eisenmann asked if he might gather the
sisters and relate to them what it was like to work with the young
Sioux children who were eager to learn, but had no teachers. Mother
Drexel granted his request and although there were several sisters
who were eager to help at the mission if they could be spared, she
held fast in her refusal to allow any of the sisters to go. Fr.
Eisenmann made one final plea—he asked Mother Drexel to think
and pray about his request for one more day before giving him a
final answer. She agreed.
Fr. John Sparrow, a priest form Villanova College, also happened to
be staying at the motherhouse and had heard Fr. Eisenmann’s talk
and had seen the sisters’ enthusiastic response. He went to Mother
Drexel and asked her to reconsider. He also offered a Mass the next
morning for that intention.
When Fr. Eisenmann met with Mother Drexel the next afternoon, he
was delighted to hear that she had changed her mind. She assured
him that within two months time, three Sisters of the Blessed
Sacrament would arrive at the small school in Marty to teach.
True to her word, Mother Drexel soon arrived at the St. Paul Mission
in Marty with three of the sisters. It was a small but clean wooden
house where twenty young Yankton Sioux children came to learn.
Fr. Eisenmann called them his “bronzed angels.”
Within a few months, Fr. Eisenmann had plans for an elementary
school and a high school built from materials he had salvaged.
These were inexpensive but solid structures which housed
enthusiastic students.
When Mother Drexel returned to the St. Paul Mission two years later,
she was delighted to find that the school and mission had flourished.
There were now 180 boarding students and more than 20 day
students filling every nook and cranny of the building. She was also
pleased to find that the principal of the school was a former student
of San Michel of Torresdale, PA (San Michel of Torresdale, PA was
a country home owned by the Drexel family which later became a
school).
Within a few brief years, there were more than four hundred Native
American children at St. Paul’s Mission. The Sisters of the Blessed
Sacrament had provided 23 sisters to teach at the mission. Upon
returning to the motherhouse after one of her visits to Marty, Mother
Drexel thanked God for giving Fr. Eisenmann the opportunity to
speak to the sisters and ask for their assistance. The result was one
of the most productive of all missionary efforts among Native
Americans and Mother Drexel and the Sisters of the Blessed
Sacrament were proud to have played and important role in its
success.
Mother Katharine Drexel Canonized
The process of canonization of Mother Katharine Drexel was begun
in December 1964, when John Cardinal Krol officially introduced her
cause in Rome.
In February 1974, 14-year-old Robert Gutherman contracted an ear
infection that destroyed the three bones in his right ear, causing
deafness in that ear. His family began praying to Mother Katharine
Drexel for relief of his pain. By September of that year, several
months after surgery, doctors examined Gutherman and found that
the bones had regenerated and that his hearing was restored. This
was the first of the two necessary miracles for canonization to be
attributed to Mother Drexel.
After her beatification on November 20, 1988, one more miracle was
still needed to advance Blessed Mother Katharine Drexel’s cause in
Rome. In August 1993, young Amy Wall was diagnosed with
incurable nerve deafness and was enrolled in the Katzenbach
School for the Deaf in Trenton, NJ. In November of that year, Wall’s
family began praying for the intercession of Blessed Mother
Katharine Drexel. By March, Wall’s teacher noticed that she was
responding to noise. A medical examination was ordered and
revealed that Amy indeed had been cured and now had perfect
hearing.
On October 1, 2000, after investigation of these two miracles by
several boards, approximately 70,000 people from around the world
gathered in St. Peter’s Square to witness the canonization of
Blessed Mother Drexel and 3 other individuals. Robert Gutherman,
Amy Wall and Wall’s mother Connie all sat near the papal altar
during Mass and received Holy Communion from the Holy Father.
In his address to the crowd, Pope John Paul II hailed Katharine
Drexel as a compassionate woman who expanded on her parents’
teachings on sharing wealth. “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.”
Excerpts taken from the following websites: www.katharinedrexel.org
and www.phillyburbs.com.drexel/news.
| Page last updated Thursday Nov. 5, 2005 Website comments, questions, or problems? Contact us: admin@stkatharinedrexelsfsd.org |
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Biography
Click on the image above
to read a biography.
Born: November 26, 1858
Died: March 3, 1955
(Parish Feast Day)
Canonized a Saint:
October 1, 2000
to read a biography.
Born: November 26, 1858
Died: March 3, 1955
(Parish Feast Day)
Canonized a Saint:
October 1, 2000
“If I can say of an action: ‘I
did it out of love of God,’
there is something about
it that will last through all
eternity.”
St. Katharine Drexel
did it out of love of God,’
there is something about
it that will last through all
eternity.”
St. Katharine Drexel
Image courtesy of the
Blessed Sacrament Shrine
Blessed Sacrament Shrine
Image courtesy of the
Blessed Sacrament Shrine
Blessed Sacrament Shrine
“Peacefully do at each
moment what at that
moment ought to be
done.”
St. Katharine Drexel
moment what at that
moment ought to be
done.”
St. Katharine Drexel
St. Katharine Drexel Parish
1901 S. Wheatland Court
Sioux Falls, SD 57106
Phone - (605) 275-6870
Fax - (605) 275-6998
E-mail - church.stkatharinedrexel@midconetwork.com
1901 S. Wheatland Court
Sioux Falls, SD 57106
Phone - (605) 275-6870
Fax - (605) 275-6998
E-mail - church.stkatharinedrexel@midconetwork.com
This mural can be seen
at St. Joseph Cathedral
Sacred Heart Chapel in
Sioux Falls.
at St. Joseph Cathedral
Sacred Heart Chapel in
Sioux Falls.