SEPTEMBER 2006

St. Katharine Drexel (1858- 1955)



The basis for true altruism is an empathic feeling or desire to give to or
service others without any consideration of receiving anything in return.



The second daughter of well known Philadelphia banker and philanthropist
Francis Anthony Drexel (1826-1893) and first wife, Hannah Jane Langstroth,
Katharine Mary Drexel was born November 26, 1858.  One month later her
mother passed away.  Along with elder sister Elizabeth, Katherine was sent
to live with an uncle, Anthony J. Drexel (founder of the Philadelphia
Institute of Technology, later renamed Drexel University).  A few years
later he married Emma Bouvier (the great-grand aunt of Jacqueline Bouvier
Kennedy Onassis) and brought the girls back to live with him.  A younger
sister, Louise, was born in 1863; thus completing the circle of love for
the sisters.



The family moved to a ninety-acre farm in Torresdale, outside
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,  when Katharine was twelve.  The impressive
mansion and estate named for Archangel St. Michael  played an important
role in her life.  Children in a socially-prominent family, Katharine and
her sisters were surrounded by their parents' philanthropy and influential
Catholic clergy. Educated at home by a variety of tutors, augmented by
summers spent helping their mother teach Sunday school to poor children,
as well as distributing food, clothing and rent assistance twice weekly,
the three Drexel girls were steeped in charity work.  Both parents
admonished their children to "step outside their own experience and
exercise compassion for others."



Traveling with her father in 1884, Katharine saw the disgraceful treatment
of Native Americans.  She witnessed Indians living in squalor and despair.
An 1868 federal treaty promised Indians one teacher and one classroom for
every 30 children of school age.  After her father passed in 1885,
Katharine and her sisters began contributing money to help Native
Americans.  Traveling to Europe, Katharine and her sisters petitioned the
Pope for prayers and aid for Native and African-Americans in 1886.  During
her audience with Pope Leo XIII, he suggested she might undertake the work
herself.  Katharine took her vows February 12, 1891 and founded the
Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Native and African-Americans.



A living sermon, Mother Drexel petitioned Congress to provide Native
Americans schools.  Challenging racism, prejudice and bigotry, she funded,
built, and staffed churches and schools for Native and African Americans
in the United States (US).  A major concern of Mother Drexel was the
plight of African Americans in the South.  Answering the desperate prayers
of blacks for education in Louisiana, the woman many believe goaded the
Catholic Church toward racial integration, Mother Katharine established
Xavier Academy, which later became Xavier University.  It was the first
coeducational Catholic black institution of higher education in New
Orleans and the only predominantly Black Catholic institution of higher
learning in the US.



Mother Drexel challenged biased reporting, organized a letter-writing
campaign to support the anti-lynching bill and stood against Jim Crow
segregation and its blatant discrimination.  Believing in a common
American citizenship regardless of race, her educational philosophy was to
provide well-trained teachers who cared about students' mental, physical,
and spiritual welfare as the key to social and economic improvement.



A rich debutante, Mother Katharine Drexel had choices; she decided to give
her life to God. A young socialite, the envy of many, Katharine took a vow
of poverty to care for "the least of these," and thereby showed true
altruism.  At her passing in 1955, those who felt her presence agreed,
"The world is a better place because she lived."  More than 500 Sisters
were teaching in 63 schools at that time.  The Sisters of the Blessed
Sacrament, has 245 members, pursuing St. Katharine's original apostolate,
serving African and Native Americans in 21 states and Haiti.



In 1987, Mother Katharine Drexel was declared "venerable" by Pope John
Paul II.   Declared blessed on November 20, 1988, she was canonized St.
Katharine on January 27, 2000. (Sources:  www.katharinedrexel.org,
www.newadvent.org and www.xula.edu)

The Value of Life
By John Burl Smith



Mother Katharine Drexel's canonization speaks volumes about the value of
her beautiful life and the miraculous spirit that endures.  Strangely
enough, I encountered St. Katharine last year by accident. My creative
writing mentor at LeMoyne-Owen College in Memphis TN, Mrs. Margaret
Danner, a Harlem Renaissance poet, always said "write about what you
know!"  Consequently, my technique for developing characters for my new
novel Archangel: A Hip Hop Vision of Love and the Battle of Good vs Evil
was to talk with people I knew.  A friend who attended St Emma Military
Academy told me of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament and St Katharine
Drexel.



It was truly amazing to learn that someone that possessed such love and
devotion walked among us.  Even more amazing, there seems to have never
been a moment that she regretted her decision.  There are those who say
there are no truly selfless or altruistic acts.  They say Mother Katharine
did what she did to get salvation, so she got something, but salvation is
not guaranteed.  However, what is of value here is the thousands of lives
touched by her love and generosity.  Individuals, as well as families,
were lifted out of poverty or at least put on the road to a better life.



My friend, a father and successful businessman, made this value judgement.
"Were it not for the time I spent there, which gave me time to begin
straightening out my life, my life probably would have ended years ago."



In 1893 Louise Drexel, had become the wife of Colonel Edward Morrell.
They purchased Belmead Plantation at Rock Castle, Virginia. Encouraged by,
Mother Katharine, the adjacent plantation at Mount Pleasant was purchased
also and the Morrells deeded both properties to the Sisters of the Blessed
Sacrament. St. Emma, named for Louise's mother, and St. Francis de Sales
(named for their father) opened in 1895.



St. Emma's academy offered standard military training and discipline.  Its
curriculum consisted of cannery, farming, equipment repair, engineering,
accounting and management.  St. Katharine constructed the largest trade
school in the south which offered technical and mechanical training at St.
Emma in 1933.  While St. Francis de Sales, the only Catholic school for
black women in Virginia had membership in the Southern Association of
Colleges and Secondary Schools, its courses consisted of homemaking,
needlework, sewing, lace-making, laundering, nursing and marketing. It
also had a championship basketball team and nationally acclaimed choir.



Both were boarding schools for young black and Native Americans. Both
institutions were pre-eminent among the 100 plus historically black
boarding schools that flourished between the Civil War and the Civil
Rights era. These schools enrolled more than 20,000 and graduated more
than 10,000.  St. Katharine spent her entire $20 million trust inheritance
on her mission of educating the "poor and oppressed" among African and
Native Americans in the US.



St. Emma Military Academy and St. Francis de Sales High School, like St.
Katharine, represent America's devaluation of the less well off.
Historically, little value or importance is given groups like the Sisters
of the Blessed Sacrament and institutions which served victims of slavery
and racial exclusion. Nevertheless, St. Emma's and St. Francis' 78 year
existence and the more than 20,000 lives they touched assure them a place
in history.   The more than 1,100 known alumni have continued to hold
joint reunions and support projects like the post-Katrina rebuilding of
Xavier University in New Orleans.  The real value of St. Katharine's life
is that her love, through the people she touched, continues to change the
world for the better. www.imdiversity.com

www.thedish.org