"Philadelphia Heiress gives Up Seven Million!"

[Rob2]

St Katharine Drexel​

Celebrated on March 3rd

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Katharine Drexel was the daughter of a millionaire banker. Born in Philadelphia in 1858, she had an excellent education and travelled widely. Her unusual family had their own railway car and were used to every luxury. But her mother also opened the door of their home to the poor three days each week and her father spent half an hour each evening in prayer.

As a young woman Katherine nursed her stepmother through a three-year terminal illness. This made her realise that all the Drexel money could not buy safety from pain or death. It was around this time her life took a profound turn.

Katherine had always been interested in the plight of the Native American Indians, having been appalled by reading Helen Hunt Jackson’s A Century of Dishonor. While on a European tour, she met Pope Leo XIII and asked him to send more missionaries to Wyoming for her friend Bishop James O’Connor. The Pope replied: “Why don’t you become a missionary?” His answer shocked her into considering new possibilities.

Back home, she visited the Dakotas, met the Sioux leader Red Cloud and began her systematic aid to Indian missions.

She could easily have married. But after much discussion with Bishop O’Connor, she wrote in 1889: “The feast of St Joseph brought me the grace to give the remainder of my life to the Indians and the Colored.” Newspaper headlines declared: “Heiress gives Up Seven Million!”

After three and a half years of training, she and her first band of nuns (Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored) opened a boarding school in Santa Fe. A string of foundations followed. By 1942 she had a system of black Catholic schools in 13 states, plus 40 mission centers and 23 rural schools. Segregationists harassed her work, even burning a school in Pennsylvania. In all, she established 50 missions for Indians in 16 states.

Two saints met when she was advised by Mother Cabrini about the ‘politics’ of getting her Order’s Rule approved in Rome. Her crowning achievement was the founding of Xavier University in New Orleans, the first university in the United States for blacks.

At 77, she suffered a heart attack and was forced to retire. Apparently her life was over. But now came almost 20 years of quiet prayer from a small room overlooking the sanctuary. Small notebooks and slips of paper record her various prayers, ceaseless aspirations and meditation. She died at 96 and was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2000.

(from ICN)

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I used to visit her tomb out in Bensalem, PA where her order had had a school and motherhouse. It was very nice and peaceful, but last year the order sold off the property for development, so they moved the whole tomb to the Philadelphia cathedral, with much fanfare and a special Mass to bless the tomb.

The good news is that many more people visiting Philadelphia will now be aware of St. Katherine Drexel. Bensalem was kind of off the beaten path and most people visiting the city wouldn’t have been able to get there.

My favorite memory of visiting her tomb was back when she was entombed in Bensalem (same tomb as in the picture), a dad came in to pray with two preschooler kids who were being rambunctious. While the dad’s back was turned writing a prayer petition, his little girl climbed up on the tomb and hollered, “Daddy look at me!” Daddy of course was not pleased and rushed to get her down, but I thought St. Katherine would have chuckled at that because she loved children so much.
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[0Scarlett_nidiyilii]

Seven million dollars should have kept her order and charities going almost indefinitely.
Unfortunately, her order wound up in dire financial straits after the tax laws were revised during the Great Depression.
Not immediately, but over time they dwindled away.

 

[Bixby]

A sad postscript for her order, but what an amazing life! Thank you for posting this. May she watch over all of us!

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I read that it was actually the terms of her father’s will that was the problem. He had of course died long before she founded her religious order, and the terms of his will that provided her and her sisters with their fortune only allowed them to live off the income. If they didn’t have children then when they died, the money would pass to a number of religious orders and charities that didn’t include St. Katherine’s order as it wasn’t founded yet. The reason for the will being drafted this way was to protect his daughters from fortune hunters marrying them only for their money.

Katherine of course did not have any children, and I don’t think her sisters did either. When Katherine died, the order lost the funding from the Drexel estate. I don’t doubt that they also have had trouble getting vocations like lots of orders, and some of the work they did, like providing schools for children of color, isn’t so necessary any more post-integration.

These days it seems like most of the work the order is doing is in Haiti and Jamaica and similar mission areas. I would imagine they can get more vocations there, and the work they do may also be more needed or welcome there.

 

[0Scarlett_nidiyilii]

It was explained in one of her biographies. My takeaway was the tax structure wound up draining the money, but now I remember what you said about how her father set up the money, too.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I’m sure the taxes and depression didn’t help matters either. Nevertheless, just judging by the nice spread of land they had in Bensalem, I don’t think they were too broke, at least while St. Katherine was alive.