(1856-1955) Katharine was the second daughter of a very wealthy banker and philanthropist in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was raised with the notion that wealth was on loan and meant to be shared with others. On a family trip to the western United States, she saw the destitution of the native Americans and wanted to help. Katharine began to fund and personally support several missions, and when she asked Pope Leo XIII for missionaries, he suggested she become one herself. At 32 years old, she founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament to share the Gospel and the Eucharist with Native Americans and African Americans, whom she served for the next 64 years.
Katharine gave all of her material wealth and her whole life in service to others. Her love of the Eucharist and a desire to address social iniquities drove her. Love of God has the power to be our motivation for heroic virtue. How do you stay conscious of your affection for and awe of God? How do you increase it?
“The patient and humble endurance of the cross – whatever nature it may be – is the highest work we have to do” (Saint Katharine Drexel).
Reflection by Brad Farmer