Katharine Drexel, From Heiress To Saint
Seventy-years after her death, Philadelphia’s “Saint Kate” still marvels.
Born Catherine Marie Drexel (it’s uncertain when the spelling of her first name changed) on Nov. 26, 1858, the young girl and her older sister Elizabeth were born into the lap of pre-Civil War luxury. The daughter of Francis Anthony Drexel, a famed banker and philanthropist considered one of the richest men in America at the time, Katharine, did not know her mother. Hannah Jane Langstroth, died just five weeks after her birth.
Two years later, Francis Drexel married Emma Mary Bouvier, the daughter of French immigrants. Together, Francis and Emma added a third daughter, Louise, to their family and they all lived in a mansion on 90 acres in the Torresdale in the far northeast of neighborhood in Philadelphia.
The new Mrs. Drexel also came from a prominent family. Emma had a nephew, John Vernou Bouvier Jr., who would later become the grandfather of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and her uncle Anthony founded Drexel University.
Despite all that largesse, the Drexel family maintained a charitable and devout Catholic home. Emma routinely distributed food and clothing to the needy, which rubbed off on all the Drexel daughters, especially Katharine.
All three girls had first class educations and in 1879, when she was 21, Katharine, described as “One of America’s Great Heiresses” in Philadelphia’s newspapers, was presented to the city’s “high society.” Unimpressed, “Miss Kate” felt that she was destined for a higher calling.
Her stepmother died in 1883 and her father passed in 1885. All three daughters were left with an enormous inheritance. This allowed Katharine to travel. In 1886 she met Pope Leo XIII, who encouraged her to follow those instincts to become a nun.
Three years later, reportedly after leaving suitors behind, Katharine left for the Sisters of Mercy in Pittsburg (the “h” was gone at this time).
By February 1890, she was already making front page news. The Rev. James O’Connor, who helped inspire Sister Katharine to pursue her missionary work, was dying. Sister Katharine and Mother Sebastian of the Sisters of Mercy for the City reportedly traveled to Florida to tend to him.
In December 1890, Sister Katharine paid for the construction of the St. Benedict Industrial School and Orphan Asylum in White Earth, Minnesota. The school served 250 students.
On Feb. 12, 1891, the former Philadelphia heiress would make headlines across the commonwealth when she was invested with the black veil of the Roman Catholic Order and became the Reverend Mother in Pittsburg. The presentation was normally an ornate affair; however, Katharine wanted to avoid an ostentatious display. Among those in attendance were representatives of the “Indian” mission. The new “Mother Katharine” would officially get her introduction to the Native American and Black communities she would so generously assist.
Mother Katharine maintained her $7 million ($247,280,000 in 2025) inheritance, and would fund building projects, including one named for her sister Elizabeth, who died in 1890. Not long after the ceremony, Mother Katharine was back in Philadelphia, overseeing construction of the convent, which according to published reports, was equipped “with electric lights.”
In January 1882, Mother Katharine opened a Catholic School “for colored children” in Texas. She would spearhead dozens of similar openings for years to come.
Mother Katharine was described as having a fortune of “$1,000 a day” but lived on only “$1 a day.” When she died in 1955, after serving 64 years as a nun, she had directed all money to go toward the underprivileged. There have been more than two dozen parishes named in her honor, with dozens more churches and chapels, and about a dozen roads.
That was not the end for Mother Katharine.
In 1974, Bob Gutherman was a 14-year-old ninth-grader from Bristol Township in Bucks County, only a few miles from the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament in Bensalem. He developed a severe right ear infection, and doctors were having a difficult time relieving his pain. Doctors found that he had broken bones in his ear that they couldn’t fix.
Bob had brothers who worked at the motherhouse and told the sisters about his plight. They told Bob’s mother that they would pray to Mother Katharine on his behalf and suggested the Gutherman family, which included 11 children, to do the same.
After an exploratory surgery, young Bob’s failing hearing was restored and doctors discovered that the bones had been “reconstructed.”
The sisters were told the remarkable news and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia called to investigate a “miracle.” The investigation lasted 14 years (some other miracle investigations are ongoing after 400 years). In 1988, the Roman Catholic Church declared that Gutherman’s ear was cured by a miracle attributed to Katharine’s intercession. Mother Katharine was beatified on Nov. 20, 1988.
Then there was Bensalem’s Amy Wall, who was born deaf due to incurably damaged nerves. In 1994 when she was two years old, Amy’s siblings asked their mother if they could pray to Mother Katharine for help. They did and soon, Amy could hear and speak without any complications. Again, Catholic leaders were called.
Paul John Paul II recognized the second miracle in less than a decade and Mother Katharine was canonized on Oct. 1, 2000. Drexel was the second person born in the United States to be declared a saint and the first who was born a U.S. citizen. She follows only Elizabeth Ann Seton, who was the first pre-Declaration of Independence American-born person to be declared a saint only 154 years after her death in 1975.
On Oct. 1, Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament are planning a 25th anniversary canonization jubilee for Mother Katharine, with a closing mass on Oct. 5.
