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Tag Archives: Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament

St. Katharine Drexel is Back: An Update

10 Thursday Mar 2022

Posted by Brian in Saints, Shrines of Philadelphia, St. Katharine Drexel

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Archbishop Nelson Perez, Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, St. Katherine Drexel

St. Katharine Drexel has been one active saint in the last several years. This post highlights her new shrine at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul; her life story as Philadelphia’s own revered saint; and the latest redevelopment plans of the former shrine, vacated after she was moved to the Cathedral Basilica.

St. Katharine Drexel Former Shrine Saved from Development

St. Katharine Drexel lived and worked most of her religious life at the Motherhouse of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament and the onsite Chapel of St. Elizabeth. The Sisters decided in 2018 to sell the campus along with the St. Elizabeth Shrine to developers due to declining numbers of the order. After a bidding process a developer was selected, Aquinas Realty. The buildings on the campus will be developed into townhomes (90), active adult rental units (260) and an assisted living facility (300 bed units).1 The Louisa Drexel Morrell building, named after Katharine Drexel’s sister, will be used for events at the complex.

The good news is Len Poncia of Aquinas Realty, will not develop the St. Elizabeth Chapel as previously planned and has assurances from Archbishop Nelson Perez of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for the shrine to remain a Catholic chapel for perpetuity and the crypt to become a muti-religious cultural site.

The historic St. Elizabeth Shrine in Bensalem PA, where Mother Drexel lived and worked as head of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament.

Inside St. Elizabeth Chapel which will be saved from development.
Developer Len Poncia who saved the St. Elizabeth Chapel and crypt from development. He has a long personal association with the campus.1
Development plans for the campus that once was the home of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament.
– Aquinas Realty Partners

The Current Home of St. Katharine Drexel

From the crypt under the Motherhouse at St. Elizabeth Chapel, the saint was moved in 2018 to the Saint Katharine Drexel Shrine at the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia, where she resides today.

The Tomb of Saint Katharine Drexel and wall mural at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. circa 2022
St. Katharine Drexel Shrine in Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul. circa 2022.

The Life and Times of St. Katharine

“On March 3, 2022 we celebrated the feast of our native Philadelphia saint, Katharine Drexel. She lived a long life, close to 97 years old, being born before the civil war started in 1858 in Philadelphia. Her father is one of the richest men in the United States. Her mother dies at birth and her step mother raises her. He Dad and Stepmother were beautiful people and were really devout Catholics and even had a chapel inside their home. They would pray in the morning and her Dad would come home from work and they prayed as a family. They were a great witness to her in their charitable giving, and it was really hands on. The mother would take Katherine out and give food, clothing and shoes to the poor and in some cases bring them into the house. Their father’s belief was their great wealth was entrusted to them to be used for the common good.” 2

Katharine Drexel as a young lady of status.

“Katharine had a charmed life; the best schools and activities. Around the age of 21, her step mother and father die a few months apart and Katherine is thrust into a dark period of her life; anxiety and constantly depressed and is struggling to find a purpose. She meets two priests who are missionaries and talk to her about the plight of the American Native Indians in the United States and goes on a journey to meet these people. Upon return, she is still depressed and then travels across the ocean to Italy seeking restoration. In the process she gets a meeting with Pope Leo 13th and asks him to do something about the plight of the Native American Indians, possibly to finding a religious order or any group to go minister to them. Famously, the Holy Father looks at her and says “You be the missionary, why not you?” As the story goes, she leaves the Vatican meeting and breaks into tears and unrelenting sobs. The challenge of the Holy Father moves something in her. She begins to discern if she is meant to be a religious sister. The idea of becoming a sister grows and she talks to her spiritual director and he doesn’t think it’s a good idea at first, her wealth and lifestyle would be hard to break, since she would have to live in poverty. (In todays money, her wealth is estimated at $300-400 million.) Eventually Katharine convinces the spiritual director and she goes out to the Mercy Sisters in Pittsburgh for about a year and gets some religious formation. Now in her early thirties, she starts her own order and it grows as women are attracted to this order. She then starts the Motherhouse in Philadelphia and take three years to become formed with spiritual practices and religious training. The sisters go south to the Native American community around Pueblo; and so starts the ministry of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, with orphanages, schools and services. She becomes sympathetic to the Black Community in the US. She was born during slavery times (1850) and with the Civil War being over and the slaves becoming emancipated, she sees the horrible conditions and great discrimination and starts to minister to build schools and services, famous for Xavier University of Louisiana, which she got a lot of pushback for this university for black America in early 1900’s.” 3

St. Katharine Drexel at work for the Native and African Americans.

“She took her vow of poverty seriously, living on about a dollar a day. You could see Mothers room on tours or videos. She had a heart attack in early 70’s as she was extremely active. The doctors told her to slow down. She goes through this phase, probably not thinking she was going to live another twenty five years. She says this was her most fruitvile period of her life. She lived with incredible austerity. Meager things in her cell, from mending her own shoes to writing with a pencil so small it was hard to hold the pencil.” 4

Shoes and pencils of St. Katharine.

“The world needs heroic virtue like that of Katharine Drexel.”5

Notes 2 3 4 5: The Life and Times of St. Katharine (above) is paraphrased from the feast day sermon on March 3, 2022 by Fr. Gary Pacitti, St. Basil the Great Parish, Phoenixville PA.

Favorite Quotes:
“The patient and the humble endurance of the cross whatever nature it may be is the highest work we have to do.” – St. Katharine Drexel

“If we wish to serve God and love our neighbor well we must manifest our joy in the service we render to Him and them. Let us open wide our hearts it is joy which invites us. Press forward and fear nothing.”
– St. Katharine Drexel

From St. Katharine Drexel Facebook page.
Quote from St. Basil the Great Parish Facebook page on her feast day March 3, 2022.

St. Katharine Drexel is back, although she never really left.

1 “Inside the plan to redevelop the former Drexel shrine in Bensalem: How historic buildings will be saved and new housing built” by Peg Quann, Bucks County Courier Times, Feb 21, 2022, Updated March 9, 2022.

Video of the latest redevelopment plans by Peg Quann, Bucks County Courier Times, Feb 21, 2022, Updated March 9, 2022:

https://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com/videos/news/2022/02/21/developer-talks-st-katharine-drexel-shrine-redevelopment/6882688001/

An earlier post about the former St. Katharine Drexel Shrine:

https://shrinetower.com/2013/03/03/all-around-st-katharine-drexel-shrine/

All Around St. Katharine Drexel Shrine

03 Sunday Mar 2013

Posted by Brian in Saints, St. Katharine Drexel

≈ 7 Comments

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Bensalem PA, Drexel Mission Center, Drexel Shrine, monastery, Saint, Shrine of Philadelphia, Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, St. Katharine Drexel

Celebrating the feast day of St. Katharine Drexel, March 3.

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Katharine Drexel Shrine looks like a medieval monastery from this side view.

katharine
The modern front entrance. The Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament operate the St. Katharine Drexel Mission Center and National Shrine in Bensalem PA.

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The Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament motto: Guided by the spirit of Katharine Drexel, we are called to share the Gospel message with the poor, especially among the Black and Native American peoples and to challenge the deeply rooted injustice in the world today.

window outside gift shop
Windows outside gift shop.

catalog

From the Osservatore Romano:

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. on 26 November 1858, Katharine was the second daughter of Francis Anthony Drexel, a wealthy banker, and his wife, Hannah Jane. The latter died a month after Katharine’s birth, and two years later her father married Emma Bouvier, who was a devoted mother, not only to her own daughter Louisa (born 1862), but also to her two step-daughters. Both parents instilled into the children by word and example that their wealth was simply loaned to them and was to be shared with others.

Katharine was educated privately at home; she traveled widely in the United States and in Europe. Early in life she became aware of the plight of the Native Americans and the Blacks; when she inherited a vast fortune from her father and step-mother, she resolved to devote her wealth to helping these disadvantaged people. In 1885 she established a school for Native Americans at Santa Fe, New Mexico.

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Later, during an audience with Pope Leo XIII, she asked him to recommend a religious congregation to staff the institutions which she was financing. The Pope suggested that she herself become a missionary, so in 1889 she began her training in religious life with the Sisters of Mercy at Pittsburgh.

In 1891, with a few companions, Mother Katharine founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People. The title of the community summed up the two great driving forces in her life—devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and love for the most deprived people in her country.

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Requests for help reached Mother Katharine from various parts of the United States. During her lifetime, approximately 60 schools were opened by her congregation. The most famous foundation was made in 1915; it was Xavier University, New Orleans, the first such institution for Black people in the United States.

In 1935 Mother Katharine suffered a heart attack, and in 1937 she relinquished the office of superior general. Though gradually becoming more infirm, she was able to devote her last years to Eucharistic adoration, and so fulfill her life’s desire. She died at the age of 96 at Cornwell Heights, Pennsylvania, on 3 March 1955. Her cause for beatification was introduced in 1966; she was declared Venerable by Pope John Paul II on 26 January 1987, by whom she was also beatified on 20 November 1988.

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The design of St. Elizabeth Chapel is similar to other monasteries, where the pews are aligned to the center of the chapel. In this way, the religious face each other, to know and pray with their neighbor. The hexagon arrangement in modern churches also utilizes this concept of parishioners facing their neighbor.

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KD face closeup
A closeup of St. Katharine.

Sister Anne (Basil)

Pictured diligently in front of the crypt of St. Katharine Drexel is Sister Anne, who knew the saint personally. She describes Katharine as frugal, hard working, yet joyous and liked to joke.

When Sister Anne joined the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, she requested her religious name be Sister Basil. St. Katharine tried to dissuade Anne of this name, but to no avail. Anne explained her strong devotion to St. Basil. It was elevated to the local Bishop for a decision. Again Anne, determined to be called Sister Basil, made her case. Seeing the determination of this young sister, the bishop gave in and allowed her to be called Sister Basil. Years later, on religious assignment in Louisiana, Sister Basil decided to revert back to her baptized name, Anne.

shoes and pencils

The frugality of St. Katharine can be seen in the pencil stubs.

rock 1891

Inscription on stone of Drexel Shrine, “And it shall be in the place where it was said unto them, ‘you are not my people’, there they shall be called the sons of the living God.”
Romans Chap IX

Altar KD Professed

KD CHair
This chair inscribed with the date, 1892, was used by Saint Katharine during her life.

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For more on Katharine Drexel, see

http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2010/03/urban-legend-global-saint.html

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The Cover Art

Jan Van Eyck, “The Adoration of the Lamb” 1432 from the Ghent Alterpiece. Detail: The red altar where the lamb stands reads, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world” and “Jesus the way, the truth, and the life”, both quotes from Gospel of John. In this image and in the book of Revelation the Lamb is Jesus. Directly around the Lamb on the altar are angels who are carrying the instruments in the Passion scenes, like the cross and crown of thorns.

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There's beauty in sacred spaces; from the stories they tell in architecture, stained glass windows and icons; to the rituals and liturgy that arises our soul. Inside a shrine, the angels and saints praise God with us. I hope to relay the message for the kingdom, power and glory of God, now and forever.

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