![[photograph of Saint Katherine Drexel]](stk03004.jpg "??kb jpg photograph of Saint Katharine Drexel, photographer unknown, date unknown; please do not write to ask about the image")
Interested in the condition of Native Americans, during an audience in 1887, she asked Pope Leo XIII to send more missionaries to Wyoming for her friend, Bishop James O'Connor. The pope replied, "Why don't you become a missionary?"
She visited the Dakotas, met the Sioux chief, and began her systematic aid to Indian missions, eventually spending millions of the family fortune. Entered the novitiate of the Sisters of Mercy. Founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored, now known simply as the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA in 1891. Advised by Mother Frances Cabrini on getting the Order's rule approved in Rome. She received the approval in 1913.
By 1942 she had a system of black Catholic schools in 13 states, 40 mission centers, 23 rural schools, 50 Indian missions, and Xavier University in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, the first United States university for blacks. Segregationists harassed her work.
Following a heart attack, she spent her last twenty years in prayer and meditation. The Shrine of Saint Katharine is at the motherhouse of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, 1663 Bristol Pike, Bensalem, Pennsylvania, USA 19020-8502, tel/215.639.7878, email/kathdrexelataol.com; it is open from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm weekdays, and in 2008 was declared a National Shrine.
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- Mother Katharine Drexel