Find out in this compelling biography of St. Katharine Drexel (1858-1955) -- a tale of "riches to rags" that turns the conventional American success story upside down. Born the daughter of a wealthy and prominent Philadelphia banker, Katharine gave up her place of privilege and ease to found the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. As they spread across the United States, these sisters devoted themselves tirelessly to caring for the needs of the poor and those on the margins of American society, especially African-Americans and Native Americans. Here was a woman who intimately knew both the streets of Paris and the streets of Harlem ... who crossed the ocean on luxury liners yet paddled the backwaters of the Louisiana bayou ... who dined with equal ease in the mansions of high society or the tent of a lakota tribal chief. St. Katharine's life was the adventure of an indomitable soul who gave herself to the oppressed -- and taught the world the meaning of fearless love. Book jacket.
This biography of Katharine Drexel follows the life of the Phildelphia debutante who left a life of comfort and material wealth behind to lead a life of spiritual wealth educating and caring for the opressed of her time. Author Lou Baldwin documents her life journey, from the loss of her mother in early childhood, to her world travels, her ministry in the Southwest and the miracles that lead to her canonization in the Catholic Church. Includes photographs of the debutante who chose poverty over wealth, the oppressed over society and Christ over comfort.
"Powerful and profoundly moving, Saint Katharine is a book of rich and lively scholarship and of deeply felt devotion. You will not be able to put it down."--Donald Spoto, author of Reluctant Saint: The Life of Francis of Assisi When Katharine Drexel was born in 1858, her grandfather, financier Francis Martin Drexel, had a fortune so vast he was able to provide a loan of sixty million dollars to the Union's cause during the Civil War. Her uncle and mentor, Anthony, established Drexel University to provide instruction to the working class regardless of race, religion, or gender. Her stepmother was Emma Bouvier whose brother, John, became the great-grandfather of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. Katharine Drexel's family were American royalty. As a Philadelphia socialite, "Kitty," as she was often called, adored formal balls and teas, rowing regattas, and sailing races. She was beautiful, intelligent, and high-spirited. But when her stepmother died in 1883, and her father two years later, a sense of desolation nearly overwhelmed her. She was twenty-seven and in possession of a staggering inheritance. Approached for aid by the Catholic Indian Missions, she surprised her family by giving generously of money and time. It was during this period of acute self-examination that she journeyed to Rome for a private audience with Pope Leo XIII. With characteristic energy and fervor, she detailed the plight of the Native Americans, and begged for additional missionaries to serve them. His reply astonished her. "Why not, my child, yourself become a missionary?" In Saint Katharine: The Life of Katharine Drexel, Cordelia Frances Biddle recounts the extraordinary story of a Gilded Age luminary who became a selfless worker for the welfare and rights of America's poorest persons. After years of supporting efforts on behalf of African Americans and American Indians, Katharine finally decided to follow her inner voice and profess vows. The act made headlines. Like her father and grandfather, she was a shrewd businessperson; she retained her financial autonomy and established her own order, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. Until her death in 1955, she devoted herself and her inheritance to building much-needed schools in the South and Southwest, despite threats from the Ku Klux Klan and others. Pragmatic, sometimes willful, ardent, and a charismatic leader, Katharine Drexel was an indefatigable champion of justice and parity. When illness incapacitated her in later years, divine radiance was said to emanate from her, a radiance that led to her canonization on October 1, 2000.
In this page-a-day book, Melanie Rigney gives us a panoply of widely known and more obscure saints who show the way to be better disciples of Christ. They offer compelling examples of how to meet the challenges of daily life, be strengthened in your faith, and become the man God created you to be. While no such book would be complete without entries on Peter, Paul, the Francises, Anthony of Padua, Augustine and the other Doctors of the Church, Ignatius of Loyola, Benedict, John, John Paul, and so on, it will also include many of the men canonized in the past fifty years, including Oscar Romero, Louis Martin, Francisco Marto, José Gabriel del Rosario Brochero, Junipero Serra, and the martyrs of Otranto, Natal, Korea, and the Spanish Civil War.
On October 1, 2000, Pope John Paul II proclaimed Katharine Drexel (1858 1955) to be a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. Only the second American-born Catholic saint in history, Drexel founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament in 1891 and established more than sixty Blessed Sacrament missions and schools. In this biography Cheryl Hughes chronicles the remarkable life of St. Katharine Drexel, exploring what drove her to turn away from her family s wealth and become a missionary nun who served some of the most underprivileged and marginalized people of her time. Through her inspiration and effort "Mother" Katharine improved the lives of untold numbers of Native Americans and African Americans, overcoming open hostility to her work from various quarters, including the Ku Klux Klan. Her saintly legacy lives on today.
Saints at Heart presents an engaging picture of the spiritual life as shown in the experience and writings of the saints. The title announces the book’s double theme: the lives of holy men and women who have consecrated their lives to God, and to the possibility of our following them and also dedicating our hearts to God. Readers will discover in this book well-told and appealing stories of women and men, ordinary human beings like themselves, who knew God and whose lives as a consequence radiated light, love, and joy. Each story presents the core message of a saint’s life and highlights an important spiritual path that readers will be encouraged to follow.
Illustrated This Vision book for youth tells the beautiful story of American's recently canonized saint and servant of the oppressed, St. Katharine Drexel. Born in 1858 to Francis and Emma Drexel, Katharine grew up in a happy, devout, and wealthy Catholic family in Philadelphia. Her parents were greatly loved and admired by many for their kindness and generosity to the poor and needy. After the death of her parents the young Katharine decided to use all the fortune she had inherited to help the less fortunate in America, especially the Indians and African Americans. Acting upon the words she had heard come from a statue of Our Lady, "Freely you have received, freely give," and from the direct advice given her by Pope Leo XIII to become a missionary, Katharine Drexel became a religious sister and founded the order of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament in 1891. Mother Katharine and her sisters worked tirelessly to serve the material and spiritual needs of the downtrodden through numerous schools and institutions she established around the country. She died in 1955, and was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2001. Cover art by Chris Pelicano
'Raising your consciousness to the 'God Winks' that often go by unnoticed, and recognising them as tremendously personal, will affirm that your existence is not random and that you have a role to play in life's grand plan' Squire Rushnell Have you ever thought about someone who hasn't crossed your path or mind in years and then bumped into them? Are there such things as coincidences? Do they mean anything? According to Rushnell, 'coincidences, like winks from God, are encouraging signposts along your universal path.' In WHEN GOD WINKS he explains that a 'God Wink' is a message of reassurance that comes our way whenever we need it and that coincidences are the best way for God to establish a presence in our lives. Rushnell shows how to retrace crossroads (a new job, a death, change in relationships) that took us in an entirely different direction, showing how to map the turning points made by coincidences that have guided us throughout our lives. Best of all, WHEN GOD WINKS shows us how to create our own coincidences and turn wishes into winks. He explains his compelling theory of coincidences through a series of incredible stories and motivational writing on how coincidences play a role in all facets of our life, including career, love, history, medicine, entertainment, sports and politics with telling comments from Oprah Winfrey, Barbara Streisand, Mark Twain, Kevin Costner and other celebrities. WHEN GOD WINKS is a fascinating bridge to self-discovery.
