Katharine Drexel Life And Legacy Essay

Katharine Drexel was a person who truly believed in helping the poor and the oppressed people within society. It is because of that, Drexel is known as the patron saint of racial justice and philanthropists (“The Life and Legacy”). She strived to live a humble and helpful life, ensuring those around her were taken care of in every way possible. However, despite her humility brought about through her profession, she was not brought up living a meek and small life. Katherine Drexel was born into an extremely wealthy family who always taught and led by the idea that “wealth was to be shared with those in need”(“The Life and Legacy”). “St. Katharine Drexel’s riches-to-rags story turns conventional wisdom upside down,”(Holt 11). She gave up everything

In the year of 1915, Katharine and the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament worked to found “Xavier Preparatory High School in New Orleans, Louisiana,” before also establishing “Xavier University of Louisiana’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences”, in 1925 for African Americans and other minorities(“The Life and Legacy”). “It became America’s only historically Black and Catholic university in the United States,” (“The Life and Legacy”). Despite the good she was doing in the world and the positive changes that were being made within society, Mother Katharine often experienced opposition to her work,(“The Life and Legacy”). Many of Drexel’s schools and individuals part of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament became the target of racial based rage and hate crimes despite this, Mother Katherine did not shy away from her mission, (“The Life and Legacy”). Even the “Ku Klux Klan threats of bombing did not drive them away,”(Holt 11). “Mother Katharine was not a respecter of established norms and, in many ways, the Sisters who followed her were not respecters of established norms,” said current Xavier University of Louisiana President C. Reynold Verret,”(“The Life and Legacy”). Drexel ensured there was equality and positivity amongst her organizations and that everyone was given the opportunity to gain an education throughout her

She was “entombed at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul,”(Sisters). Even after her death, her message and life’s mission were carried on by those she had inspired to walk a life with God, in order to continue to further better the world around herself and others. There has even been a confirmed miracle as a result of St. Katharine’s relics and God’s presence, a little girl was healed from her deafness in 1994 after being touched by the relics and prayed for. Drexel’s love for God and others shines brightly throughout her works. Towards the later parts of her life, St. Katharine created a written work that helps explain her mission of helping others and it said, “Love! Love! Let us give ourselves to real pure love… The renewal which I seek and which we all seek is a work of love and can be accomplished by love alone,”(Holt 12). St. Katharine Drexel is someone we can all look up to and learn from, her courage, her ability to love, to share her fortune, and her compassion for others are all extremely important and admirable qualities she possessed. She treated everyone like they were her own family and ensured that they lived the best life she could possibly help them to achieve. Her generosity and kindness is something that I feel I have learned from greatly, I’ve truly learned that one of the greatest gifts