"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.

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.

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.

The inspiring story of the Philadelphia heiress who gave her life to Jesus and spent her huge fortune helping others. This second US-born saint founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament to serve Native and African-Americans.

15 Days of Prayer” Collection Now distributed by New City Press, this popular series is perfect for those looking for an introduction to a particular spiritual guide, those searching for gift ideas and those who merely wish to know more about the person and his or her spirituality. Additional volume planned in 2 to 3 months intervals. Each volume contains: • A brief biography of the saint or spiritual leader introduced in that volume • A guide to creating a format for prayer and retreat • 15 meditation sessions with focus points and reflection guides Follow in the footsteps of Saint Katharine Drexel Born in 1858 into a socially prominent Philadelphia family, Katharine Drexel seemed destined to lead the life of a debutante. Instead, from the age of 33 until her death in 1955, she dedicated her life and fortune to the material and spiritual well-being of underprivileged Americans. Mother Drexel founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament and helped open schools for African- and Native Americans. She also founded Xavier University in New Orleans. For Katharine Drexel, sharing the bread of her life was an extension of her desire to share her wealth with those who had little. Pope John Paul II canonized her in October 2000. Peacefully do what at the moment needs to be done The perfect model of a Gospel-centered life, Saint Katharine Drexel lived life with a sense of social justice in a world torn by differences.

"It was a cruel invention, this wheel. A wheel that forced submission from those beneath it..."Young Katherine, born into noble wealth with an insatiable hunger for knowledge, surpasses even her tutors when it comes to learning. But her learning counts for nothing when she meets the only man worthy of her-her heavenly Bridegroom. Trading worldly knowledge for eternal wisdom, Katherine challenges even the emperor himself-and he prepares a cruel invention to break her. Meet this great bride of Christ in the second graphic novel in the Among the Saints series-written to inspire both children and adults.

The fifteenth-century scholar and Augustinian friar John Capgrave took as his subject the virgin martyr Katherine of Alexandria, who was an anomalous cultural icon, a scholar, and a sovereign whose story unsettled traditional gender stereotypes yet was widely popular throughout Western Europe. Capgrave's Life of Saint Katherine of Alexandria (ca. 1445) stands out among the hundreds of surviving vernacular and Latin narrations about the saint by its intricate plotting, its moral complexity, its obtrusive Chaucerian narrator, and its attention to psychology, history, and theology. The Life of Saint Katherine is a bold literary experiment that transforms the genre of the saint's life by infusing it with conventions and techniques more often associated with chronicles, mystery plays, fabliaux, and romances. In Capgrave's hands, Katherine emerges as a sensitive and studious young woman torn between social responsibilities and personal desires. Her story unfolds in a vividly realized world of political turmoil and religious repression that, as Capgrave's readers were bound to suspect, had everything to do with the England they inhabited and its recent past. Katherine's debate with her lords anticipates arguments for and against female rule that would be made in Tudor England, when the ascensions of Mary I and then Elizabeth I made gynecocracy a political reality, while her debate with the philosophers is a daring exercise in vernacular theology that flouts the censorship then current. Winstead's translation--the first into idiomatic modern English--brings to life Capgrave's sharply drawn characters, compelling plot, and complex, unsettling moral. Its promotion of an informed, intellectualized Christianity during a period known for censorship and repression illuminates the struggle over the definition of orthodoxy that was excited by the perceived threat of Lollard heresy during the fifteenth century. This volume also includes an appendix with passages of Capgrave's original Middle English and literal translations into modern English, providing a valuable tool for teachers and students.