1858 Home and Family

Katharine Mary Drexel was born in Philadelphia on November 26, 1858, the second child of Francis A. and Hannah Langstroth Drexel.  Mrs. Drexel died five weeks after Katharine’s birth.  For two years, Katharine and her older sister Elizabeth were cared for by their aunt and uncle, Mr. And Mrs. Anthony J. Drexel.  In 1860, Francis Drexel married Emma Bouvier, and in 1863 a daughter, Louise, was born.  The three children were raised in a home of deep faith and tender love.

1883 Call to Religious Life

When Katharine was twenty-one, her mother was diagnosed with cancer, and Katharine nursed her through three years of intense suffering.  During this time, the thought of religious life came to her constantly and forcibly.  After her mother’s death, she wrote for counsel to Bishop O’Connor.  As to her call to the religious life itself, he advised her to “Think, pray and wait.”

1885 Lay Apostolate

Mr. Drexel died in 1885.  By the terms of his will Katharine and her sisters were, during their lifetime, beneficiaries of the income from his estate.  Through the great Indian missionary, Monsignor Joseph Stephan, Katharine became acquainted with the sufferings of the American Indians.  With her two sisters, she visited the reservations to see conditions and needs.  She began to build schools on the reservations, supplying food, clothing, furnishings, and salaries for teachers.  She found priests to serve the spiritual needs of the people.  As she became aware of the suffering of the Black people of the South and East, she extended her charity to them.  Throughout her lifetime, through the “Bureau of Colored and Indian Missions”, she encouraged and financially supported missions throughout this country and abroad.

1891 Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament

In 1889 she obtained Bishop O’Connor’s consent to become a religious.  Her preference was for a cloistered life, but he encouraged her to found an institute to work for the Indians and Colored People.  She hesitated at the idea of founding a religious institute, but came to accept this as her vocation.  On November 7, 1889, she received the religious habit and the name Sr. Mary Katharine.  At Bishop O’Connor’s death, Archbishop Patrick J. Ryan of Philadelphia became her spiritual guide.

On February 12, 1891, Katharine Drexel pronounced her vows as the first Sister of the Blessed Sacrament.  With thirteen companions, she returned to Saint Michel.

In 1892 they moved to Saint Elizabeth’s Convent in Cornwell Heights, PA.  The burden of administration and guidance of her congregation in the Eucharistic spirit, the total gift of self, rested on her for forty-four years.

Missionary work began with the opening of a boarding school for black children, and then one among the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico.  In 1902, Saint Michael’s School, on the Navajo Indian reservation, was opened.  As the years passed, boarding and day schools were opened in the East, the Midwest, and in the rural and urban areas of the South and Southwest.  In 1917, a school to prepare teachers was established in New Orleans, which received a charter in 1925 as Xavier University of New Orleans.

n 1935, Mother Katharine suffered a severe heart attach, and for the next twenty years lived in prayerful retirement.  Her interest and love for the missions deepened, until her death on March 3, 1955.  She is interred in the crypt of the Motherhouse Chapel, the Saint Katharine Drexel Shrine.

In the opinion of her contemporaries, she was truly saintly.  It was heir belief that she was singled out by God’s grace.  She was a source of inspiration, a model for imitation.

2000 Canonization

The Cause for Canonization was formally opened in 1964 by John Cardinal Krol.  It has come full circle with the canonization of Saint Katharine by Pope John Paul II on October 1, 2000.

I

Our parish was established on July 1, 2001 with Father Paul E. Edwards as Administrator.  Early in July, Father Paul conducted introductory meetings about our new parish and gave his vision for our future.  Over 200 people attended the meetings that were conducted in both English and Spanish.  During the month of August, 20 parishioners each dedicated over 20 hours of service to our parish in preparing a mailing to over 14,000 households announcing our arrival.  The first Masses were held at Indian Trace Elementary School on Sunday, September 16, 2001 – just days after the tragic events of the World Trade Center.  There were over 1500 people that attended; 669 at the English Mass and 889 at the Spanish mass.   Everyone’s life had changed.  Life in the City of Weston also changed.

IX XI MMI

 

On Sunday, March 3, 2002 we held our Inaugural Saint Katharine Drexel Feast Day Celebration at Markham Park.  This consisted of an outdoor Mass, presided by Bishop Thomas Wenski, which was followed by a parish picnic with lots of food and games.  This event is held annually around March 3, the Feast Day of Saint Katharine Drexel.

 

As we approached our first anniversary, Father Paul has asked those members of the parish, who were here in the first year of the parish, and who would like to make a total commitment to the parish, to become “Founding Members”.

 

Founding Members are those that will commit to the task of laying a solid foundation for this parish community and extend God’s kingdom in this part of the world.

 

On Sunday, September 15, 2002, after negotiations to rent space at 2700 Glades Circle we moved into our own place of worship and have been there ever since. Plans to build the new church were sadly interrupted by Fr. Paul’s diagnosis in August 2005 with a brain tumor, which turned out to be malignant and led to his eventual death on April 22, 2006.  Our present plans are to build our own church by the year 2010 on land that we own on South Post Road.  We are presently in the process of gathering funds to accomplish our dream.

  

In September 2005, Fr. Andrzej (Andrew) Pietrazko, who had previously been assigned to St. Katharine Drexel as Deacon, took over the administration of the parish on an interim basis until December 2005, when he received another assignment.  In that same month Fr. Jorge Bello was appointed Temporary Administrator and was with us until the end of May 2006 when we were blessed by Archbishop John Clement Favalora’s announcement of the appointment of Fr. Pedro M. Corces as our Parish Administrator.  Subsequently, on March 25, 2007, Fr. Pedro was appointed Pastor of Sr. Katharine Drexel Church.

 

The parish has seen considerable turnover.  In 2002 when we started Religious Education (CCD) we had 114 children registered.  In 2007 there are 778.  Some of our founding members have moved to other parts of the country, but this is more than compensated by an influx of new parishioners, who number an estimated 1,200 families.