THE FIVE AMERICAN CITIZEN SAINTS

SAINT KATHARINE DREXEL Katharine was born into a wealthy Pennsylvania family. She had a sister, Elizabeth, who was three years older. When Katharine was just a newborn, however, her mother died due to complications of childbirth. Two years later her father remarried and her younger sister, Louise, was born. Her stepmother was loving and kind and raised the two older girls as her own. Katharine's childhood consisted of a warm, supportive family life and all the privileges that great wealth confers. The girls had private tutors at home for their education, and a full time, live-in nanny. They had a household staff, stables, two magnificent homes, and took many family trips across the United States and Europe. Their parents were both religious and they were raised Catholic. Both parents believed in the importance of charity and the family donated to many needy groups and helped the poor who came to the house weekly for assistance. Religion was a constant in Katharine's life and she knew from a young age that she wanted to serve the Church, but she was unsure of the best way to go about it. Over the years the call to enter a convent became clear and when both parents died within two years of each other, when Kate was 26, she made the decision to become a nun. She was hesitant only because it meant leaving her two sisters. Louise had recently married however, and it wasn’t long after Kate made her decision that Elizabeth announced her engagement. There is not an abundance written about Katharine compared to other saints, and perhaps that is because her life does not stand out as extraordinary to everyone. After all, she did not suffer incredible hardships, she did not have throngs of followers; she was a rather quiet and contemplative person, but with a good sense of self and a strong determination and will. Yet Katharine is a saint not because she was so extraordinary, but because she was exactly what an ordinary person should be- one concerned with the plight of others. She acted not to her own detriment, but with the understanding that helping others is the natural thing to do and the internal rewards to oneself can be manifest. She was not acting out of a sense of guilt or a need to punish herself, on the contrary she felt completely at ease with her wonderful, privileged upbringing. She did not see her family or her social class as the root of the world’s ills. She understood her father to have made his fortune through hard work and the economic opportunities of the time. Katherine saw that her father, although wildly successful, was a generous man who was also concerned with those less fortunate. It is undoubtedly through her father’s and stepmother’s upbringing that Katharine learned that people are in poverty through no fault of their own and one cannot pass judgment on others. In this way, Katharine exemplifies the potential saint in everyone. She did what seemed best for others with a quiet but firm belief that it was the right thing to do. Katharine was raised in great wealth and privilege and gave it all up to live a life of service to others and she was happy and content with her choice. She did not long for another path, she did not question her decision or her devotion to the Church. She was a well-grounded, loving person and perhaps that is what lies at the heart of her sainthood: a self-confidence that was able to overcome worldly considerations of status and materialism and focus on what matters most- the empathy of one human for another and the importance of acting on that empathy.