Saint Katharine Drexel

Our story begins in one of the most unlikely places, in the home of one of the wealthiest bankers of his day, Francis A. Drexel. Toward the end of the Nineteenth Century, at the time Mother Cabrini was being called to aid one suffering minority, the Italian immigrants in the United States - persecuted because of language and customs differences, God was raising up another missionary, only to those alienated because of color and origin, although their origin (that of the Indians or Native Americans) dated back farther than those who were oppressing them.
But let us begin at the beginning. Our journey to the life of a future Saint takes us to Philadelphia, where, in 1774 the first Continental Congress sent a petition to King George of the British Isles called the Declaration of Rights. Then in 1776, Congress met and representing the original Thirteen States of our country, drafted the Declaration of Independence. With this declaration, the early founding fathers desired to separate from England so that they could insure the citizens of this fair land Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. But sadly not all were privy to these rights; as always some were more equal than others.