St. Katharine Drexel: Friend of the Oppressed (Vision Books)

This Vision book for youth tells the beautiful story of American’s recently canonized saint and servant of the oppressed, St. Katharine Drexel. Born in 1858 to Francis and Emma Drexel, Katharine grew up in a happy, devout, and wealthy Catholic circle of relatives in Philadelphia. Her parents were greatly loved and admired by many for their kindness and generosity to the poor and needy.

After the death of her parents the young Katharine determined to use all of the fortune she had inherited to lend a hand the less fortunate in The us, especially the Indians and African Americans. Acting upon the words she had heard come from a statue of Our Lady, “Freely you have received, freely give”, and from the direct advice given her by Pope Leo XIII to turn out to be a missionary, Katharine Drexel became a non secular sister and founded the order of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament in 1891. Mother Katharine and her sisters worked tirelessly to serve the material and religious needs of the downtrodden through a large number of schools and institutions she established around the country. She died in 1955, and used to be canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2001.

Cover art by Chris Pelicano