Katharine Drexel

Saint Katharine Drexel (born Catherine Mary Drexel) was an American heiress and philanthropist who renounced a considerable family fortune to found the Congregation of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. She dedicated her life and inheritance to the cause of Native American and African American peoples, fighting for their education and civil rights during an era of deep segregation and inequality. She founded over 60 schools and missions across the United States, including Xavier University of Louisiana, the only historically Black Catholic university in the nation. Her unwavering dedication to the most marginalized and her prophetic vision for racial justice marked her era and continue to inspire.