Katharine Drexel: Mystery, Mission, Spirituality and Sainthood
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Durham E-Theses Katherine Drexel: Mystery, mission, spirituality and sainthood Hughes, Cheryl Christine Dempsey How to cite: Hughes, Cheryl Christine Dempsey (2007) Katherine Drexel: Mystery, mission, spirituality and sainthood, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/2444/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk The copyright of this thesis rests with the author or the university to which it was submitted. No quotation from it, or information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author or university, and any information derived from it should be acknowledged. KATHARINE DREXEL: MYSTERY, MISSION, SPIRITUALITY AND SAINTHOOD CHERYL CHRISTINE DEMPSEY HUGHES A thesis submitted for the Ph.D. Durham University Department of Theology and Religion 2007 -- 1 1 JUN 2007 ABSTRACT Cheryl Christine Dempsey Hughes Katharine Drexel: Mystery, Mission, Spirituality and Sainthood Katharine Drexel (1858-1955), the founder of the Sisters ofthe Blessed Sacrament, was canonized by Pope John Paul II on October 1, 2000. This thesis analyzes Drexel's life and virtues to establish why she became a saint. The examination of Drexel's life begins in Chapter 2, which discloses the family life of a wealthy Philadelphia debutante, who, nonetheless, learned charity and philanthropy from her banker father and her religious mother. Following the deaths of her parents, Drexel wanted to enter a Catholic convent to spend her life in prayer and contemplation. Chapter 3 details the process of her vocational discernment that was carried out over several years in an epistolary argument with her spiritual director, Bishop O'Connor of Omaha. While he first believed that her vocation was to remain a single woman dedicated to serving the poor through judicial disbursement of her large inheritance, he later decided that she should found a new order of missionary nuns dedicated to the needs of the Native- Americans and African-Americans. Chapter 3 details the difficulties she encountered in the establishing of her new order at a time when the United States was racially divided by both law and custom. Drexel's order grew slowly in the face of open hostility towards her mission, including that of the Ku Klux Klan, and it then declined following the upheavals that came in the wake of the Second Vatican Council. Chapter 4 addresses the spirituality that sustained Drexel throughout her long life. Her deep spirituality was both kenotic and Eucharistic, and it allowed her to face daunting challenges in the mission field. Chapter 5 analyzes why the pope chose to canonize Drexel and entails a study of the process of saint-making as it evolved over the centuries. 2 Declaration The only material in this thesis previously submitted for a degree in this or any university or institution of higher education is from the thesis of Anthony J. Costa, The Spirituality of St. Katharine Drexel: Eucharistic Devotion Nourishing Apostolic Works. Rome: Facu/tate S. Theologiae, Apud Ponti.ficiam Universitatem S. Thomae, 2001, and is used with the permission of the author. Copyright The copy right of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published in any format, including electronic and the Internet, without the author's prior written consent. All information derived from this thesis must be acknowledged appropriately. 3 Table of Contents Abstract 2 Declaration 3 Preface 6 Chapter 1 The Mystery of Katharine Drexel 7 Thesis Outline and Organization 11 Primary and Secondary Resources 16 Social and Political Contexts for the Emergence of Katharine Drexel 20 Chapter 2 Simply Katie: Katharine Drexel's Family Life 31 Family Background 32 Academic and Religious Education 39 Girlhood 44 Early Travels 53 Coming of Age 55 The Deaths of Her Parents 61 Chapter 3 Make Haste Slowly: The Discernment of a Vocation 73 Keeping 'Spiritual Accounts' and Early Religious Impulses 74 The Beginning of Discernment 81 Crisis in Discernment 97 Vocation Acknowledged 117 Founding a New Order 123 Chapter 4 The Mission of Katharine Drexel 129 St. Catherine's, Santa Fe, New Mexico 137 St. Francis De Sales, Powhatan, Virginia 140 St. Michael's, St. Michael's, Arizona 143 Immaculate Mother, Nashville, Tennessee 149 Xavier University, New Orleans, Louisiana 157 Social Justice/Social Action in the 1930s 166 The Retirement of Mother Katharine 169 By the Numbers: Peak and Decline 172 4 Chapter 5 The Ken otic and Eucharistic Spirituality of Katharine Drexel 182 Kenotic Spirituality 183 Eucharistic Spirituality 216 Chapter 6 The Pope, the Times, and the Saint: Be Not Afraid 225 Signs ofthe Times 228 Pope John Paul II Comes into Dialogue with Katharine Drexel 246 Mission and Hope 250 Holiness 257 Sainthood: Past and Present 260 The Saints of John Paul II 269 The Cause for the Sainthood of Katharine Drexel 274 Chapter 7 A Coda: The Mystery Revealed 282 Appendix 1 Maps Indicating Missions and Schools Established by Katharine Drexel or The Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament 288 Missions Supported by Katharine. Drexel 1885-1891 289 · SBS Missions and Schools 1892-1995 290 SBS Missions and Schools 2007 291 Appendix 2 Application Oath of the Ku Klux Klan 292 Bibliography 293 5 Preface Katharine Drexel was the Catholic Church's answer to the social, political, and economic disadvantages of African-Americans and Native-Americans. The success of her apostolate cannot be measured in any meaningful way, but she and her Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People touched the lives of thousands of individuals. However, her order was the only one dedicated exclusively to their material and spiritual needs. It was because of her large inheritance that she was able to build and staff schools and missions across the country. Further work needs to be done to establish the complete context for Drexel's life and work. This thesis begs the question of what the Catholic Church was doing in her day and what it is doing now, as an institution, for these deprived races. An investigation needs to be made to illuminate the shadows of discrimination and racism that may still be a part of the institutional Church in America. Certainly, all past racial discrimination ought to be brought to light, analyzed, and discussed. Another area for scholarly consideration that is adumbrated in this thesis is the role ofwomen religious in the modem Church. At the 2006 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, Andrew Greeley commented that he believed that in their quest for priestly ordination, women had devalued convent life and the important role that nuns play in the Church, thus adding to their declining numbers. He expressed a desire to see the trend reversed, but was at a loss to explain how that might happen. An exploration of the few orders that are experiencing growth is ripe for scholarship and may indicate a direction for the dwindling orders, if they are to survive at all. 6 Chapter 1 The Mystery of St. Katharine Drexel On October 1, 2000, Pope John Paul II proclaimed Katharine Drexel a saint ofthe Roman Catholic Church. She became the second American-born saint of the Catholic Church. 1 This thesis will demonstrate that Katharine Drexel lived a life of virtue, of even the 'heroic virtue' which is required for sainthood, that by her inspiration and effort the lives of tens of thousands ofNative- and African-American people were made better, and that her life, work, and example are appropriate mirrors for Catholic Christians at the beginning ofthe twenty-first century. Everyone's life is a mystery of sorts. My project with St. Katharine Drexel is to uncover, as much as possible, her mystery, those personal, intellectual, and religious motivations that helped her to become a saint. Not all philanthropists or workers in the field of social justice are considered saints. This thesis will establish why Katharine Drexel became a saint, in her own terms and in her own time and will illuminate her importance as saintly exemplar now, at the beginning of the third millennium. It will make clear what Pope John Paul II wished to teach by canonizing this particular American woman. It will become apparent that she was a worthy candidate for sainthood, but there are many holy, worthy people who never become saints for the Church. Pope John Paul II was able to look at Katharine Drexel and see a woman who was necessary to his pastoral project, particularly in what he referred to as the super- developed countries, like the United States. Most people are naturally greedy, inquisitive sorts of persons who enjoy, however vicariously, the lives of the rich and famous among us. In encountering Katharine Drexel (1858-1955), who turned away from a wealthy and socially elite family background to 1 St. Elizabeth Ann Seton was the first native-born American saint. The founder of the American Sisters of Charity was canonized in 1975. 7 embrace the poverty and hardship of the veil, the habit, and the convent, one is perplexed.