Mother Katharine Drexel

by Cheryl C. D. Hughes

  She explained to Fr. Pantanella that the four present missions of the SBS annually educated, fed, and clothed just over five hundred students, and that together the missions cost the congregation $51,640 per annum. She did not indicate how much the SBS gave to other orders of priests and nuns who worked with African Americans and Native Americans, but the amount was perhaps close to $300,000. Her portion of the interest from her father’s estate ranged between $1,000 and $2,000 a day.63 Most of what was given to other orders was done anonymously through the Catholic Mission Bureaus for African-Americans and Native-Americans. Being the banker’s daughter that she was, she pointed out to the priest that it would take an endowment of $1,020,000, safely invested at a 5 percent rate of return, to yield an income of $51,000 a year.

  Now, whilst putting away such a sum as this [$1,020,000], think of the number of souls amongst the Colored and Indian that could be ministered to whilst hoarding up this money for endowment. Each soul that we might have come to rescue might in turn convert another soul & and think of the present good — the souls who may be lost while we are amassing a sum for future support of 4 Institutes containing 507 children. If these four Institutes of ours are good, God will provide for them if we on our part go forth to use all of our intelligence and means to bring the Indian & Colored to know, love & serve Him by all the ways in our power directly or indirectly. I firmly hold that it is the faithful who should be instrumental in maintaining for God His works. . . . [My] annual income [will] cease at my death. So, if I were to die to-morrow, there would be sufficient to support the Sisters; but as to our schools in Virginia, & the Navajos, God would have to support them or they would have to be sold and close. I feel, however, that if God wants them, He would support them or works in the future; if He does not, why should we?64

  In this last quotation from her letter to Fr. Pantanella, she merely states what the Second Vatican Council would later declare. First, she writes that the missions should be supported by the entire body of Christ, not just the institutes whose specific apostolate is missionary. The Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity states that by virtue of the great commandment of Christ to love God with one’s whole heart and one’s neighbor as oneself, the general laity “should make missionary activity their own by giving material or even personal assistance. It is a duty and honor for Christians to return to God a part of the good things that they have received from him.”65 Second, she makes the important point that the essence of her order is not self-perpetuation, but docility to the will of God and the evangelization of and service to the African American and native peoples. Such is characteristic of kenotic spirituality, to be empty of self in order to be receptive to the will of God, whatever it may be, and the will of God as expressed in his Church. The Church approves the rules of the congregations, receives the vows, and regulates the practice of the evangelical counsels. Therefore the Church decides the fate of orders that are floundering financially or in number of novices. “There may be communities and monasteries which the Holy See, after consulting the interested local ordinaries, will judge not to possess reasonable hope for further development. These should be forbidden to receive novices in the future. If it is possible, these should be combined with other more flourishing communities and monasteries whose scope and spirit is similar.”66 After all, she wrote her sisters, “Success is not the criterion of the spiritual life.”67

  Could there be a better example of the spirit of kenotic poverty than Katharine’s utter sense of detachment from the goods of the temporal world and her willingness to put her entire order, the work of her life, into the hands of Providence? Fr. Pantanella agreed with her plans not to endow the works of her order and helped her write that part of her rule that dealt with poverty. In this very important way, she led her sisters in the spirit of poverty, setting the tone for the entire congregation. Her great income from her father’s estate and the question whether or not to challenge her father’s will, a course of action many were advising her to undertake, were a great burden to her. How liberating it must have been for her to have the question settled. She wrote, “We are free when we practice voluntary poverty. We fly unimpeded to God.”68

  From a practical standpoint, because she was known as the “Millionaire Nun,” she feared that if the congregation did not live in strict material poverty, the poor people it was formed to serve might not welcome the sisters. Additionally, others would not feel it their Christian duty financially to support the missions.

  I feel, dear Daughters, if we wish our works to be blessed we must be poor, confining ourselves to the necessary. The WORK we have to do is far beyond what our income will enable us to do — 10 millions, no 100 and 100 millions of souls cry to us for that bread of life — the knowledge and love of God. If others see that we are really poor, and that we bestow the most we can possibly afford in the works Our Lord had confided to us, they will be the more apt to help us in our work. If, on the contrary, they see us absorb alms on superfluities and enjoy these rather than enjoying aid for the salvation of souls, the poor even of this world are often animated with a more generous spirit of sacrifice, and we will chill the charity of those who otherwise might help us in our works for God. Even the aid of a poor working girl may be taken for this and God will bless her as He will the alms of this girl, May [Williams]; but He would not, I think, bless us in the accepting it except for a real necessity of ours or our work. (emphasis added)69

  Evidently May Williams, out of gratitude to the sisters, wanted to give them something for their pleasure, so she enclosed in a letter a one dollar bill, along with twenty-five two-cent stamps. Her gesture seems innocuous and generous, but as the mother superior, Katharine used it as a teaching point on the evangelical counsel of poverty.

  It does not seem to me in accordance with the spirit of poverty for us Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, who are a Missionary Congregation, to accept from a poor girl, earning her living, a superfluity of this kind. The money is not given for a necessary visit to St. Elizabeth’s, but for one of mere gratification of the Sisters. The Catechism of the vows defines the second degree of Religious Poverty in its practice as “to be satisfied with what is necessary (remark, ‘necessary’), to remove all irregular affectation, as well as all that is superfluous for our support (remark all that is superfluous); this is the obligatory matter of the virtue.” It jars on my sense of what I would wish the spirit of our Congregation, to have it as a gratification to us to be supplied with the superfluous — We who should curtail all superfluities not only in accordance with the virtue of poverty to which all religious, no matter of what Congregation, should incline; but also because we are a Missionary Congregation and if anything whatsoever beyond the necessary is supplied, we should zealously wish that that little even beyond the necessary should go towards saving souls, and not towards supplying us with superfluities. . . . Now for us who have 10 millions of Colored in the U.S. and 250,000 Indians, not to speak of the Colored and Indians in teeming masses in other parts of the world, we should wish as much as possible to cut down on superfluities first in the spirit of our vow for the Catechism of the Vow says: “A religious who has the spirit of Poverty will accustom himself [or herself] to regard as consecrated to God, all that belongs to the community or is intended for its use.” Secondly, as ours is consecrated as much as possible to extending the Kingdom of Christ, and as even a leaflet of the Sacred Heart Society costs money, not to speak of the cost of maintaining children in schools, in carfare for Sisters to attend the schools, in books for schools and libraries, clothing for the poor, diet for the poor, etc., etc., we should be most conscientious in confining our desires to the necessary, as well as our expenditures. . . . In the same Catechism we read with regard to a religious who has the spirit of Poverty, “he will practice the sacrifice of all temporal goods and the conveniences they procure, through a principle of mortification and penance, in expiation of sin; through contempt of earthly goods and to secure to himself those
of heaven; through love of Jesus Christ his Divine King and the desire of resembling him in poverty, and in order that all of his affections may be undividedly given to his Lord.”70

  Naturally, as one dedicated to poverty and a leader of others, she practiced personal poverty in every way possible, for the spirit of poverty obtains in small things as well as in large ones. Katharine wore one pair of shoes for over ten years, until there was nothing left of the original shoes except, like Theseus’s boat, their “shoeness.”71 Everything about them had been repaired and replaced several times, including the tire-tread rubber on the soles. No doubt the soles had been leather at one time, but a woman who annually visited her fifty or so missions for more than forty years had a way of wearing out her shoes. She wore all her pencils down to their nubs. She used and reused scraps of paper. She would write vertically and then horizontally across her letters to conserve paper. She knew that example is the best teacher. One of the Indian mission students said of her, “None of us knew she was the rich one. She did all of the dirty jobs.”72 Poverty and humility go hand in hand. In Lumen Gentium, 42, Vatican Council II addressed poverty and humility in the example of Christ.

  Jesus Christ . . . “emptied Himself, taking the nature of a slave . . . becoming obedient to death” [Phil. 2:7-8], and because of us, “being rich, he became poor” [2 Cor. 8:9]. Because the disciples must always offer an imitation of and a testimony to the charity and humility of Christ, Mother Church rejoices at finding within her bosom men and women who very closely follow their Savior who debased Himself to our comprehension. There are some who, in their freedom as sons [and daughters] of God, renounce their own wills and take upon themselves the state of poverty.

  In the spirit of poverty and humility, Katharine could be found on her knees washing the convent floors, tending to garden and kitchen duties, taking on the classroom duties of an ill sister, or sitting at the sewing circle in the evenings repairing and reweaving or patching shoelaces and habits. She would never expect from her sisters that which she was unwilling to do, and apparently there was nothing she was unwilling to do. She sat up, sometimes all night long, with her sisters who were ill. She was nursing Sister Mary Patrick when the young novice died in the night of tuberculosis, the first of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament to die. The mother superior took it upon herself to wash the body, dress it in a fresh habit, and lay it in a bed of fresh linen. She wanted everything to be just right before the other sisters were called to pray at the bedside of their departed friend and sister. The superior then spent an hour alone praying for the soul of the young woman before the rest of the convent was notified of her death.

  The Fourth Vow

  In big things as in small ones, interior and exterior ones, as a religious woman, Katharine Drexel made her vows to obedience, chastity, and poverty. It was common in the nineteenth century for orders of nuns to add a so-called fourth vow that spoke directly to their specific apostolate. Therefore, in addition to vowing to uphold the practice of the evangelical counsels, Katharine vowed “to be the Mother and Servant of the Indian and Negro Races, according to the Rule and Constitutions of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People; nor shall I undertake any work which may tend to the neglect or abandonment of the Indian and Colored Races.” This resolution to be the mother and servant of African Americans and Native Americans was written into the sisters’ constitutions, which the Church approved in 1907, and could not be changed without the express permission of the Holy See. The Sisters of Mercy had as their fourth vow “service of the poor, sick, and ignorant.”73 These types of vows helped the congregations keep their focus on their specific apostolate and protected them when they were tempted to assist other good causes not part of their original purpose. The Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament have kept their fourth vow to this day; though they have opened their missions and schools to all peoples in need, regardless of race, they stress the priority of Native Americans and African Americans. Without the maintenance of the evangelical counsels, the order could not hope to carry out its fourth vow.

  In writing to her sisters on the virtue of poverty, Katharine turned, as she so often did, to the example of Christ. “Our Spouse was born poor and laid in a manger. ‘The birds of the air have their nests; the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head’ (Matthew 8:20). He lived poor, died poor, and the last treasure He gave away was His mother.”74 Her discourse might have been on poverty, but in speaking of the gift of Mary, she also pointed the way to carry out the fourth vow to be the mother and servant of the African American and native populations. To her, Mary the mother of God was the perfect model of self-abandonment, with her simple “Fiat” to God’s invitation to become the mother of his Son. She emptied herself of self-will to have her womb and life filled with Jesus. She was also the perfect example of what it means to be a mother. The Second Vatican Council echoes this theme of Mary’s divine maternity and amplifies it: “By reason of the gift and role of divine maternity, by which she is united with her Son, the Redeemer, and with His singular graces and functions, the Blessed Virgin is also intimately united with the Church. As St. Ambrose taught, the Mother of God is a type of the Church in the order of faith, charity, and perfect union with Christ. For in the mystery of the Church, which is itself rightly called mother and virgin, the Blessed Virgin stands out in eminent and singular fashion as exemplar both of virgin and mother.”75

  More than an example, Mary is an active principal in fulfilling the work of her Son.

  This maternity of Mary in the order of grace began with the consent which she gave in faith at the Annunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the cross, and lasts until the eternal fulfillment of all the elect. Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this salvific duty, but by her constant intercession continued to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation. By her maternal charity, she cares for the brethren of her Son, who still journey on earth surrounded by dangers and difficulties, until they are led into the happiness of their true home.76

  In pointing her sisters to Mary, the “model of all virtues” and the “sure sign of hope and solace,” Katharine told them how to carry out their apostolate as mothers to the African American and native peoples.77 She said, “Earthly mothers, being imperfect, give way to their bad humor and sometimes scold their children; while Mary knows only how to console, to relieve, to purify.”78 According to the witness of Mother Mary Mercedes (d. 1940), who followed Katharine as mother general in 1937, Katharine learned the lessons of Mary’s motherhood well and modeled them for her sisters as she guided the postulants and novices through their infancy in religion to the adulthood of the perpetually professed sister.

  While accessible at stated hours during the week, she took each Novice and Postulant for a spiritual talk, yet every evening from half past six until eight o’clock, Mother sat in the bay window of the parlor, which immediately joined the chapel. There one by one the different Novices and Postulants who wished to see her were seated outside the door. Every little lapse of rule or little trouble, indisposition of soul or body was brought there. It just seemed as if you were going out of the invisible presence of God to His visible mouthpiece. Every little sorrow was soothed, every difficulty straightened out, everyone was encouraged to do everything for the love of God, that love of God which would do anything for the Spouse, that always walked in His presence with the greatest purity of intention and whose joy it was to do things for the Beloved. There was so much sweetness. So much sympathy, such keen understanding of everyone, such quickness to put her finger on the sore spot . . . each felt that Mother bore each one’s individual trouble to the Feet of Our Lord and consulted Him alone about them.79

  Katharine would never point to herself as an example. She desired that her sisters concentrate on Mary as the model of all motherly virtues. To remind them of their close association with the motherhood of Mary, all the sisters took Mary as their first name in religion. Hence there wa
s a Sr. Mary Benedicta, a Sr. Mary Peter, and so forth. In following Mary, the virgin mothers of the SBS were to keep close to her Son and help to bring about the completion of his mission on earth. “It was the Father’s Will that His Son be watched over and cared for by Mary, His Mother. So may we who regard her in a particular manner as our Mother and model, be confident that her intercession will enable us to fulfill the obligations of our Holy Institute and to implant Jesus Christ in the hearts of the Indians and Colored People.”80 In following Mary, they obey the command of Christ from the cross, “behold your mother” (John 19:27). “The Mother of Jesus obeyed as a servant and conducted herself as if she were inferior.”81 Mary was a type of mother and servant for the sisters to emulate as they lived out their missionary apostolate. Katharine prayed frequently to Mary and urged her sisters to do the same:

  Think over the words of our Blessed Mother’s “Magnificat.” Let us say: I will take hold of the hand of my Mother whom God in His goodness and mercy and love gave to me. I will look up into her loving countenance and meet the encouraging gaze of her, the sinless one, looking upon one who is not sinless, yet seeing in me one who has been made by baptism (through God’s love and mercy) a child of God. Both of us can address her. “O sweet Spouse of the Holy Spirit. . . .” We can imagine her saying sentence by sentence, the “Magnificat” — then listening as we repeat back to her, “My soul magnifies the Lord!”82

  In her vows to uphold the evangelical counsels and her fourth vow to be the mother and servant of the “Indian and Colored People,” and in the mortification of her flesh, Katharine was practicing kenosis. Her kenosis was evident to those who knew her. Murray Lincoln, a Navajo, commented on her spirituality: “It was something that was beyond . . . something that was beyond mankind, something more powerful. . . . She really emptied herself . . . completely through the love of God.”83 Kenosis understands this way as both an action and an attitude. It is a recognition that the personal “I” must wane so that God may wax. One must make within oneself a negative space that Christ can fill. In 1881, Katharine wrote implicitly of the importance of kenosis: “Always try to approach the Holy Table with more and more love. Divest your heart of all love of the world and of yourself and then you will leave room for Jesus.” After this entry into her spiritual journal, she continued, “Thank Our Lord for having redeemed your soul with His Most Precious Blood.”84 God’s redeeming action needs a stage. In kenosis, one makes room for God to act, acknowledging one’s dependence on God rather than on oneself. One leaves room for God so as to become an instrument of his will, which is salvation. At the age of twenty-three, she explicitly acknowledged that by herself and on her own she was nothing, could do nothing. “I here protest that of myself I can do nothing,” and therefore she promised herself, “Do not think of self but of God in all things. To renounce self. By frequent offerings, by hastily stopping the least vain thought or thought of self.”85 Richard Cardinal Cushing, then bishop and director of the Society for the Preservation of the Faith in Boston, wrote of Katharine on the occasion of her golden jubilee in 1941, “What after all is the greatest contribution that Mother Katharine has made to the Church of God and neglected souls? . . . Her greatest contribution was the sacrifice of herself, stripped of self, to become part and parcel of God’s plan to redeem the Negro and Indian of the United States.”86 She emptied herself so as to be filled with Christ, the same Christ who came to her most concretely in the Eucharist.