ABOUT
Blessed Katharine Drexel Parish was created in 1993 from the consolidation of six roman catholic Parishes in Chester, Pennsylvania. The parish was renamed Saint Katharine Drexel Parish upon the canonization of the parish's patron saint in 2000. The Parish is centered at 1920 Providence Ave. (20th and Providence Ave), formerly the site of St. Robert's Roman Catholic Church. Our evangelization and service outreach is centered at the former Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish site now renamed the St. Katharine Drexel Evangelization Center.
OUR PATRON SAINT
The parish is named in honor of Philadelphia native Mother Katharine Drexel, who, at the age of 30, used all of her $20 million inheritance to found the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament in 1891. The interest from her family's fortune was also used to found numerous schools for Native and African Americans including Xavier University in New Orleans. Her father, Francis Drexel, was a banking magnate and business partner of J.P. Morgan, and her uncle, Anthony Drexel, founded Drexel University. The heiress died at age 97 in 1955.
Mother Katharine Drexel was beatified in 1988 after she was credited with curing the deafness of 14-year-old Bobby Guntherman of Bucks County, PA. On October 7, 1999 she moved one step closer to sainthood when the Vatican's Medical Board of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome ruled that there was no natural cause for the cure of a 17-month-old child's nerve deafness. In January 2000, the Vatican's Consulta Medica declared in the presence of Pope John Paul II that Katharine Drexel was responsible for this second cure. Mother Katharine was canonized by Pope Saint John Paul II on October 1, 2000.
For more details of her life please see this biography of St. Katharine Drexel.
MISSION STATEMENT
We the parishioners of Saint Katherine Drexel Church united in Christ seek to proclaim God’s word through evangelization and service. Baptized in Christ and confirmed with gifts of the Holy Spirit, we embrace the richness of our traditions and diversity of our cultures. We accept Jesus as our model for living a Christian life and we invite all to join our commitment to:
PRAY and WORSHIP God as a community of faith through the celebration of the Eucharist and the Sacraments of the Church.
NOURISH our Christian community with gospel values and the works of charity.
PROCLAIM and good news through evangelization
TEACH the message of Christ through education and formation.
SERVE the needs of all people in the community. We ask God to bless our efforts through the intercession of Mary, Saint Katherine Drexel, and all the Saints.
