When Katharine was twenty-one, Emma became ill with cancer, and for three years Katharine nursed her. It was in this time she began to realize God might be calling her to a religious life. When Emma died, Katharine wrote to her spiritual director, Reverend James O’Conner, who in turn advised her to, “Think, pray, and wait.” About three years later, Katharine’s father passed away, lea

She moved her order to St. Elizabeth’s Convent in what is now Bensalem, and it was from there she ran the order, and began her own missionary work. The order opened a boarding school for black children, and then founded St. Michael’s School on a reservation. However, this was only the beginning; over time, the Sisters eventually opened nearly sixty schools for the Blacks and Native Americans. One of the most famous schools opened by them was Xavier University, a school designed to help prepare teachers. At the time, no other university in the country would accept Blacks into their institutions, and Xavier University provided them with the opportunity of higher education for the first time.

At seventy-seven years of age, Katharine suffered a heart attack, and her active life was brought to prayerful retirement. Katharine died twenty years later, on March 3, 1955. She was beatified on November 20, 1988, and canonized on October 1, 2000.

Throughout her lifetime, Katharine had done much traveling, and had seen the lives of Native Amer

Some topics in this essay:
Xavier University, Emma Bouvier, James O’Conner, Native Americans, Americans Katharine’s, Drexel November, Convent Bensalem, Bishop O’Conner, Michael’s School, Indians Colored, native americans, xavier university, religious life,