SAINTS

Josephine Bakhita

• Cayla McDowell

Josephine Margaret Bakhita, was a Sudanese-born former slave who became a Canossian Religious Sister in Italy, living and working there for 45 years. In 2000 she was declared a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.

She was born in 1869 in the Village of Olgossa. She was a former slave, who was bought by a very rich Arab merchant and his family. She was beaten and abused as a slave.

On January 9, 1890 Bakhita was baptised with the names of Josephine Margaret and Fortunata. On the same day she was also confirmed and received Holy Communion from Archbishop Giuseppe Sarto, the Cardinal Patriarch of Venice, the future Pope Pius X, himself. On December 7, 1893 she entered the novitiate of the Canossian Sisters and on 8 December 1896 she took her vows, welcomed by Cardinal Sarto. In 1902 she was assigned to the Canossian convent at Schio, in the northern Italian province of Vicenza, where she spent the rest of her life. Her only extended time away was between 1935 and 1939, when she stayed at the Missionary Novitiate in Vimercate; mostly visiting other Canossian communities in Italy, talking about her experiences and helping to prepare young sisters for work in Africa.

Saint Katharine Drexel, (November 26, 1858 – March 3, 1955) was an American heiress, philanthropist, religious sister, educator, and foundress. She was canonized by the Roman Catholic Church in 2000; her feast day is observed on March 3.

Katharine Drexel was born Catherine Marie Drexel in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on November 26, 1858, the second child of investment banker Francis Anthony Drexel and Hannah Langstroth. Her family owned a considerable fortune, and her uncle Anthony Joseph Drexel was the founder of Drexel University in Philadelphia. Hannah died five weeks after her baby's birth. For two years Katharine and her sister, Elizabeth, were cared for by their aunt and uncle, Ellen and Anthony Drexel. When Francis married Emma Bouvier in 1860 he brought his two daughters home. A third daughter, Louise, was born in 1863.

On February 12, 1891, Drexel professed her first vows as a religious, dedicating herself to work among the American Indians and Afro-Americans in the western and southwestern United States. She took the name Mother Katharine, and joined by thirteen other women, soon established a religious congregation, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. Mother Frances Cabrini had advised Drexel about the "politics" of getting her new Order’s Rule approved by the Vatican bureaucracy in Rome. A few months later, Archbishop Ryan blessed the cornerstone of the new motherhouse under construction in Bensalem, Pennsylvania. In the first of many incidents that indicated Drexel's convictions for social justice were not shared by all, a stick of dynamite was discovered near the site.

John Neumann

• Kate Henry

This American saint was born in Bohemia in 1811. John was to be ordained in 1835 when the bishop decided there would be no more ordinations. Bohemia was overstocked with priests. John didn't give up. He learned English by working in a factory with English speaking workers so he could write to bishops in America. Finally the bishop in New York agreed to ordain him. In New York, John was one of 36 priests for 200,000 Catholics. John was appointed bishop of Philadelphia in 1852. John longed for community so he joined the redemptorists. John died on January, 5 1860 at the age of 48.

JOHN NEUMANN

• Feast day: january 5
• Birth: 1811
• Death: 1860

Katharine Drexel

• Jazzmine Ferebee

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