Saints' of the Week

Saint Katherine Drexel

Feast Day: 3rd March

Virtue: Knowledge

Saint Katherine Drexel was born in 1858, the daughter of a rich banker.  After her parents

 died and left their children a large inheritance, Katherine still did not know what to do with her life.  When speaking to Pope Leo XIII whom she expected to send someone to help the native Indians and Afro-Americans, he instead thought she herself should go.  She did. She founded schools and the first University in Louisiana for black Americans.  She gave money from her inheritance to fund all these project whilst herself living simply and in a spirit of poverty.

Saint Patrick

Feast Day: 17th March

Virtue: Faith

Patrick was born in Scotland in the year 387. At sixteen he was captured by pirates and sold as a slave to a chief in Ireland. While tending sheep in the mountains he prayed a lot.

After six years a voice from heaven told him to go back to his own country. But first he went to Rome, where he became a priest. He was then sent to England but after some time he begged the Pope to send him to Ireland. The Pope made him a bishop and then sent him as a missionary to Ireland.

One of the pagan kings of Ireland arrested Patrick. When he saw the miracles worked by Patrick, he said, “Tell us about your God. He has given you a great power.”

“There is but one God,” answered Patrick, “in three Persons: the Father, the Son the Holy Spirit.” Picking up a green shamrock he said, “Even as there are three leaves on this one stem, so there are three Persons in one God.” After that he allowed to preach the new Faith everywhere in Ireland. His missionaries later brought the Christian Faith to many parts of Europe.