by Msgr. Paul W. Jervis
The weekly Saints for Today’s column in the March 1 issue of The Tablet noted about St. Katharine Drexel, whose feast was on March 3, that, “she established 145 Catholic missions and 12 schools for Indians and 50 for African-Americans.” The saint was very closely involved in our diocese through her relationship with Msgr. Bernard Quinn, the Servant of God, “Father Quinn” in their apostolate to blacks when he founded St. Peter Claver Church in 1921 and the orphanage of Little Flower at Wading River, L.I., 10 years later in 1931.
Mother Katharine, now St. Katharine Drexel, happily provided the service of her Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament to staff Father Quinn’s orphanage and parish school to which she made a huge financial contribution. Regrettably, her congregation was not able to supply a sufficient number of sisters for the burgeoning growth of children at the orphanage, and they had to withdraw from there and the parish school in 1937. They were replaced by the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, three of whom are still in service to the Little Flower Children and Family Services, which grew out of the orphanage that Father Quinn founded.
Despite the withdrawal of her sisters from Father Quinn’s apostolate, Mother Katharine held the highest esteem for this Brooklyn priest who was her equal as a zealous collaborator in their apostolate to blacks. He was close to her heart. He was considered to be very saintly by her sisters at the Wading River orphanage.
Katharine had inherited substantial wealth from her father’s banking business but gave it away in service of the downtrodden blacks and Native Americans of this country. She founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for that purpose in 1891. She had unhesitatingly accepted the invitation, which the Lord extended to the rich young man to sell all that he had and follow Him, recorded in Mark 10: 17-27, the Gospel for her feast day on March 3.
Mother Katharine and Father Quinn were both driven by Christ’s sacrificial love for those who were discriminated against and forsaken by the Church to a great extent. The two expressed their mutual admiration for each other in many letters of their correspondences.
Mother Katharine and Father Quinn challenge us in our own times to rise above our race and culture, to embrace all people with the love of Christ that is without limits. Please pray that Father Bernard Quinn will receive the same honor of canonization as St. Katharine was blessed to receive.
All Catholics from our diocese are invited to commemorate the 74th anniversary of Father Quinn’s death at a 11 a.m. Mass on Saturday, April 5, in St. Brigid’s Church, 75 Post Ave. in Westbury, L.I. Afterward, there will be a visit to his grave, behind the church in Holy Rood Cemetery, where you can pray to ask for his intercession for your personal needs and to further the cause of his canonization. Msgr. Quinn’s intercessory prayer cards can be obtained by calling 718-574-5772.[hr]
Msgr. Paul W. Jervis is the pastor of St. Martin de Porres parish in Bedford-Stuyvesant, where St. Peter Claver is a worship site.
