St. Katharine Drexel
1858–1955 | Feast Day: March 3
Katharine, the second US-born canonized saint, grew up in a wealthy family in Philadelphia. Her mother died weeks after her birth; it was from her stepmother, Emma Bouvier, that Katharine learned about charity. Emma opened the family doors twice weekly to distribute food, clothing, and rent assistance.
Her stepmother’s death taught Katharine that all the money in the world couldn’t answer life’s deepest questions. After her father died, Katharine and her sisters each received a staggering modern-day equivalent of $250 million. During a private audience with Pope Leo XIII, she suggested to him that, after she joined the cloister, perhaps the Pope would start a congregation to serve Native American Missions. The pope answered with a question: “But why not be a missionary yourself, my child?” Starting new things requires a passionate, visionary person.
In 1891, Katharine established the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, devoted to work among Native Americans and African Americans. It was an unpopular idea — the sisters encountered stiff opposition from the Ku Klux Klan and all manner of racist and anti-Catholic persecution in the coming years. But St. Katharine persisted, heroically, using her powerful financial resources along the way to build schools where her sisters would serve people who were outcasts of American society. She died at the age of 96 and was canonized by St. John Paul II in October 2000.
Sts. Perpetua & Felicity
181–203 | Feast Day: March 7
Their names may be familiar because they’re mentioned often at Mass (Eucharistic Prayer I) and always in the Litany of the Saints that we sing at Baptisms and the Easter Vigil. Sts. Perpetua and Felicity were two young women who were killed by political authorities in Carthage, Africa (modern-day Tunisia). Refusing to renounce their faith, they gave their all. Perpetua had kept a diary, a timeless witness, in the days leading to their death.
Perpetua, 22, was a daughter of wealth and a new mother, who was called by God to become Christian, in spite of its illegality. Felicity, an enslaved woman and expectant mother, joined her as a catechumen. They and others were arrested and scheduled for execution. Their crime was no other than refusing to renounce their Christian faith. Both were baptized while awaiting death. They were brought into the arena on the appointed day and beaten, then beheaded as a crowd cheered. Like modern missioners, Sts. Perpetua and Felicity laid the foundation for the faith by the witness of their lives.
St. Frances of Rome
1384–1440 | Feast Day: March 9
Born into a wealthy family, Frances knew as a young girl that she wanted to join religious life. Her parents objected and married her off at age 13. Frances learned that her sister-in-law, Vannozza, also desired to live a life devoted to God, and they began to serve and pray together. When disease and famine struck Rome, Frances and Vannozza gave what they had to feed and clothe the poor. After their own wealth ran out, they took to begging on the streets.
A civil war soon broke out in Rome, and Frances opened up her house as a hospital and shelter for the homeless. Years later, with her husband’s approval and Vannozza’s help, Frances founded the Oblates of Mary as a society of women who offered themselves to God and to the service of the poor.
Although her life turned out differently than she had first desired, Frances learned how to live a life devoted to God. With a missioner’s spirit, she faithfully served the people she encountered in her own hometown.
St. Patrick
389 –461 | Feast Day: March 17
St. Patrick, of course, is readily seen as a missioner. We know that he made it his life’s work to bring the Church to the people of Ireland. He was born into a well-to-do Roman family in Britain, in the late fourth century. At age 16 he was kidnapped by Irish pirates and sold into slavery. Now an orphan of sorts, he herded sheep and learned the ways of the Irish. His master was a Druid priest. Over his six years of captivity Patrick deepened his love of Christianity and became determined to bring Christianity to the Irish people.
He did just that. A voice promised him he would find his way home if he escaped. He did so, persuading a crew to take him across the waters, then wandered hundreds of miles back to his family. Later he entered seminary. Eventually he was ordained bishop and sent by Pope Celestine to convert Ireland. The rest, as they say, is history. Using the great skill of successful missioners, he took his deep knowledge of local culture and was able to help people understand how Christianity would fulfill their deepest longings. He systematically worked the rest of his life establishing churches and church leadership.
St. Joseph
Feast Day: March 19
Who was the greatest missioner if not Jesus himself! Did he learn that somewhere? We speak of St. Joseph as an adoptive father, and we all know full well what influence all parents have on their children. As Jesus grew from a baby to boyhood and beyond, there was Joseph, showing him the ropes; Joseph the dreamer, who listened to angels at night and went to faraway places to protect his family.
Yes, Joseph was a tradesman, a carpenter, whose trade young Jesus surely joined; but Joseph also was the man of vision who taught his son how to be open to the world. In that sense, any father of a missioner plays a role in developing a missionary spirit among his household. We just don’t often give St. Joseph much credit for being anything but quiet!
St. Turibius of Mogrovejo
1538–1606 | Feast Day: March 23
Turibius, born in Spain, was a lawyer who served as chief judge of the inquisition of Granada. Chosen to lead the Archdiocese of Lima in Peru, he subsequently was ordained a priest and bishop. In his 25 years as a missioner in Peru, he worked to help the native population who suffered under Spanish occupation. He founded schools, churches, hospitals, and the first seminary in the Americas. As archbishop, he baptized and confirmed the future St. Rose of Lima and St. Martin de Porres and led many others to the faith.
