HISTORY                         

Researched and compiled by Theophile L. Chenevert, III ‘64

The Beginning

Katharine Drexel, born November 26, 1858, was the second daughter of Francis Anthony and Hanna Langstroth Drexel.  Hanna passed away one month after Katharine was born.  

For two years after Hanna’s death, Katharine and her sister Elizabeth were cared for by an aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Anthony J. Drexel.  Anthony founded the Philadelphia Institute of Technology, later renamed Drexel University.  

 In 1860, Katharine’s father Francis married Emma Bouvier.  A daughter Louise was born of that union in 1863.  When Katharine was twenty-one years old, her mother Emma developed cancer.  It was Katharine who nursed her for three years until Emma died in 1883. 

Throughout those three years, Katharine thought constantly and seriously about religious life.  Following her mother’s death, Katharine sought counsel from Bishop James O’Connor who had been pastor of the parish in Torresdale, Pennsylvania, where the Drexel summer home was located. 

Katharine’s father Francis passed away in 1885.  He had been a wealthy financier and philanthropist – a partner with J.P. Morgan in Drexel, Morgan and Company, the powerful international banking firm.  Upon his death Katharine and her sisters were, during their lifetime, beneficiaries of the income of the estate. 

Upon reading the book “A Century of Dishonor” and her association with the great Indian missionary Monsignor Joseph Stephan, Katharine learned of the sufferings of the American Indian.  She and her two sisters visited reservations and she began to build schools on the reservations where she supplied food clothing, furnishings and salaries for the teachers.  She found priests to serve the spiritual needs of the people.  As she became aware of the suffering of the African American people in the South and East, she extended her charity to them. 

With the consent of Bishop O’Connor, Katharine received the religious habit on November 7, 1889.  On February 12, 1891, she pronounced her vows as the first Sister of the Blessed Sacrament.  In 1892, the sisters moved to St. Elizabeth’s Convent in Cornwell Heights, Pennsylvania. 

In 1893, Colonel Edward Morrell and his wife Louise Drexel Morrell purchased Belmead Plantation.  Encouraged by Mrs. Morell’s sister, Katharine Drexel, the adjacent plantation at Mount Pleasant was later purchased. 

The Morrells deeded the property to the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament.  St. Emma, named for the Mother of Louise Drexel (Emma Bouvier Drexel – the great-grand aunt of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis), opened at Belmead in 1895. 

Also in 1895, Mother Katharine made her final profession to the order and the cornerstone was laid for St. Francis de Sales at Mount Pleasant, later renamed Rock Castle.  Her Missionary work began with the opening of St. Francis on September 8, 1899.  The first student enrolled was Mary Boyd, a Native American girl from St. Stephen’s in Wyoming.  Mary graduated in 1903.  The schools then stood on adjacent hilltops within one-half mile of each other, overlooking the James River.

The Curriculum

The curriculum for the schools was instituted by the Philadelphia Institute of Technology (Drexel University).  The curriculum at St. Emma, through the years, consisted of cannery, farming, equipment repair, engineering, accounting and management.  As an in-state agricultural school, St. Emma was second only to Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. 

The trade school constructed in 1933 was the largest in the south, with over 35,000 square of ground floor space.  The trade school offered technical and mechanical training such as blacksmith and iron-working, printing, woodwork and carpentry, masonry and plastering, plumbing and steam-fitting, electrical, shoe repair, auto mechanics and upholstery. 

The military academy consistently maintained a nationally honored Rifle Team and preserved the Military Honor Star awarded by the Department of the Army for high military achievement.  St. Emma, under the leadership of Father Egbert J. Figaro, reached its peak enrollment of 370 cadets in 1964.  Father Figaro served as Commandant of Cadets from 1958 until the school closed. 

St. Francis de Sales became affiliated with Catholic University, Washington, DC and in 1940, received membership in the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools – the only Catholic school for colored in Virginia that had membership in the Association.  In the early years, courses of instruction included homemaking, award-winning needlework, sewing, lace-making, laundering, nursing and marketing. 

In the mid 1940’s, St. Francis boasted championship basketball teams.  In later years, under the direction of Sister Mary Elise, the choir became nationally acclaimed having performed at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D. C. and the first African American group to perform at the Mosque in Richmond, Virginia. 

The End of an Era 

St. Francis de Sales closed in 1970; St. Emma in 1972.  The “castles” however, still stand atop the adjacent hilltops.  Together, the schools boasted enrollment of more than 20,000; graduates number more than 10,000.  The existing alumni roster, though incomplete, lists more than 1,100 known alumni living in the United States and abroad. 

Though abandoned and alone now, two Virginia Castles stand majestically atop their hillsides, one-half mile apart with a slave cemetery

nested between them.  They stand as sentries, guarding the wealth of their generations past and the hopes and aspirations of generations to come. 

Mother Katharine Drexel spent her entire $20 million trust inheritance on her mission of educating the “poor and oppressed” among African Americans and Native American Indians.  She never changed her father’s will that left all assets to other charities after her death.  Mother Katharine said that the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament’s survival would depend on “God’s will.” 

In 1987, Blessed Mother Katharine Drexel was declared “venerable” by Pope John Paul II.  She was declared blessed by the Pope on November 20, 1988.  On March 10, 2000, Pope John Paul announced that Blessed Katharine would be canonized a Saint on October 1.  Thousands of the faithful attended the ceremony at the Vatican.  Visit the Katharine Drexel Shrine, where she is interred in a basement crypt at the Motherhouse of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament in Bensalem, Pennsylvania. 

We who attended St. Francis de Sales High School and St. Emma Military Academy are forever grateful for the commitment and dedication of St. Katharine Drexel and the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. 

The ROCK IS OUR BOND!