Facebook Twitter Email
OCTOBER 2, 2000

On Sunday, Pope John Paul II bestowed sainthood upon Katherine Drexel, a Pennsylvania woman who took a vow of poverty to become a nun and used her inherited fortune to start schools for Indian and African-American students.

Drexel is only the second American-born saint. Many Native Americans hope Kateri Tekakwitha, a Mohawk woman credited with several miracles, becomes the third.

It takes three steps to reach sainthood, or canonization. First is Servant of God, or Venerable. Second is Beatification, or Blessed, of which Tekwawitha has received. Third is Sainthood.

Drexel founded more than 100 schools throughout the country, including one on the Winnebago reservation in Nebraska. A group of dancers and drummers from the tribe attended the mass, in which the Pope used a special chalice made by an artist from Zuni Pueblo of New Mexico.

Related Stories:
Winnebago group heads to Italy (The Talking Circle 9/29)
Pope to use Zuni-made chalice in Mass (The Talking Circle 09/19)