Emerick, Abraham J., 1856-1931.

Father Abraham J. Emerick, S.J., was born on Nov. 20, 1856. He began his studies for the priesthood on Nov. 7, 1876. Most of his early years as a priest were spent as a missionary in Jamaica, where he helped build schools and churches. Mother Katharine Drexel, founder of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People, assisted Father Emerick with many projects. When she decided to establish the Mission of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament in Philadelphia, Mother Katharine asked Father Emerick to be its pastor. He ran the mission from Oct. 1907 until May 1909, when Philadelphia Archbishop Patrick John Ryan indicated that he wished the Holy Ghost Fathers to assume control. After leaving Philadelphia Father Emerick spent most of his time catechizing and building schools and churches in St. Mary's County, Maryland. He served as pastor at St. Inigoes', St. Michael's, St. George's, St. Francis Xavier's, and St. Peter Claver's from 1910 until 1923. With Fathers John LaFarge and James Brent Matthews, S.J., he erected the Church of St. James in 1915, and started four schools during 1916 and 1917. He also built a second church at St. Peter Claver's in 1918. Father Emerick died on February 4, 1931.

Katharine Mary Drexel was born on Nov. 26, 1858, to Francis Anthony and Hannah (Langstroth) Drexel. Francis Drexel, a very successful banker and noted philanthropist, and his two brothers ran the house of Drexel & Co., founded by his father. Hannah Drexel died when Katharine was still an infant, and two years later, Francis Drexel married Emma Bouvier. Francis and Hannah Drexel had two daughters, Katharine and Elizabeth [later Mrs. Walter George Smith]. Francis also had a third daughter, Louise [later Mrs. Edward Morrell], with his second wife, Emma. After the deaths of Francis and Emma Drexel in 1883 and 1885, respectively, Katharine and her sisters inherited a considerable fortune. During a visit to Pope Leo XIII, she asked him to recommend a religious order which worked with Native Americans and blacks so that she could donate part of her fortune to its work. He challenged her to become a missionary herself, and she responded by beginning a novitiate with the Sisters of Mercy of Pittsburgh, Pa., and then, in 1891, founding the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People. She used her considerable wealth to assist missions and schools in Jamaica, Arizona, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Massachusetts, Illinois and other areas. Through her tireless efforts, more than forty-nine missions to African and Native Americans were established throughout the U.S. In 1925 she founded Xavier University in New Orleans, the only predominantly African American Catholic institution of higher learning. Her last years, as an invalid, were devoted to adoration and contemplation. Mother Katharine Drexel died on March 3, 1955. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II on Nov, 20, 1988 and canonized on Oct. 1, 2000.