“Powerful and profoundly moving, Saint Katharine is a book of rich and lively scholarship and of deeply felt devotion. You will not be able to put it down.”—Donald Spoto, author of Reluctant Saint: The Life of Francis of Assisi “Biddle is a scrupulous researcher, but maintains a refreshingly lucid, readable style.”—Publishers Weekly

In Saint Katharine: The Life of Katharine Drexel, Cordelia Frances Biddle recounts the extraordinary story of a Gilded Age luminary who professed vows and became a selfless worker for the welfare and rights of American Indians and African Americans. An indefatigable champion of justice and parity, she devoted herself and her inheritance to building much-needed schools in the South,Midwest, and
Southwest, despite threats from the Ku Klux Klan and others. Mother Katharine died in 1955 and was canonized in 2000.