Immaculata House

Feast Day: March 3
Patron Saint of Racial Justice and Philanthropists

Saint Katharine Drexel was born to a wealthy family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1858. After visiting a reservation in her young adulthood, she began donating money from her inheritance to support the basic needs and education of Native Americans. Yet, donations did not satisfy her thirst for justice. When she complained that there was not a religious order dedicated to serving these students, Pope Leo XIII encouraged her to start her own order of sisters. In 1891, she founded the order of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. Katharine took vows to become the first sister in her own order and spent the next 44 years building schools across the country to serve both Native American and African American students. One such school was founded in Nashville.

Immaculate Mother Academy was established by the Nashville Diocese through a grant from Katharine Drexel in 1905. Sister Drexel insisted that attendance not be restricted to Catholics only, and she set strict standards of instructional competence, concerned dedication, discipline, focus, and pride. Immaculate Mother Academy served as one of the first private black schools in Nashville. In 1954, following Brown vs. Board of Education, 18students from Immaculate Mother Academy helped to integrate Father Ryan High School, paving the way for athletic hero Willie Brown ’65 and the first black Valedictorian, Charles Thomas ’66.  

“The mission of Katharine Drexel was a war against the evils of poverty, racial discrimination, and social neglect. She provided a beacon of light against hopelessness, frustration, and discrimination.” ~Archbishop Marino of Atlanta