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The pilgrimage took approximately 200 people on four buses to all three locations. Some followers came from as far away as Alabama to partake of the spiritual journey. Each bus was headed by a spiritual leader, who led prayers, coordinated bus events and helped share St. Katharine's stories by showing documentaries.
The first stop was in Reserve at Our Lady of Grace Church, which was built in 1931 through St. Katharine's assistance. Our Lady of Grace's pastor, Fr. Herman Johnson spoke of her many gifts including her recruitment of female teachers to teach theology during a time when there were few women in that field.
The group then journeyed on to St. Michael the Archangel Church in Convent where St. Katharine's donations have aided the school since the 1980s and helped to fund a chapel.
The last stop at St. Catherine of Sienna Church in Donaldsonville was the site of one of the many missions Mother Katharine founded, even before the founding of her order, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament.
"There was a lot I didn't know about her, and I was really overwhelmed when I heard the generosity, the compassion and the givingness of Mother Drexel," said Edna Landry Leary, a Xavier Preparatory High School and Xavier University alumni.
Katharine Drexel was born in 1858 to a wealthy Philadelphia banker and philanthropist Francis Drexel and his wife Hannah, who died a mere five weeks after giving birth. Her father remarried two years later. It was from her parents - revered for their own generosity and charity to the less fortunate - that St. Katharine learned early the lesson of stewardship and responsibility to the poor.
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