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Relocated tomb of St. Katharine Drexel to be named an archdiocesan shrine

Relocated tomb of St. Katharine Drexel to be named a shrine of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Father Dennis Gill (center) speaks during a news conference to unveil the tomb for St. Katharine Drexel (left) inside the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia.
Father Dennis Gill (center) speaks during a news conference to unveil the tomb for St. Katharine Drexel (left) inside the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia.Read moreDAVID MAIALETTI / Staff Photographer

The tomb of St. Katharine Drexel, which was moved last year from Bucks County to the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul in Center City, will be designated a shrine of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, church officials announced Wednesday.

The sarcophagus was relocated in August from the 44-acre Bensalem estate of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, a religious community founded by St. Katharine in 1891. The nuns are selling the property, a former national shrine dedicated to her, because of a decline in membership.

The Rev. Dennis Gill, rector of the cathedral, will discuss the designation at a news conference Thursday.

St. Katharine, a Philadelphia heiress, gave up her family fortune to become a nun. She devoted her life to serving marginalized communities. In 2000, she was canonized.

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The tomb, made of sandstone, is on the chapel-side aisle in the rear of the cathedral, next to an altar dedicated to the Drexel family. Its construction was funded by a grant from the Connelly Foundation, a nonprofit charitable organization based in West Conshohocken. The shrine will become one of five in the archdiocese.