St. Katharine Drexel Parish formed in October 2007 with  the joining of St.  Agnes, St. Francis of Assisi, and Visitation of the Blessed  Virgin Mary parishes which had been located in the Lovejoy area of Buffalo. The parish is founded on the site of the former St. Francis of Assisi Parish. Rev.  James M. Monaco was the first pastor of this parish family.

St. Katharine  Drexel, a "modern age” Saint, was an heiress from Philadelphia who founded the Order of the Sisters of the Blesses Sacrament in 1891. Decades before the days of the Civil Rights Movement, Mother Katharine used her inherited fortune to minister to the plight of disadvantaged Black and Native American people by establishing a system of schools from elementary to university levels; Xavier University being one. Embracing poverty was another  hallmark of Katharine's spirituality. She was a Third Order Franciscan, and much like St. Francis of Assisi, she left behind a life of wealth and privilege for the joy of serving "Lady Poverty."

In the 1920’s the Sisters of the  Blessed Sacrament came under attack from those who abhorred the thought of  blacks & whites living and working together. A group in fact threatened  to dynamite a church if services for blacks did not stop.

The windows of  our Parish Church tell not only the Life of St. Francis, but we see in them St. Katharine’s “saint.” Walking in the footprints of Jesus Christ after the  example of St. Francis she herself becomes a fruitful model to us of God’s benevolent intentions for all creation!

She was canonized a saint at 10:00 am on October 1, 2000 in St. Peter's Square in Rome.

All are  welcome to the parish community of St. Katharine Drexel in the Church of St. Francis of Assisi.