FILE - In this Oct. 2, 2000, file photo, worshippers kneel at the crypt of Saint Katharine Drexel a day after she was canonized at the Vatican as the second American-born saint, at her national shrine on the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament's suburban Philadelphia estate in Bensalem, Pa. The Roman Catholic religious order, founded by Drexel in 1891, announced Tuesday, May 3, 2016, that it is selling the estate and plans to keep the shrine open through 2017, before moving the tomb to the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter & Paul in Philadelphia. The order will also sell 2,000 acres in Powhatan, Va., the site of two now-closed schools for black students. (AP Photo/Dan Loh, File) (The Associated Press)
BENSALEM, Pa. – An order of Roman Catholic nuns is selling its suburban Philadelphia estate and moving the tomb of the second American-born saint.
The Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament was founded by St. Katharine Drexel, who grew up the privileged daughter of a 19th-century Philadelphia banker and then took a vow of poverty to become a nun.
The order is selling the 44-acre site in Bensalem that is its home and the site of a Drexel shrine. It also is selling 2,000 acres in Powhatan, Virginia, the site of two now-closed schools for black students.
Sister Donna Breslin, the order's president, tells The Philadelphia Inquirer that the properties are too large for its needs.
Drexel died in 1955. She was canonized in 2000. In 2017, her remains will be moved to a Philadelphia cathedral.
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This story has been corrected to show the saint's name is Katharine, not Katherine.
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