Holy Donors

Journey with Andrew, Matt, Thaddeus, and Rhen as they walk through the creation of this Holy Donors season featuring Katharine Drexel. They'll offer a behind the scenes look at the research involved, and they each share their takeaways from the season. All told, the sacrifices that Katharine made in service to God had are lessons for us all. In learning about Katharine's courage and determ...

In part 4 of Katharine’s story, we finally see her work come to fruition. In Katharine's lifetime, she saw the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament grow from her original five sisters to 500+. When she passed away at the age of 94, she had survived typhoid fever, multiple heart attacks, bomb threats, riots, prejudices, tornadoes and more. And, through it all, her love for God and His children shin...

Catholic trivia with Mike and Alexandra Foley from the Drinking with the Saints podcast, Matt Bond and Rhen Hoehn from the Holy Donors podcast, Ron Doyon, and Tara Doyon from the Women in Philanthropy podcast. Listen as these podcast hosts duke it out to see who is this episode's champion of Catholic trivia!

In this episode, we learn the radical choice Katharine makes for her future. But, as with most things in Katharine's life, she is not going to simply go with the flow. Instead, she creates her own path and paves a new way. She is a woman on a mission and nothing - not strikes, riots, prejudice, tornadoes, typhoid, or the KKK - will knock her off course. The Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament wil...

In this episode, we discover that Katharine experienced even more tragedy in her young life. With the death of her father, Katharine lost her North Star, and she struggled to discern God's call for her life. For six years, Katharine remained indecisive about what to do next. She was torn between life as a nun or life as a wife. The stress of loss and doubt caused her health to decline, and we...

Welcome to this encore season featuring Katharine Drexel, the 2nd American born Catholic saint.  We title this season “The Saintly Socialite”, and in the coming episodes, you’ll hear the story of how Katharine makes the intentional choice to go from "riches to rags."   This episode shares details of Katharine’s childhood, and our hosts discuss formative, albeit often tragic, events of Ka...

Welcome to another all-in-one Holy Donors season!  As we recently did with our season on George W. Strake, we’re giving you the full season about potential holy donor George Herman “Babe” Ruth, Jr. all at once!  Again, we know this makes for a long episode, but it also allows for all of the goodness to arrive at once.   When people think of Babe Ruth, they immediately call to mind his legendary ba...

Well, friends, we're trying something new this time.  Instead of spreading this encore season about George W. Strake out over an entire month, we're giving you the full season at once!  This episode is a longer episode that alleviates the impatience of waiting for the following week's episode, and it gives you the entire story of George W. Strake in one place. What we discover in this...

Hello again!  In this week's final episode about St. Francis of Assisi, our hosts discuss Francis's legacy after death.  In a show of overwhelming support and rare speed, Pope Gregory IX declared Francis a saint less than two years after his death.  Francis's three orders, the ones he started when he was alive, are still thriving today, with members all over the world.   The big questi...

In this episode, our hosts return to the story of Francis and the mountain he was gifted, La Verna.  At 43 years old, Francis spent 40 days on La Verna in prayer and fasting, contemplating Christ's passion.  In response to Francis's fervent prayer to share in Christ's suffering, the stigmata, the wounds of Jesus, appeared on his body and remained there for the rest of his life.   Franc...

This week's episode about St. Francis has it all!  Our hosts share stories of Francis and family drama, papal visits, world travel, physical violence, and more.  Most important, however, is that this episode outlines the bulk of Francis's faithful ministry.  Francis, after hearing God's call to rebuild the Church, turns away from the family business (much to his father's chagrin) a...

Welcome back to Holy Donors!  This season we're featuring someone who is likely a crowd favorite, St. Francis of Assisi.  While St. Francis is well-known and well-loved, our hosts aim to focus on parts of St. Francis's life that listeners might not know as much about.   In this episode, we hear stories about Francis's childhood, his family, and his fun-loving friends.  St. Francis grew...

Journey with Andrew, Matt, Thaddeus and Rhen as they walk through the creation of this season of Holy Donors - The Capitalist: John Raskob. Our hosts share a behind the scenes look at the research involved in the podcast creation and the process of recording the show. As they share, our hosts remain in awe of John Raskob and all he accomplished, both in the business world and in the Catholic churc...

In this episode, we come to a turning point in John’s life. It’s during the mid-1920s when he realizes that he has become someone important in the business world. From there, John understands that he can use his business skills to make a notable difference for the Church he loves so much. Our hosts also share how John establishes a family foundation as the culmination of his philanthropy. The foun...

God’s plan is the best plan. We all think we know what is best until something comes along to change our course. As we become more acquainted with John Raskob, we discover the depth of his faith. Out of defeat and failure, he leans into his faith and comes out even stronger. When his dreams of politics fail, he pivots and asks “What’s next?” And, what comes next looks a lot like the tallest buildi...

"The man, the myth, the legend." Perhaps this phrase could have been coined after the life of John Raskob. Our hosts begin this episode by answering the question, “can John save his relationship with Pierre DuPont?”  Fortunately for everyone involved, he does save that relationship, and he and Pierre move on to bigger and better things.   In this episode we follow John through his early...

For those of you who are just joining us for our Holy Donors podcast, we share an encore of the show's second season featuring John Raskob. --- What do GM, the Empire State Building, DuPont Chemical Company, Al Smith, and the DNC have in common? A single man named John Raskob. Born in Lockport, New York in 1879, to a hard-working family, he demonstrated levels of drive, moxie and gumption that mos...

We’re glad you’re here for our Vince Lombardi wrap party! In typical wrap party fashion, our hosts share their takeaways from the season. In this case, they also note how they really enjoyed discussing a relatively well-known individual after many seasons of learning about obscure Catholic philanthropists. Andrew, Thaddeus, Matt, and Rhen have a thoughtful discussion about their many takeaways fro...

Once the team finishes telling Vince’s story, they have a spirited discussion about whether or not Vince Lombardi, a man of many contradictions, can join the ranks of their holy donors. Our hosts each take a turn judging Vince on his faithfulness, humility, and radical generosity. Vince was not a wealthy man with lots of money to give, and the team is split as to whether or not Vince’s investment...

It all comes down to this! In this episode, our hosts discuss the end of Vince Lombardi’s life, and they prepare to reflect on whether or not Vince merits the title of holy donor. We discussed Vince’s retirement at the end of the last episode, and we start this episode with Andrew highlighting the reasons Vince chose to retire when his team was on top. The stress of perfection finally became too m...

And, we’re back! Our hosts reconvene to continue their discussion on Vince Lombardi’s career as a football coach. We left off last week with Vince taking over as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers. Vince arrived in Green Bay to coach a terrible football team, and he felt tremendous pressure to be successful. In good news, Vince certainly found professional success in Green Bay. By placing an...

Join us as we return to our discussion about our latest potential holy donor, Vince Lombardi. After college, Vince bounced around a little bit before kicking off his coaching career as assistant football coach at St. Cecilia, a Catholic high school in New Jersey. Our hosts discuss Vince’s early days as a football (and basketball!) coach and explore how his family’s values and his Jesuit education...

Welcome back! We’re glad you’re here for Holy Donors Season 15 featuring Vince Lombardi. Unlike our most recent holy donors, Vince Lombardi is a well-known sportsman. While Vince is most famous for his football legacy and motivational quotes, his devout Catholicism is less well-known. Our hosts spend this season exploring his football, his faith, and his philanthropic legacy. Born in 1913, Vince g...

That’s a wrap! In this episode, our hosts close out their season on Margaret Haughery. Last week, they voted to include Margaret in their list of holy donors, and this week, our hosts talk about their takeaways from the season. Andrew, Matt, and Thaddeus use several adjectives to describe Margaret: determined, fearless, entrepreneurial, and saintly, among others. They also further discuss Margaret...

We’re glad you’re back! We return to our story about Margaret Haughery, and our hosts spend this episode discussing Margaret’s philanthropic legacy and making their determination as to if Margaret will be added to their list of holy donors. Margaret’s charitable legacy is extensive. She helped found many orphanages, she gave away a substantial portion of her personal wealth, and much, much more. T...