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St. Augustine Catholic Church (Washington DC) 
Greetings St. Augustine Family,
In the month of November we celebrate Black Catholic History Month to honor and give special recognition to men and women of Africa and African descent who were pioneers of the Catholic Faith! The church in the United States has been celebrating Black Catholic History Month since 1990. Many forget that Christianity didn’t start in Europe. From the very beginning when the Risen Christ commissioned the Apostles to make disciples of ALL nations they started with those nations in the closest vicinity of Palestine: the Middle East and the continent of Africa.
Our parish takes special pride in the fact that two prominent Saints of Africa and the African Diaspora have a special link to our community: Blessed Martin de Porres Chapel is where Black Catholics in Washington DC worshipped in the years prior to officially becoming a parish community. St. Martin, native of Peru, Feast Day was celebrated on November 3. When Black Catholics in Washington were recognized as an official parish community, they chose as their Patron Saint: Augustine of Hippo in North Africa. This Saint and Doctor of the Church celebrated his birthday on November 13.
Three early Popes—Pope Victor I, Pope Melchiadees, and Pope Gelasius I—were born in Africa and led the early church through very tumultuous times. There are so many Black Catholic saints that we do well to become familiar with like St. Monica of Hippo, the Ugandan Martyrs, Josephine Bakhita of Sudan and North African Sisters Perpetua, and Felicity to name a few.
Currently several black Catholics of outstanding virtue have had their causes presented for consideration for Sainthood. These include: Venerable Pierre Toussaint, a native of Haiti who moved to New York; Fr. Augustine Tolton, born a slave in America who became the first recognized Black Catholic Priest in the United States; Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange, foundress of the first congregation of African American Women Religious: The Oblate Sisters of Providence; Venerable Henriette Delille, foundress of the Sisters of the Holy Family, the 2nd oldest congregation of Black Catholic Sisters; Julia Greeley, born into slavery in Hannibal, Missouri, especially known as a woman of extraordinary virtue with a special devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus; and Sister Thea Bowman of Canton Mississippi, a Franciscan Religious Sister known for her deep love of God and God’s children and an indomitable Spirit Hope and Joy that inspired all who knew her.
During THIS month of All Souls and All SAINTS and the month we give special testimony that “when the Saints went marching in… men and women of African Descent were among their number!
Throughout the month, we will reflect on the lives of African Americans whose causes are currently being moved through the process for canonization.
Today we reflect on the life of Elizabeth Clarisse Lange, commonly known as Mother Mary Lange. She was the founder of the Oblate Sisters of Providence and is designated a servant of God. She was born around 1794 in Santiago de Cuba, where she lived in a primarily French speaking community. She received an excellent education and in the early 1800s Elizabeth left Cuba and settled in the United States.
By 1813, Providence directed her to Baltimore, Maryland where a large community of French speaking Catholics from Haiti was established. Elizabeth came to Baltimore as a courageous, loving, and deeply spiritual woman. She was a strong, independent thinker and doer. As a well-educated woman, it did not take Lange long to recognize that the children of her fellow immigrants needed an education. There was no free public education for African American children in Maryland until 1868. She responded to that need by opening a school in her home in the Fells Point area of the city for the children. She and her friend, Marie Magdaleine Balas (later Sister Frances, OSP) operated the school for over ten years.
Providence intervened through the person of Reverend James Hector Joubert, SS, who was encouraged by James Whitfield, Archbishop of Baltimore, and presented Elizabeth Lange with the idea to found a religious congregation for the education of African American girls. Father Joubert would provide direction, solicited financial assistance, and encouraged other "women of color" to become members of the first congregation of African American religious women in the history of the Catholic Church. Elizabeth joyfully accepted Father Joubert's idea. She no longer needed to keep locked up the deepest desire of her heart. For years she felt God's call to consecrate herself and her works entirely to Him. But at the time black men and women could not aspire to religious life. Now God was providing a way! On July 2, 1829, Elizabeth and three other women professed their vows and became the Oblate Sisters of Providence.
Elizabeth, foundress and first superior general of the Oblate Sisters of Providence, took the religious name of Mary. She was superior general from 1829 to 1832 and from 1835 to 1841. This congregation would educate and evangelize African Americans. Yet they would always be open to meeting the needs of the times. Thus the Oblate Sisters educated youth and provided a home for orphans. Slaves who had been purchased and then freed were educated and admitted into the congregation. They nursed the terminally ill during the cholera epidemic of 1832, sheltered the elderly, and even served as domestics at Saint Mary's Seminary.
Mother Mary's early life prepared her well for the turbulence that followed the death of Father Joubert in 1843. There was a sense of abandonment at the dwindling number of pupils and defections of her closest companions and co-workers. Yet through it all Mother Lange never lost faith in Providence. Mother Mary Lange practiced faith to an extraordinary degree. In fact, it was her deep faith which enabled her to persevere against all odds. To her black brothers and sisters she gave herself and her material possessions until she was empty of all but Jesus, whom she shared generously with all by witnessing to His teaching.
In close union with Him, she lived through disappointment and opposition until God called her home, February 3, 1882 at Saint Frances Convent in Baltimore, Maryland. This was the beginning of a legacy that has thrived over the past years in 25 cities in the United States, Cuba, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and most recently Africa. In 2005 three schools (St. Dominic School, Shrine of The Little Flower and St. Anthony of Padua) combined themselves into Mother Mary Lange Catholic School, thus becoming the first school named after her in America. 2008 was the 180th anniversary of her founding of St. Francis Academy.
Today we reflect on the life of Venerable Henriette Delille.
Sr. Henriette Delille was the founder of the black religious community, Sisters of the Holy Family. A descendant of slaves, she was born to an ancestral quadroon family who trained and supplied women to be the mistresses of wealthy white men. Although raised in privilege and comfort, she rebelled and became a nun. When Henriette was declared to be of legal age, she sold all her property and on November 21, 1836, she and eight other black women became the Sisters of Presentation. They cared for the sick and poor and upon acceptance of the order by the Catholic Church assumed the name Sisters of the Holy Family.
Mother Henriette Delille died at her convent which was located behind present day historic St. Louis Cathedral. Her work lives on with some 250 Sisters of the Holy Family working in four states and Central America. Sr Henriette Delille is the first United States native-born African American whose cause for canonization has been officially opened by the Catholic Church.
In 1989, the Sisters of the Holy Family formally opened its cause with the Vatican in the canonization of Henriette DeLille and was then called Servant of God by Pope John Paul II. She was declared "Venerable" in 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI. The combined work of the doctors and theologians will be given to the members of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints who will present the conclusion to the Holy Father on the first miracle required for beatification. If positive, Henriette will be declared blessed and the Beatification Ceremony will take place in New Orleans LA. Another miracle will be needed for sainthood.
Prayer for the Beatification of Henriette Delille
O good and gracious God, You called Henriette Delille to give herself in service and in love to the slaves and the sick, to the orphan and the aged, to the forgotten and the despised.
Grant that inspired by her life, we might be renewed in heart and in mind. If it be Your will may she one day be raised to the honor of sainthood. By her prayers, may we live in harmony and peace, through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen.