Mother Mary Lange Founded the Oblate Sisters of Providence in 1829.  The Oblates were the first United States based religious order of women of color.  The Latin word for Oblate means dedicated to a certain work.  Providence is defined as the manifestation of God’s care over His people.  The Oblate Sisters have as their primary purpose the [Christian-Catholic] education of children.

During the period of the early 1800’s, there was an extensive slave population as well as a number of freed Negroes, many of whom were Catholics who lived near religious centers, particularly seminaries.  Many of these were refugees from San Domingo and Haiti who spoke only French and Spanish.

Elizabeth Clarisse Lange’s parents were refugees who fled to Cuba from the revolution taking place in their native Saint Domingue.  In the early 1800’s young Elizabeth left Santiago, Cuba to seek peace and security in the United States.  Providence directed her to Baltimore, Maryland where a great influx of French-speaking Catholic Saint Domingue refugees was settling.   Elizabeth Lange came to Baltimore as a courageous, loving, deeply spiritual woman.  Although she was a refugee, she was well educated, and of independent means, possessing monies left to her by her father.


It did not take Elizabeth Long to recognize that the children of her fellow refugees needed education.  She used her own money and home to educate these children of color.  For ten years Elizabeth, with a friend, Marie Magdaleine Balas, offered free education.

Similarly, the French Revolution, too, inspired the Sulpician Fathers to seek refuge in America.  With Bishop Carroll’s consent, they opened St. Mary’s Seminary for the education of priests in Baltimore City.  The fact that Baltimore became a haven for the Sulpicians, and the Saint Domingue refugees, each group a victim of violence and hatred, would bring the religious order into being. Among the refugees was James Hector Nicholas Joubert, a Sulpician priest.  Joubert soon discovered that it was difficult for the Haitian children to learn their catechism because they were unable to read.

Joubert learned of two young women who had already begun a free school in their own home and who had already considered the idea of a life consecrated to God.  The paths of Elizabeth Lange and James Joubert began to converge.  Joubert, encouraged by the Archbishop of Baltimore, James Whitfield, presented Elizabeth Lange with the challenge to found a religious congregation for the education of children of color.  Joubert would provide direction, be chaplain, solicit financial assistance, and encourage other “women of color” to become members of this, the first religious congregation of women of color in the history of the Catholic Church.

Thus, on July 2, 1829, Elizabeth and three other women [Rosanne Boegue, Marie Balas and an older student, Almaide Duchemin] took their vows.  The first paragraph of the Rule was quite simple.  “The Oblate Sisters of Providence are a religious society of virgins and widows of color.  Their end is to consecrate themselves to God in a special manner not only to sanctify themselves and thereby secure the greater glory of God, but also to work for the Christian education of colored Children.”  Elizabeth, founder and first superior of the Oblate Sisters of Providence, took the name of Mary.

These women demonstrated leadership and divinely daring in the face of poverty, racism, humiliations and untold hardships.  The sisters were role models who provided an atmosphere of faith and hope to parents and to children degraded by slavery.  In Mother Lange’s school, Catholics and non-Catholics were accepted.

The multiplicity; of works undertaken by the sisters despite a shortage of personnel and financial resources gives evidence to the depth of their awareness, devotion, self-denial and desire to serve.  The sisters educated youth and provided a home for orphans.  They nursed the terminally ill during the cholera epidemic of 1832, sheltered the elderly and even served as domestics at St. Mary’s Seminary in time of crisis.  The absence of finances was not a deterrent.  The sisters took in washing, ironing and mending to care for the “children of the house.” They made vestments, begged and borrowed so that solid virtue, religious and moral principles could be transferred as a legacy to the children.

By 1860, all of the catholic schools for “colored” children in Baltimore were taught by Oblate Sisters: St. Frances Academy, St. Joseph’s School for Boys and St. Michael’s.  St Frances had four schools under one roof: the academy for children whose parents could pay, the boy’s school, a free school for children whose parents could not afford to pay, and the orphans’ school.  Funds for support of this institution were derived from collections, concerts, entertainment, bazaars and begging.

The first two Plenary Councils in Baltimore figure into Oblate history in a very special way.  Many of the Bishops came to St. Frances to see the colored sisters and to test the children.  They were amazed at their knowledge and capabilities.  The sisters were invited to conduct school in several places, to mention a few: St. Louis, New Orleans, Washington, DC, Philadelphia and Kansas City.

During the 20th century schools were founded in 15 states in the United States including Virginia, as well as the District of Columbia.  Six of their schools in Cuba were taken over by Castro.  However, several of the Cuban sisters were available to begin ministry in Costa Rica where they have a House of Formation and teach in several schools.  The Oblates have conducted schools from preschool through college.  The have given witness during periods of social struggle by active participation for almost [two hundred] years of continual service to schools, day care centers, outreach and catechetical programs which encompass all age levels.  They provide social and pastoral services to all ethnic groups.

The Oblate Sisters [even with a dearth of personnel still serve in fourteen locations in the United States and Costa Rica, C.A.].

[She, with her spiritual daughters,] have had many successes.  At the same time they have seen missions fail and schools close.  They have seen hunger, cold, and loneliness take hold in the community.  They have seen Redemptorists succeed Sulpicians, and Jesuits succeed Redemptorists, and Josephites in turn take the Jesuits’ place in [ministering] the affairs of the community.  Mother Lange’s life had been a long one. She lived to celebrate the golden anniversary of the order.  Mother Mary Lange practice faith to an extraordinary degree.  In fact, it was her deep faith which enabled her to persevere against all odds.  She is an example of how we may all aspire to be, God called her home February 3, 1882.

Cardinal Keeler, Archbishop of Baltimore, put forth Mother Lange’s name to Rome to be considered for sainthood by the Catholic Church.  At the present time she is referred to as the Servant of God Mother Mary Lange.

In fact, August, 1997, at the National Black Catholic Congress VII, attended by 3,500 people from across the country and abroad, Cardinal Keeler devoted most of his address to the merits of Mother Lange.  He stated that Mother Lange, with English being her third language, had the vision and courage to call people together to work with her to begin to instruct people of African descent, the little ones, in a climate that was very hostile to such teaching.  He stated that because of her wonderful life and achievements he has taken the preliminary steps of pursuing her cause to sainthood.  He announced that a number of documents have been assembled for review and he can take the next canonical step—officially establishing an historical commission to analyze what has been gathered, to research availability of other documentation and setting up a special tribunal.  He said that this is a step that will mean a great deal as we look forward to the development of the cause of Mother Mary Lange.  He invited the interest and prayers of all… He ask that they do all that they can to become familiar with the life of Mother Lange and to share that information with others so that further steps may lead us forward in the process of beatification of this heroine of faith.



Boston, Mary Petra, O.S.P. Blossoms Gathered from Many Branches. St. Louis: Oblate Sisters of Providence. 1914.

Curley, Michael J. C.Ss.R. Venerable John Neumann. C.Ss.R. New York: Crusader Press, 1952.

Lannon, Maria M. Response to Love. Washington, D.C., 1992.

Sherwood, Grace H. The Oblates, One Hundred and One Years.  New York: Macmillan, 1931.                                                                     
               
Patricia Brooks
October 3, 1997
Postscript: December, 16, 2004, Cardinal William Keeler publicly and officially signed document attesting the
closing of the Archdiocesan phase of investigation into the life of heroic sanctity of Mother Mary Lange.

In January, 2005,  Documents attesting to the heroic life of virtues and works of charity of Servant of God Mary Lange
were received by the Congregation of the Saints at Rome.  

In October, 2005, Father Wieslaw Spiewak, C.R. was officially appointed Postulator for the cause of canonization
of Servant of God Mary Lange.

N. B. Documents have yet to be approved; two healings, confirmed as medically inexplicable would be required for
beatification and canonization.