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Elizabeth Lange's parents were refugees who fled to Cuba during a revolution
in their native San Domingo. Her father was a gentleman of some
financial means and social standing. Her mother was a native
Domingan. However, 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, San Domingan refugees was
settling. Elizabeth Lange came to Baltimore as a courageous,
loving, deeply spiritual woman. She was a strong, independent
thinker and doer. 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 an education. She responded to
that need in spite of being a Black woman living in a slave
state before the Emancipation Proclamation, where the
education of slaves was against the law. She used her own
money and home to teach Black children. For ten years,
Elizabeth and her friend Marie Magdaleine Balas, offered free
education until, inevitably, finances became a problem.
Providence intervened through the person of Reverend James
Hector Joubert, S.S., who, with encouragement from Monsignor
James Whitfield, Archbishop of Baltimore, challenged Elizabeth
to establish a religious congregation for the education of
Black children. Reverend Joubert would provide direction,
solicit financial assistance, and encourage other "women of
color" to become members of the first order of African
American nuns in the history of the Catholic Church. On July
2, 1829, Elizabeth and three other women pronounced promises
of obedience to the Archbishop of Baltimore.
Elizabeth, founder and first superior of the Oblate Sisters
of Providence, took the name Mary. She was superior general
from 1829 to 1832 and from 1835 to 1841. The order pledged to
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.
Freed slaves were educated and at times admitted into the
order. 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.
Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange practiced faith to an
extraordinary degree. In fact, it was her deep faith which
enabled her to persevere against all odds, including racial
injustice and poverty. To her Black brothers and sisters she
gave of herself and her material possessions. Mother Mary rose
above the social and religious stigmas of her time. She was a
woman of vision and selfless commitment. She personally took
action to meet the social, religious and educational needs
of poor women and children. Her influence is still felt
today, particularly in the many communities around the world
where the Oblate sisters of Providence minister to young and
old alike.
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