Venerable Pierre Toussaint (1776-1853) was born a slave in Haiti. He was brought from Haiti to New York and apprenticed under a popular hairstylist in the city. He eventually became the most sought after hairdresser of high society women. Upon the death of his master, he gained his freedom and was very successful as one of the country’s first black entrepreneurs. He became quite wealthy supporting the church and the poor. He sheltered orphans, refuges and other street people in their home. He founded one of New York’s first orphanages and raised money for the city’s first cathedral. Toussaint risked his life to help others by nursing the sick and praying with the dying during yellow fever epidemic.

 

Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange (1784-1882) was the foundress and first Superior General of the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first congregation of African American women religious in the history of the Catholic Church. She was born Elizabeth Lange, a native of the Caribbean, believed to be Cuban born of Haitian descent. Her congregation educated and evangelized African Americans and provided a home for orphans. Slaves who had been freed were educated and at times admitted into the congregation. They nursed the terminally ill during the cholera epidemic of 1832, sheltered the elderly, and even served as domestics at St. Mary’s Seminary. Mother Mary Lange practiced faith to an extraordinary degree. In fact, it was her deep faith which enabled her to persevere against all odds, in close union with Jesus. She lived through disappointment and opposition until God called her home in 1882 at the St. Frances Convent in Baltimore, Maryland.

 

Venerable Henriette Delille (1813-1862) was born in New Orleans, LA, where she lived all of her life. She was determined to help those in need for the love of Jesus and for the sake of the Gospel. Henriette suffered as she made her way through life, bearing crosses. She taught us that sanctity can be attained in following the path of Jesus. Some of the troubles Henriette met were the resistance of the ruling population to the idea of a black religious congregation; the lack of finances to do the work; the lack of support from both the church and civil authority, and poor health. However, Henriette practiced heroic virtue; had faith, lived in hope and love, was compassionate, forgiving and merciful. She believed in justice and was not afraid to do what was right in the eyes of God. God blessed her efforts, and in 1842, she founded the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family.

 

Julia Greeley (1833 and 1848-1918) was born into slavery, in Hannibal, MO, sometime between 1833 and 1848. Freed by Missouri's Emancipation Act in 1865, Julia subsequently earned her keep by serving white families in Missouri, Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico—though mostly in the Denver area. Julia entered the Catholic Church at Sacred Heart Parish in Denver in 1880, and was an outstanding supporter of all that the parish had to offer. The Jesuits who ran the parish considered her the most enthusiastic promoter of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus they had ever seen. A daily communicant, Julia had a rich devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Virgin and continued her prayers while working and moving about. She joined the Secular Franciscan Order in 1901 and was active in it till her death.

 

Father Augustus Tolton (1854-1897) was the first Roman Catholic priest in the United States publicly known to be black when he was ordained in 1886. A former slave who was baptized and reared Catholic, Tolton studied formally in Rome. He was ordained in Rome on Easter Sunday at the Cathedral Archbasilica of St. John Lateran. Father Tolton led the development and construction of St. Monica’s Catholic Church as a black “national parish church,” completed in 1893. Tolton’s success at ministering to black Catholics quickly earned him national attention within the Catholic hierarchy. “Good Father Gus,” as he was called by many, was known for his eloquent sermons, his beautiful singing voice and his talent for playing the accordion. He is the subject of the 1973 biography From Slave to Priest by Sister Caroline Hemesath.

 

Sister Thea Bowman, FSPA (1937-1990) was a self-proclaimed, “old folks’ child.” Bowman was the only child born to middle-aged parents, Dr. Theon Bowman, a physician and Mary Esther Bowman, a teacher. At birth she was given the name Bertha Elizabeth Bowman and reared in Canton, MS. As a child she converted to Catholicism through the inspiration of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration and the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity who were her teachers and pastors at Holy Child Jesus Church and School in Canton. During her short life (52 years), many people considered her a religious Sister undeniably close to God who lovingly invited others to encounter the presence of God in their lives. She is acclaimed a “holy woman” in the hearts of those who knew and loved her and continue to seek her intercession for guidance and healing.