Henriette Delille, African-American Foundress

Henriette Delille, African-American Foundress February 28, 2009
As Black History Month comes to a close, it’s a good time to mention Henriette Delille (1813-1862), foundress of the second community for African-American women. (The first was the Oblates Sisters of Providence in 1829.) Born in 1813 to a white Creole and his African-American mistress, she grew up in the city’s free Black community. From an early age she was being prepared for life as a mistress for a wealthy man. But when she was eleven she met a French nun who helped set her sights in another direction. As she got older she had other ideas in her mind that being a mistress. Although she had the opportunity to enter a convent in France, she opted to stay in New Orleans and work with the city’s poor. In 1836 she tried to form an integrated community, but it met with opposition from too many circles to succeeed. Instead, she formed a community of free women of color known as the Sisters of the Holy Family. They worked with the sick, the elderly, the poor. And they ministered to the sick during epidemics, often at risk to their own lives. It was said that Henriette Delille worked herself to death. By then her community only numbered twelves sisters, but after the Civil War they were allowed to admit women who had been slaves. Not until 1872 were they permitted to wear a religious habit. Henriette’s canonization cause is currently under consideration.

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