It was a little after 9 a.m. Monday when Sister Eva Regina Martin got on the intercom with an urgent announcement for the 30 or so nuns at the Sisters of the Holy Family convent who hadn’t yet left for work: Please assemble in chapel immediately, she said.
Archives of the Sisters of the Holy Family, New Orleans/The Associated Press Henriette Delille spent years caring for cast-off slaves, impoverished Africans and people of color in antebellum New Orleans.
Minutes later, Martin told them the news she’d just retrieved by e-mail from Rome. The Vatican has moved their founder, Henriette Delille, a step closer to sainthood for her years of work caring for cast-off slaves, impoverished Africans and people of color in antebellum New Orleans.
There in the chapel “we chanted the Te Deum,” an ancient Christian hymn of gratitude on special occasions, Martin said. “And there were tears on some faces, yes there were.”
The announcement comes five years after members of the order and other friends of Delille sent to Rome the fruit of 16 years of research, nearly 3,000 pages of historical data the nuns believe make their founder’s case for exceptional holiness.
Technically, Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday issued a decree declaring Delille “venerable,” a status two steps removed from being formally recognized as a saint. It means the Vatican pro
It means the Vatican process that examines the historical record is formally convinced that Delille lived a life of “heroic virtue.”
The Vatican endorsement puts Delille one large step closer to the nuns’ goal: canonization.
In the Catholic tradition, saints are heroes of the faith definitively with God, able to intercede on behalf of the faithful. Two miracles attributed to Delille’s intercession would be required to advance her to global recognition as a saint, which the New Orleans nuns have sought since 1989.
Martin said advocates for Delille’s cause hope they already have one case that will pass Vatican muster as a potential miracle, the cure in 1998 of a 4-year-old Houston girl suffering from an overwhelming pulmonary infection. However, it may be many months, or more, before the order knows whether the Vatican concurs.
Delille’s story could have happened only in pre-Civil War New Orleans.
The city in those days was an exotic melting pot where people of different social, racial and economic categories blurred many boundaries in ways not found in other Southern cities.
Born about 1812 as a fourth-generation free woman of color, Delille grew up in the 500 block of Burgundy Street as a light-skinned French-speaking woman of African descent. Historians say she seemed destined to live as a mistress to a white businessman, bearing him a second family in the social system known as placage.
But Delille turned away from that life and embarked on a career of sharing the faith, teaching and caring for impoverished blacks and free persons of color.
By 17, Delille had joined two friends, Juliette Gaudin and Josephine Charles, to evangelize the city’s slaves and free people of color, according to historians Charles Nolan and Virginia Gould. By 24, her name begins appearing as a sponsor and witness to marriages of slaves and free people of color at St. Louis Cathedral, according to church archives.
In time, the community of like-minded women she formed to pursue the work endured past her death in 1862. Eventually they were formally constituted as the Sisters of the Holy Family, with 111 members in nursing, education and social work in several Louisiana cities, Martin said. For years they ran, and soon will reopen, the Lafon Nursing Home in eastern New Orleans, Martin said.
Two new stained glass windows in St. Louis Cathedral depict Delille’s work in the former baptistry where she used to stand in her frequent role as godmother.
The heirs to Delille’s work did not begin campaigning for her sainthood until the late 1980s, when they approached then-Archbishop Philip Hannan. The church’s legacy of segregation, its marginalization of black Catholics and the lack of a strong written record of Delille’s work had contributed to a kind of institutional amnesia, an earlier superior, Sister Sylivia Thibodeaux said in a 2001 interview. “We told (Hannan) it wasn’t until the 1960s that most people were even willing to consider Henriette’s story.”
Since then, however, Delille’s legacy has gained substantial traction. Delille’s friends and heirs have told her story around the country and now maintain a mailing list of 10,000 names. Advocates encourage people to ask for Delille’s favor in prayers, the better to produce the two miracles needed for canonization.
Bruce Nolan can be reached at bnolan @timespicayune.com or 504.826.3344.
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI advanced the sainthood cause of Mother Henriette Delille, a freeborn woman of African descent in 19th-century New Orleans, declaring that she had lived a life of "heroic virtues."
By signing the decree March 27, the pope confirmed the recommendations of Vatican authorities who have studied the cause for several years.
She can be beatified once a miracle is attributed to her intercession. If her cause advances, she could become the first African-American saint.
Pope Benedict also approved the decrees of three martyrs: a Romanian bishop, a German priest and a Slovenian lay member of Catholic Action who were killed for their faith in the last century.
In 1842 Mother Henriette founded the Sisters of the Holy Family, a congregation of black sisters that cared for the poor and disadvantaged and taught slaves and free blacks. This was during a time under Louisiana law when doing anything to "disturb" black people -- in other words, educate them -- could be punished by death or life imprisonment.
Today, the congregation's more than 200 members operate schools for the poor and homes for the elderly in Louisiana and several other states. They also have a mission in Belize.
Mother Henriette's sainthood cause was opened in 1988 and the New Orleans archdiocesan investigation was completed in 2005. Her cause was endorsed unanimously by the U.S. bishops in 1997.
In New Orleans, Sister Eva Regina Martin, congregational leader of the sisters, called the pope's decree "great and joyous news."
"We are dancing for joy," she told the Clarion Herald, newspaper of the New Orleans Archdiocese.
"When we first heard the news, I gathered about 35 sisters and we went into the chapel and said the 'Te Deum' in praise of God for her life and her practice of heroic virtue," she said March 29.
"Really and truly, some of the sisters were crying. It just gives you a beautiful feeling knowing that God worked through her," she added. "If you work with God's grace, this can come about. All of us are called to be saints through the practice of love and service to neighbor."
Mother Henriette was born in 1812 and died in 1862. Her only recorded writing was penned in the inside cover of an 1836 prayer book: "I believe in God. I hope in God. I love God. I want to live and die for God."
Documentation for her sainthood cause included records from the 1820s that suggested that as a teenager, she may have given birth to two sons, each named Henry Bocno. Both boys died at a young age.
One death record from the St. Louis Cathedral sacramental register listed Henry Bocno as the son of Henriette Delille. Other records that were found gave conflicting information, such as one record referring to Henry as the son of "Marie." Another record named the mother as "Henriette Sarpy."
There is also a possibility that the teenage Henriette brought in an abandoned child and the priest mistook her for the mother, according to the archdiocesan archivist Charles Nolan.
In a 2005 interview, Nolan said the newly uncovered funeral records would not affect the cause, because even if she had given birth to two children out of wedlock, it happened two years before her confirmation in 1834.
"When the second child died, she took a whole different course in life," Nolan said, noting she decided to dedicate herself "to live and die for God."
Benedictine Father Cyprian Davis, who wrote a definitive biography of Mother Henriette, said in 2005 that "there was this change in her life, there was this turning completely to God. That's really what counted -- her life from that point on."
Among the other decrees Pope Benedict signed March 27 was the recognition of the second miracle needed for canonization of Spanish Sister Bonifacia Rodriguez de Castro, 1837-1905, founder of the Sister Servants of St. Joseph, a congregation originally dedicated to providing a religious and technical education to poor women.
There were decrees approving the beatification of eight men and women, including three martyrs who are:
-- Bishop Szilard Bogdanffy of Oradea Mare, Romania, an anti-Communist dissident who was born in 1911 and died in prison in 1953.
-- Father Gerhard Hirschfelder, born in 1907 in Glatz, Germany, who died in the Nazi death camp of Dachau in Germany in 1942.
-- Lojze Grozde of Ljubljana, Slovenia, a lay member of Catholic Action born in 1923 who was tortured and killed out of hatred of the faith in 1943.
Martyrs do not need a miracle attributed to their intercession in order to be beatified. However, miracles must be recognized by the Vatican in order for them to become saints.
- - -
Contributing to this story was Peter Finney in New Orleans.
Copyright (c) 2010 CatholicNews Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
CNS · 3211 Fourth St NE · Washington DC 20017 · 202.541.3
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI advanced the sainthood cause of Mother Henriette Delille, a freeborn woman of African descent in 19th-century New Orleans, declaring that she had lived a life of "heroic virtues."
By signing the decree March 27, the pope confirmed the recommendations of Vatican authorities who have studied the cause for several years.
She can be beatified once a miracle is attributed to her intercession. If her cause advances, she could become the first African-American saint.
Pope Benedict also approved the decrees of three martyrs: a Romanian bishop, a German priest and a Slovenian lay member of Catholic Action who were killed for their faith in the last century.
In 1842 Mother Henriette founded the Sisters of the Holy Family, a congregation of black sisters that cared for the poor and disadvantaged and taught slaves and free blacks. This was during a time under Louisiana law when doing anything to "disturb" black people -- in other words, educate them -- could be punished by death or life imprisonment.
Today, the congregation's more than 200 members operate schools for the poor and homes for the elderly in Louisiana and several other states. They also have a mission in Belize.
Mother Henriette's sainthood cause was opened in 1988 and the New Orleans archdiocesan investigation was completed in 2005. Her cause was endorsed unanimously by the U.S. bishops in 1997.
In New Orleans, Sister Eva Regina Martin, congregational leader of the sisters, called the pope's decree "great and joyous news."
"We are dancing for joy," she told the Clarion Herald, newspaper of the New Orleans Archdiocese.
"When we first heard the news, I gathered about 35 sisters and we went into the chapel and said the 'Te Deum' in praise of God for her life and her practice of heroic virtue," she said March 29.
"Really and truly, some of the sisters were crying. It just gives you a beautiful feeling knowing that God worked through her," she added. "If you work with God's grace, this can come about. All of us are called to be saints through the practice of love and service to neighbor." Mother Henriette was born in 1812 and died in 1862. Her only recorded writing was penned in the inside cover of an 1836 prayer book: "I believe in God. I hope in God. I love God. I want to live and die for God."
Documentation for her sainthood cause included records from the 1820s that suggested that as a teenager, she may have given birth to two sons, each named Henry Bocno. Both boys died at a young age. One death record from the St. Louis Cathedral sacramental register listed Henry Bocno as the son of Henriette Delille. Other records that were found gave conflicting information, such as one record referring to Henry as the son of "Marie." Another record named the mother as "Henriette Sarpy." There is also a possibility that the teenage Henriette brought in an abandoned child and the priest mistook her for the mother, according to the archdiocesan archivist Charles Nolan.
In a 2005 interview, Nolan said the newly uncovered funeral records would not affect the cause, because even if she had given birth to two children out of wedlock, it happened two years before her confirmation in 1834.
"When the second child died, she took a whole different course in life," Nolan said, noting she decided to dedicate herself "to live and die for God."
Benedictine Father Cyprian Davis, who wrote a definitive biography of Mother Henriette, said in 2005 that "there was this change in her life, there was this turning completely to God. That's really what counted -- her life from that point on."
Among the other decrees Pope Benedict signed March 27 was the recognition of the second miracle needed for canonization of Spanish Sister Bonifacia Rodriguez de Castro, 1837-1905, founder of the Sister Servants of St. Joseph, a congregation originally dedicated to providing a religious and technical education to poor women.
There were decrees approving the beatification of eight men and women, including three martyrs who are:
-- Bishop Szilard Bogdanffy of Oradea Mare, Romania, an anti-Communist dissident who was born in 1911 and died in prison in 1953.
-- Father Gerhard Hirschfelder, born in 1907 in Glatz, Germany, who died in the Nazi death camp of Dachau in Germany in 1942.
-- Lojze Grozde of Ljubljana, Slovenia, a lay member of Catholic Action born in 1923 who was tortured and killed out of hatred of the faith in 1943.
Martyrs do not need a miracle attributed to their intercession in order to be beatified. However, miracles must be recognized by the Vatican in order for them to become saints.
Contributing to this story was Peter Finney in New Orleans.
END
Copyright (c) 2010 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
CNS · 3211 Fourth St NE · Washington DC 20017 · 202.541.3250
Questions,
Comments, Dead Links? Email Webmaster
**All articles taken from selected reading materials are the sole property
of the authors listed. In no way are these articles credited to this site.
The material presented is only a brief presentation of writings from the
publisher & producer of each article.
Copyright
French Creoles of America®, All Rights Reserved
