Pierre’s wife Juliette died in 1851 Pierre died on June 30, 1853. They were both buried in the cemetery of Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral. John Cardinal O’Connor, Archbishop of New York, opened Pierre’s cause for canonization in 1968. Pierre’ body was exhumed and examined as part of the process. He was then reinterred in the present-day St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and he is the only layman to be honored by burial in the crypt below the main altar at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. In 1997, Pierre Toussaint was declared venerable by Pope John Paul II.
Venerable Mother Mary Lange (1784–1882)
Mary Elizabeth (born Elizabeth Clarisse) Lange was born in Haiti in 1784. During the Haitian Revolution, her parents escaped and took the family to Cuba, settling in Santiago de Cuba. She left Cuba in the early 1800s and immigrated to the United States. She landed in Charleston, South Carolina, and later moved to Norfolk, Virginia. She moved to Baltimore sometime in the 1820s where there was a large population of free people of color, many of whom were from Haiti. After arriving in Baltimore, she settled in the Fells Point area in Baltimore.
In 1818, Mother Lange opened a school for girls in her home. It is now called St. Francis Academy. The school eventually became a coed school. Up until the present day, St. Francis Academy is a flourishing school that is filled to capacity.
Mary Lange and a friend felt called to consecrate their lives to God, and with the help of a Sulpician priest, Fr. Joubert, they were able to get the approval of the Archbishop of Baltimore to found a new religious community—the Oblate Sisters of Providence. It was the first religious congregation for women of African descent in the United States. On July 2, 1829, Mary Lange and three other women took their first vows. In the midst of helping with poverty, racism and other hardships, the Oblate Sisters sought to evangelize the Black community through Catholic education.
Mother Mary Lange died on February 3, 1882. She was buried in the Cathedral Cemetery. In 1991, William Cardinal Keeler, Archbishop of Baltimore, opened her cause for canonization. In 2013, Mother Lange’s remains were exhumed and transferred to the Baltimore community of the Oblate Sisters, where she was reinterred in their chapel. Pope Francis declared her venerable on June 22, 2023.
Venerable Henriette Delille (1812–1862)
Henriette Delille was born in New Orleans on March 11, 1813. In 1836, Henriette founded a small, unrecognized congregation of religious sisters, which she named the Sisters of the Presentation. In 1837, the congregation secured recognition from the Holy See. Henriette took the position of superior general in the congregation. In 1842, the congregation changed their name to the Sisters of the Holy Family.
In a city marked by deep contrasts and complex histories, Delille and her sisters devoted themselves to caring for the poor and to educating African American children. Their work offered a beacon of hope and dignity that planted seeds of faith that would grow through generations and transform a divided society. By 1909, the congregation had 150 members, and by 1950 membership in the congregation peaked at 400. The sisters have operated schools, nursing homes and retirement homes in New Orleans and Shreveport in Louisiana; Washington, DC; Galveston, Texas; Little Rock, Arkansas; California; and in a mission in Belize.
Henriette Delille died on November 16, 1862. In 1988, her cause for canonization was opened by the Holy See—a first for an African American. Her cause was endorsed unanimously by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1997. Henriette Delille was declared venerable by Pope Benedict XVI on March 27, 2010.
Servant of God Julia Greeley (between 1833 and 1848–1918)
Julia Greeley was born into slavery in Hannibal, Missouri in the mid-19th century, At the age of five, her right eye was injured by a slave master as he whipped her mother. She became referred to as “one-eyed Julia.” Julia was not freed by the American Black Emancipation Proclamation, but rather by the Missouri emancipation in 1865.
After gaining her freedom, she moved to Denver, where, despite her own poverty, she devoted her life to helping those in need. In Colorado, she did the work typically done by an enslaved person—caring for children, cooking, cleaning houses, and so on. She loved children, but she was never married. Julia always helped everyone. She would go around and beg for things for other people using a little red wagon to carry the items that were given to her. Because she never wanted to embarrass anyone, she did all of her work in the dead of night. She became known as "Denver’s Angel of Charity.” Julia went to Mass every day. She also became a Secular Franciscan.
Julia Greeley died on June 17, 1918, and lay in repose in Sacred Heart Church’s Loyola Chapel— a first for a Catholic lay person that has not been repeated. Her cause for canonization was opened in 2016 by Archbishop Samuel Aquila, Archbishop of Denver. Her body was moved to Denver’s Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in 2017.
