Today November 17

Today is the feast of Henriette Delille, (1813 - 1862). She was what was known as an "octoroon" (the South had its own language and laws concerning race and its mixing); that is, a third generation child of a white man and a black woman. These illegitimate children (and they must be, because pre-Civil War, marriage was disallowed for white and black, even between blacks) were free, by virtue of their free white (grand)fathers. Henriette was from one of the oldest and most established free black families in New Orleans. She could have been a schoolteacher or, even more comfortably, a concubine. But she threw it all over to become a nun.

In priest-poor New Orleans, most Catholics, whether black or white, were ignorant of their faith, and Henriette was no exception. But despite the law against educating blacks, a brave French nun, Sister St. Marthe Fontier, taught Henriette her catechism (she learned French, music and etiquette at home) and inspired in her a desire to offer her life to God. Henriette herself was very brave. Refusing to "pass as white," she not only embraced her heritage, she resolved to start an order of black nuns serving blacks right in the heart of the slave community. It would have been easier to go to France where she would have been welcomed (think "Lost Generation"), and where the religious orders were integrated, but she refused.

Three times she tried to (help) start an order -- first, Sister St. Marthe's group, enthusiastically supported by the bishop, failed; then, Miss Marie Aliquuot (a French whitewoman whose life had been saved by a black man) tried -- with Henriette -- and also "quietly failed." Finally, she tried again with her friend, Juliette Gaudine, another free black woman. Although Father Etienne Rousselon first cautioned patience (during which time she and Juliette effectively acted as a lay order, quietly getting blacks' marriages blessed in the Church -- highly illegal at the time), on November 21, 1842, the Sisters of the Holy Family were finally founded -- a black order for service among the blacks. They taught slave children and performed many works of charity, especially establishing the Hospice of the Holy Family. A lay association (Association of the Holy Family) was formed, in which free blacks met, prayed and financially and physically supported the work of the nuns. Because of extreme prejudice, the sisters wore no habit, kept nothing in writing, and endured ridicule and poverty. Other orders (notably the Ursulines and the Madames of the Sacred Heart) opened their facilities to them and helped them get a leg up. Sister Henriette's order still maintains schools and nursing homes in several states and in South America. Her motto for her little order was: "It is better to please God than man." Praise God. Sister Henriette Delille, pray for us.