Reading through the Clarion Herald, our local Archdiocese newspaper, I noticed the front page article about a possible new Saint from New Orleans. Henriette Delille, whose cause for canonization began well over 10 years ago is just a short step away from being declared "venerable". This is an important step toward beatification and possibly canonization. All that awaits is approval from Pope Benedict after the approval of the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
Already called Servant of God, Henriette Delille practiced heroic virtue during her ministry to slaves and African Americans while founding a religious order, the Sisters of the Holy Family in New Orleans before the Civil War.
A possible medical miracle already exists for the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to thoroughly investigate. Marilyn Groves, who was suffering from a serious pulmonary disease when she was 4 is now fully healed at the age of 16. Marilyn happens to be the grand niece of a Holy Family nun , Sister Doris, who is the local coordinator for her cause. She had the family, her nuns and the students at a local high school praying for Marilyn invoking the intercession of Delille.
Mother Henriette Delille founded her religious order to educate and care for slaves and elderly African Americans when it was illegal to educate slaves. She was a free woman of color and is considered a Creole because of her ancestry.
I hope you will join me in praying for the cause of Mother Henriette Delille to become a true New Orleans Saint!
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