Some updates on the cause for Sainthood for Mother Henriette Delille

 

New procurator for Delille cause

By Peter Finney Jr.
Clarion Herald

It has been 13 years since Mother Henriette Delille, the free woman of color who founded the Sisters of the Holy Family in 1842 in New Orleans to teach and care for the enslaved, the poor and the elderly, was declared “venerable” by the Catholic Church.

In order for Venerable Henriette to take the next step to beatification, the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints would have to certify to the pope that a miraculous healing has occurred through her intercession.

And, now, the Sisters of the Holy Family have enlisted an experienced Roman “procurator” – Dr. Waldery Hilgeman – to present such a case to Vatican officials.

Little Rock case

The tribunal of the Diocese of Little Rock is investigating the medically unexplained healing of a young woman who was seriously ill in 2018 when she was admitted to a small, rural hospital and then later transferred to a larger hospital in Little Rock.

“Our main task right now is to confirm the alleged miracle from Little Rock,” said Sister Sylvia Thibodeaux, head of the Henriette Delille Commission Office. “We’re working with the family and working with the judicial vicar, Father (Gregory) Luyet, and with Bishop (Anthony) Taylor.

“We need the records of the actual tests from when she was first admitted. They did tests on her brain because she was in a deep coma and remained in that coma for several days. Those are the only records that have to be located, so we’re working on that.”

Sister Sylvia said the prayers for the intercession of Mother Henriette on the woman’s behalf began almost immediately “when they discovered how sick she was.”

“The family began praying, and we know that because it’s a family that the sisters know, and they were familiar with Mother Delille’s story,” Sister Sylvia said. “The whole family started praying, and they also sent the information to the community.”

Fruitful trip to Rome

Sister Sylvia and historian Dr. Virginia Gould traveled to Rome in January to meet Hilgeman, who had been recommended by Cardinal Peter Turkson because of his credentials and his current work in promoting other sainthood causes.

On June 22, Mother Lange’s canonization cause advanced to the next stage when Pope Francis approved the promulgation of a decree recognizing that she heroically lived according to Christian virtues. The Dicastery for the Causes of Saints declared her “Venerable” Mary Lange.

“Dr. Hilgeman is their postulator, so that speaks well of him,” Sister Sylvia said.

Cardinal’s recommendation

During a visit to New Orleans last fall, Cardinal Turkson visited the sisters’ motherhouse on Chef Menteur Highway. They asked if he might suggest a successor for their postulator, Dr. Andrea Ambrosi, who had retired in 2020 after nearly two decades working with the cause.

“We told Cardinal Turkson that we had been without a postulator for nearly three years, so he told us he would recommend someone,” Sister Sylvia said. “He told us how the process would work and that we should come to Rome. The cardinal knows Dr. Hilgeman personally. Dr. Hilgeman also has the cause of Cardinal Otunga from Kenya. He’s got 15 years of experience with the dicastery. He’s in his 40s, and he speaks English fluently.

“He’s also a canon lawyer and a civil lawyer with experience in research. We thought he was a good fit. He’s very enthusiastic about Mother Delille’s cause and was privileged to be invited.”

Sister Sylvia said Hilgeman was impressed with Venerable Henriette’s history – how she was teaching the enslaved at a time in pre-Civil War New Orleans when it was against the law to do so.

“He also has an understanding of slavery,” she said. “His mother is Brazilian and his father is Dutch, and he told us, coming from Brazil and having lived there, he has an understanding of slavery. It’s important because, to understand Mother Delille’s story, you have to understand slavery in America.”

Hopeful, energized

Sister Sylvia said she is enthusiastic that the cause continues to move forward, and she was energized by her trip to Rome.

“What we went for, we achieved, and that was to hire a responsible, experienced postulator who could stay with the cause for a while, who seems very interested and has the ability to take the cause to the next level ” she said. “He appears to have a deep faith for a young person in today’s world, which was very impressive. He’s not in it for the money. He immediately told us, he didn’t know the situation of our community. He would let us make him an offer. We think it’s a good sign to get a postulator who is at that level.”

Sister Alicia Costa, congregational leader, said she hopes the new postulator will bring new momentum to the cause.

“We want her canonized, but we know it’s a long process,” Sister Alicia said.

pfinney@clarionherald.org

A miracle attributed to Mother Henriette Delille

Healed aneurysm investigated as possible miracle for Creole nun's beatification

Catholic News Agency

30 August, 2019

Venerable Henriette DeLille (Wikimedia)

Did Venerable Henriette DeLille's intercession heal a 19-year-old Arkansas student?

In December 2017, 19-year-old Arkansas college student Christine McGee was rushed to the hospital by her mother.

Christine had fallen ill with what turned out to be an aneurysm, and it looked like she was going to die. Once at the hospital, Christine fell into a coma and became unresponsive.

Today, Christine is healed. She recently received her Master’s degree from Loyola University in New Orleans, and she can drive and live independently.

Her recovery could be a miracle that progresses the sainthood cause of a Louisiana Creole religious sister, say authorities from the Diocese of Little Rock Arkansas.

While Christine was ill, her mother prayed for the intercession of Venerable Henriette DeLille, asking for healing for her daughter.

“From the time she learned about her sickness, she started to pray, and prayed to Henriette the whole time. Even though it seemed like things weren’t going to work, she held onto that belief,” Sister Doris Goudeaux, co-director of the Henriette Delille Commission Office, told the Arkansas Catholic.

Born in 1812 to a wealthy French father and a free Creole woman of Spanish, French and African descent, Henriette was groomed throughout her childhood to become a part of what was then known as the placage system.

Under the placage system, free women of color (term used at the time for people of full or partial African descent, who were no longer or never were slaves) entered into common law marriages with wealthy white plantation owners, who often kept their legitimate families at the plantations in the country. It was a rigid system, but afforded free women of color comfortable and even luxurious lives.

Trained in French literature, music, dancing, and nursing, Henriette was prepared to become the “kept woman” of a wealthy white man throughout her childhood.

However, in her early 20s, Henriette declared that her religious convictions could not be reconciled with the placage lifestyle for which she was being prepared. Raised Catholic, which was typical for free people of color at the time, she had recently had a deep encounter with God, and believed that the placage system violated Church teaching on the sanctity of marriage.

In 1836, wanting to dedicate her life to God, Henriette used the proceeds of an inheritance to found a small unrecognized order of nuns, the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, known today as the Sisters of the Holy Family.

During Henriette’s lifetime, the Sisters taught religion and other subjects to the slaves, even though it was illegal to do so at the time, punishable by death or life imprisonment. The sisters also encouraged free women of color to marry men of their own class and to have their marriages blessed in the Church, and they established a nursing home for the poor and sick elderly, among other works.

In 1988, the Mother Superior of the order at the time requested the opening of Henriette Delille’s cause for canonization. She was declared a Servant of God, and then was declared Venerable by Pope Benedict XVI on March 27, 2010.

A miracle through Henriette’s intercession is needed for her beatification, the next step in the process before canonization to sainthood.

The Diocese of Little Rock, Arkansas has been studying and gathering information on the healing of Christine McGee, which they believe could be that miracle. They first informed the Holy Family sisters of the miracle, and the sisters then granted their approval for the diocese to proceed in its investigation.

Because the possible miracle occurred in the Diocese of Little Rock, they were the ones to undertake the investigation, starting in 2015.

According to the Arkansas Catholic, a diocesan tribunal has submitted formal documentation to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints at the Vatican, which is considering the evidence of the possible miracle and whether it will be approved for the cause of Venerable Henriette.

“We served as a fact-finding gathering source for the Holy See,” Father Greg Luyet, JCL, told the Arkansas Catholic. Luyet serves as judicial vicar for the Diocese of Little Rock and oversaw the canonical processes involved in this stage of Henriette’s cause.

Sr. Doris told the Arkansas Catholic that the Congregation for the Causes of Saints has already issued “a decree of juridical validity,” dated December 2018, which confirmed that the diocese met the documentation requirements necessary for a possible miracle to be considered.

There are currently at least four other Catholics of African American descent whose causes are being considered for sainthood, including Julia Greeley, Pierre Toussaint, Mother Mary Lange, and Father Augustus Tolton. If the possible miracle for Henriette’s cause is approved, she would move on step closer to possibly being the first officially canonized saint of African American descent in the United States.

Some good news: moving these causes for Sainthood forward

Church leaders unite to promote causes for sainthood of five African-Americans in the United States

Philip Kosloski | Aug 01, 2018

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The Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University is looking forward to this new opportunity to collaborate with others.

Currently there exist five separate causes of canonization for five extraordinary African-Americans in the United States. Each are at a different stage in the canonization process, but as of July 31, 2018, various Church leaders are uniting to assist these causes, hoping that their joint effort will help progress each cause closer to sainthood.

According to a press release, Xavier University and its Institute for Black Catholic Studies (IBCS) “will have as its goal the gathering of scholarly work and relevant academic studies for the purpose of elevating the respective causes for each of the candidates for Sainthood: the Venerable Pierre Toussaint, Venerable Henriette Delille S.S.F., Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange, O.S.P., Father Augustus Tolton, and Julia Greeley.”

The IBCS is further supported by the Joint Conference of Black Catholic Clergy, Black Sisters, Black Catholic Seminarians and Black Catholic Deacons.

Xavier President Dr. Reynold Verret thought it was fitting that such an endeavor would begin at Xavier University. “It is both appropriate and significant that this joint effort to promote the cause of Sainthood for these six extraordinary individuals should originate here at Xavier University of Louisiana, the only historically Black and Catholic University in this nation and the home of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies.”

For more information on the causes listed above, visit one of our articles below.

Read more:

This hairdresser slave is on the way to canonization

Read more:

Venerable Henriette Delille, a Catholic woman of color on the road to sainthood

Read more:

Celebrating Black Catholic History Month: Meet Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange

Read more:

From American Slave to Catholic Priest: Meet “Good Father Gus”

Read more:

Saintly Former Slave a Model of Mercy

Why every New Orleanian, Catholic or not, should know this woman on the path to Sainthood

The first real New Orleans saint? Henriette Delille's path to canonization

Sister Henriette Delille, founder of the Sisters of the Holy Family

Gallery: Sister Henriette Delille, founder of the Sisters of the Holy Family

By Kim Chatelain

kchatelain@nola.com,

NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

It was 2011, and Archbishop Gregory Aymond was seeking a sacred antidote to the violence, murder and racism infesting his hometown. He turned to a venerable figure in New Orleans history, but a person only vaguely known to even the most ardent Roman Catholics, and composed a prayer that is now recited at every local Mass. It ends with the plea: "Mother Henriette Delille, pray for us that we may be a holy family."
Unknown to many Catholics, the object of their prayers was a French-speaking woman of African descent. She was born in 1812 and grew up in the 500 block of Burgundy Street, and she lived a part of her life as a mistress in a social system known as placage, whereby wealthy white European men entered relationships with free women of color to circumvent laws against interracial marriage.
After the deaths of her two young children born through a concubine relationship, however, Delille at age 24 formally rejected the societal norms and experienced a religious transformation that eventually led to the formation of the Sisters of the Holy Family order. The community of Creole nuns provided care for those on the bottom rung of antebellum society, administering to the elderly, nursing the sick and teaching people of color who at the time had limited education opportunities. To this day, Holy Family nuns continue to serve out the mission launched in the mid-1800s by doing good works around the globe.

Now, 175 years after she founded the order, Delille stands at the doorstep of sainthood. If canonized, she will become the first New Orleanian, and the first U.S.-born black person, to be recognized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.
In 2010, Pope Benedict XVI by formal decree declared Delille "venerable," a level of sanctity that no other local person has reached. Today as Catholics recite Delille's name during Mass, doctors, scientists and other researchers from Little Rock, Ark., to Rome are trying to determine if two miracles attributed to Delille's intercession are valid. Verification of the miracles, one in Arkansas and one in Texas, are the last two steps in an arduous process to declare Delille a saint. Both cases involve people who were near death but recovered after prayers were offered to Delille.
But even as her cause for canonization remains pending with the Vatican, Aymond says, Delille stands as a titanic historical figure.
"Henriette Delille showed extraordinary courage and virtue in choosing to love God and to serve His people, particularly those most in need," Aymond said. "Her legacy lives on through the ministry of the Sister of the Holy Family and has already been recognized worldwide."

Read it all:  http://www.nola.com/religion/index.ssf/2017/03/henriette_delille.html

A great story of the life of Venerable Henriette Delille

Venerable Henriette Delille, a Catholic woman of color on the road to sainthood

The young Creole woman and the order she founded cared for the sick, helping the poor, teaching both free and enslaved men, women and children.

Larry Peterson

November 5, 2016

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People who aren’t from the South might not be familiar with the French Creoles. The Creoles are descendants of the settlers of Louisiana who were of French descent. The term also became applied to descendants of enslaved Africans who were born in Louisiana. One of those descendants was a woman by the name of Henriette Delille.
Henriette was born in 1813 in New Orleans. Her father had been born in France and her mom was a “free woman of color.” Theirs was a common-law marriage, which was quite typical at the time in New Orleans. The people practiced the placage, a recognized “legal” system whereby European men, although legally married, entered into relationships with non-European women of African, Native American or mixed-race descent. As a Creole, Henriette was a qualified “candidate” for a placage common-law marriage and her mom was resolved to see that it happened. Her daughter was not so determined.
Henriette’s mother, on a quest to see that her daughter became a common-law wife to a wealthy white man, trained Henriette in the fine arts of dance, literature and music. She made sure that Henriette attended as many “quadroon balls” as possible. (The term quadroon was used for mixed-race people of no more than one-quarter non-white ancestry. In the racially structured society of New Orleans, “quadroon” women were considered socially acceptable as concubines for white men.) There was one problem; Henriette was not interested. Her mind, heart and soul were pointing in a different direction.
Henriette had developed a deep faith in the Church and its teachings. She wanted no part of the life her mother was planning for her. Rather, she became an outspoken adversary of the placage system because it violated the Church’s teachings on the Sacrament of Matrimony. Henriette’s objections to her mom’s wishes began causing serious discord between mother and daughter.
When Henriette was 22 years old, her mother suffered a nervous breakdown and was declared by the courts as “incompetent.” Henriette was granted control of her mom’s assets and immediately made arrangements for her to be provided for. After ensuring her mom would was well taken care of and in good hands, she sold all the other assets. She took the remaining proceeds and founded a small, unrecognized order of nuns. They called themselves the Sisters of the Presentation. The order consisted of seven young Creole women and a young French woman.
Henriette and her little group began their fledgling ministry by taking in some elderly women who had no place to go or help take care of them. In effect, Henriette Delille had opened America’s first Catholic home for the elderly. To this day this is one of the order’s primary charitable works. (Ironically, during the same year of 1836, a woman named Jeanne Jugan was in France acquiring a small cottage and beginning a new order. She brought a blind, crippled elderly woman into her home and so began the Little Sisters of the Poor, who have this same mission of care for the elderly.)
Henriette Delille had officially devoted her life to God. In 1836 she wrote, “I wish to live and die for God.” She and her group began caring for the sick, helping the poor, teaching both free and enslaved men, women and children. Henriette became a frequent sponsor for mixed-race babies at Baptisms in nearby St. Louis Cathedral and in St. Augustine Church. She also became very active in St. Claude School, founded for young women of color.
In 1837 Henriette’s new order received recognition from the Holy See. In 1842 the congregation changed its name to the Sisters of the Holy Family. Today the Sisters of the Holy Family have more than 200 members continuing to serve the poor by operating free schools for children, retirement homes and nursing homes in Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, California and Belize.
Henriette Delille died in 1862, at age 49. On March 27, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI declared that Henriette Delille had led a life of “heroic virtue” and declared the Creole woman from New Orleans, “Venerable.” When the sisters in her order heard the news they quickly gathered together, headed to their chapel and sang the Te Deum, praising God for the great blessing.
Venerable Henriette may well become the first African-American woman to be canonized a saint.
Venerable Henriette Delille, please pray for us.

Locals around the Archdiocese of New Orleans; this looks like a very worthwhile event to attend

Local Holy Men and Women: A Conversation with Archbishop-emeritus Alfred Hughes

Communications • Fri, Sep 9 2016 at 11:19am

• Local Holy Men and Women: A Conversation with A...

  

Join Archbishop-emeritus Alfred Hughes for a presentation and conversation on how Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, St. Katharine Drexel, and Venerable Henriette DeLille lived the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy in their ministries here in New Orleans.
Two chances to be part of the conversation:
Tuesday, September 13 at 7 pm at the Archdiocese of New Orleans Retreat Center, in Metairie
or
Thursday, September 15 at 7 pm at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Covington
For more information, please call (504) 267-9650.

Let's remember to CONTINUE to pray for peace across the Archdiocese of New Orleans

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans

Our prayer in the New Battle of New Orleans against violence, murder and racism:

Loving and faithful God, through the years the people of our archdiocese have ap...preciated the prayers and love of Our Lady of Prompt Succor in times of war, disaster, epidemic and illness. We come to you, Father, with Mary our Mother, and ask you to help us in the battle of today against violence, murder and racism.

We implore you to give us your wisdom that we may build a community founded on the values of Jesus, which gives respect to the life and dignity of all people.
Bless parents that they more form their children in faith. Bless and protect our youth that they may be peacemakers of our time. Give consolation to those who have lost loved ones through violence.
Hear our prayer and give us the perseverance to be a voice for life and human dignity in our community.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor, hasten to help us.
Mother Henriette Delille, pray for us that we may be a holy family

November is Black Catholic History Month and today the spotlight is on New Orleans own Henriette Delille

November is Black Catholic History Month – November 7th…

Thank you for celebrating Black Catholic History Month. Today’s post is thanks to HolyAngels.com

“Henriette Delille, a descendant of slaves, is the first US-born black whose cause for Canonization has been officially opened by the Roman Catholic Church. At the early age of 14, she was one of ten black girls who taught religion to the slaves of old New Orleans (which was illegal at the time). Her family, however, had other plans. She 

was born to an ancestral quadroon family who trained and supplied women to be the mistresses of white men – which Henriette refused to do, since she wished to be a nun.

In 1836 she and another woman tried to establish an interracial religious community, but found great resistance in the laws of the time which forbad whites and blacks from living together or developing formal contractual agreements. This setback only made her more determined. Her biography states that she believed that “One day, somehow, she, a woman of African descent, would be a nun in New Orleans, the slave mart of the country, where her people were in distress and no one was going to persuade her to go elsewhere or do anything else.”
Henriette’s dream came closer to reality in 1842 when she and two other formed a “pious union” which eventually came to be known as the Sisters of the Holy Family. The group cared for people who were elderly, orphaned, illiterate, sick, dying and the poor of her own race. In 1852 this group took formal vows for the first time, and in 1870 were recognized by the church as a religious community. Still, it was not until 1872 that they were allowed to wear a habit, so controversial was their group.
One nun of her order, Sr. Sylvia Thibodeaux said “Without her courage and strong faith, this community would not have existed. We revere her memory ands want the universal church to share in the beauty of her life …”
Her life commitment continued to inspire controversy in every part of New Orleans. Quadroons thought she was rebellious and stubborn. Whites thought she was uppity because she aspired to a life that they had reserved for white women. The Sisters of her order were ridiculed by women and sexually harassed by white men. The institutional Church regarded their work as “harmless” religious education of blacks. The city regarded their work as defiance. The black men and women of new Orleans regarded them as “family” – a holy family who comforted, fed, housed and educated the disinherited of American society.
Henriette died in 1862 – but her dream lives on in the 250 Sisters of the Holy Family working in 4 states, and Belize, Central America. Her story has now piqued the interest of Hollywood (to her supporters dismay) – entertainer Vanessa Williams portrayed Sister Henriette Delille in a 1999 made-for-TV movie about Henriette’s life called “The Quadroon Ball”. Rev. Cyprian Davis has written a comprehensive biography of her life. The first step in the process to have her declared “Venerable” by the Catholic Church has begun.

But whatever the world or formal church decides about Henriette, there is no doubt that before God and the world, she was a strong black Catholic woman of faith – a model of “God overcoming”.

The above graphic and the following prayer for the canonization of Sister Henriette Delille are from the website indicated below.

Prayer for the Beatification of Henriette Delille

O good and gracious God, you called Henriette Delille to give herself in service and in love to the slaves and the sick, to the orphan and the aged, to the forgotten and the despised. Grant that inspired by her life we might be renewed in heart and mind. If it be your will, may she one day be raised to the honor of sainthood. By her prayers may we live in harmony and peace. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.””