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The Sisters of the Holy Family: Their lasting effect on Black New Orleans [1]

['Tammy C. Barney', 'More Tammy C. Barney', 'Verite News']

Date: 2024-02-09  

The Sisters of the Holy Family, the first congregation of Black nuns in the South and the second in the United States, cared for the elderly, orphans and the poor, and broke the law by teaching enslaved children.

In 1936, Henriette Delille, a free woman of color, and her Cuban friend Juliette Gaudin started the Congregation of the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to help enslaved people. On Nov. 21, 1842, the two women knelt in the new St. Augustine Catholic Church “and pledged to live in the community to work for orphan girls, the uneducated, poor, sick and the elderly among the free people of color,” the church’s online history states.

With that private pledge, the Sisters of the Holy Family were born. At the time, Black women could not make public vows or publicly wear habits.

The Sisters opened the first Catholic home for the elderly in 1847; started St. Mary’s Academy, the first secondary school for Black girls, in 1867; and became the first Black Catholics to serve as missionaries. They served from 1898 to 2008, according to the book “The New Orleans Sisters of the Holy Family: African American Missionaries to the Garifuna of Belize,” by Edward T. Brett.

In addition, the Sisters purchased several properties, such as 1422 Chartres St., where St. Mary’s started. In 1905, they purchased 125 acres on Chef Menteur Highway in New Orleans East for their current motherhouse, Thomy Lafon Boys Home, Lafon Nursing Home and the Delille Manor Senior Citizens Home. St. Mary’s Academy moved there in 1965.

“The Sisters worked day and night. They often ran out of food and money, so they turned to the community for donations and assistance,” a 2017 New Orleans Tribune article states. “Despite poverty and hardships, the Sisters pursued their duties to keep their ministry alive.”

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