Henriette Delille was born a free woman of color in New Orleans. Her great-grandmother was a slave from West Africa. In 1835, Delille sold all of her property, hoping to start a Black nuns community to teach in a school for free girls of color.
Henriette Delille, Juliette Gaudin and Josephine Charles founded the Sisters of the Holy Family religious order at St. Augustine's Church in 1842.
Although their primary work was in education, Delille made it possible to build a home for the sick, aged, and poor Black residents of the city. They took into their home elderly women who needed care and visitation, and it became America's first Catholic home for the elderly of its kind. The Sisters cared for the sick and the dying during the yellow fever epidemics that struck New Orleans in 1853 and 1897.
She died in 1862. her obituary ends with this quote: "For the love of Jesus Christ, she made herself the humble servant of slaves."
In 1988, the canonization process for sainthood began when Pope John Paul II declared Sister Henriette Delille a Servant of God. Venerable was decreed by Pope Benedict XVI on March 27th, 2010.
Learn more
· https://adw.org/living-the-faith/our-cultures/black-history-month/venerable-henriette-delille/
· https://www.henriettedelille.com/