Biography of Elizabeth Clovis Lange, (c. 1784-1882): Founder
of the Oblate Sisters of Providence. Biography of Elizabeth Clovis Lange, (c. 1784-1882): Founder
of the Oblate Sisters of Providence.
Content Background On July 2, 1828, in a house on Richmond Street in Baltimore, the religious congregation now known as the Oblate Sisters of Providence officially began, the first black Roman Catholic order in the United States. Little is known about the birth and early life of its founder and superior general, Elizabeth Clovis Lange. She was probably born in Cuba, some believe in Santiago. Her mother, Annette Lange (also called "Dede"), was the natural daughter to Mardoche Lange, a Jewish plantation owner in Jeremie, Haiti. Her father, Clovis, carried the same family name of Lange. Both Clovis and Annette Lange emigrated to Cuba from Haiti sometime before the Haitian Revolution led by Toussaint L'Ouverture. Elizabeth and Annette left Cuba for the United States and Clovis did not come with them. They landed in Charleston, South Carolina, where they stayed a short time before moving on to Norfolk, Virginia, and finally to Baltimore. Annette Lange soon returned to the West Indies, but Elizabeth, now a mature woman, remained in Baltimore.
The French-Speaking Peoples of Baltimore Baltimore's French-speaking peoples were refugees from the French Revolution, coming either from France or from the French island possessions in the West Indies. Most of those coming from the West Indies had fled the revolution there. By 1793, there was a sizable Haitian community in Fells Point area, numbering about 1,500, of whom approximately 500 were of African ancestry. Among the so-called "colored" émigrés were those who were educated and wealthy, as well as those who were less fortunate.
The nucleus of religious activity for Haitians, both black and white, was St. Mary's Seminary Chapel (located at the intersection of Paca Street and Druid Hill Avenue) established by the Sulpicians, themselves émigrés from revolutionary France. This French-speaking, bi-racial group easily maintained its separate identity in Baltimore. At the time of Elizabeth Lange's arrival in the early 1820's, the Sulpician Chapel was still a center of religious activity for their descendants. The African congregants met in the segregated "chapelle basse," - in the basement of the church.
Educating African-American Children Elizabeth Lange found that there was no public education provided for black children in Baltimore. Unlike other southern states, Maryland did not have a law prohibiting the education of blacks; but neither was education encouraged by local officials. There were a few small schools for black children operated by Protestant groups, but there was little being done to educate the children of black Catholics, especially those of the French-speaking population. So it was that Elizabeth Lange opened a school for girls in her home with the assistance of another Haitian refugee, Marie Magdalene Balas. She was forced to close her school in 1827 because of inadequate funds.
In casting about for some means of supporting a school for black children, Elizabeth turned to the Sulpician fathers. She found a supporter in Father James Hector Joubert who encouraged her in her educational aspirations for black children and in her desire to become a member of a religious order. Existing orders admitted only white women however, and so Elizabeth and Father Joubert agreed it would be necessary to establish a new and separate order for black women. The advantages seemed obvious: first, it would open up opportunities for black women who desired a religious life; second it would allow some of those women to become teachers at a time when vocational opportunities for both black and white women were restricted, although more so for black women than for white women; and last, through such an order, a continuing supply of teachers could be trained to run schools for black children supported by the Catholic Church.
Founding A Religious Order for African-American Women The approval of the Archbishop of Baltimore was necessary before a new religious order could be founded, and that proved to be no obstacle. Archbishop Whitfield gave his consent and calmed Miss Lange's fears that whites might be offended to see black women in religious habits. Two friends, Marie Magdalene Balas and Rosine Boegue, joined Mother Lange in her novitiate which began on June 13, 1828. As they began their preparations for taking their religious vows, the three women established a school "for colored children" in a rented house "on the corner of the alley of the [Sulpician] Seminary near Paca Street." Money for the school venture was raised among the members of the black community including Mrs. Charles Arieu, a woman of wealth. Supporters from the white Haitian community included Ann-Catherine Ducatel and Mrs. Jeanne-Marie Chatard.
The Richmond Street School At first all the students were French-speaking, and they came from various social backgrounds. Three of the boarders were orphans. By the end of 1828, the school was moved to larger and more comfortable quarters on Richmond Street. Once the school had moved away from the immediate physical presence of the Sulpicians, Sister Mary Lange's worst fears were realized as the Oblates began to experience growing opposition from the neighboring community. The landlord of the Richmond Street house, Mr. Huffman, notified his tenants that he had new plans for his property and that at the end of what was a one year lease, they would have to leave. Other houses in the vicinity were suddenly marketed at very high rents. As Miss Lange and the novices searched for a new site, Dr. Chatard offered to sell them a house on Pennsylvania Avenue on very liberal terms. This new location was to become the Saint Frances Academy.
The Saint Frances Academy As the new Oblate Sisters of Providence took their first vows on July 2, 1829 , Sisters Mary, Marie Francis, Mary Rose, and M. Theresa (a former pupil, Almaide Duchemin) could look forward to a more secure and permanent location for their school. It was truly "a pioneer in the field of education in Baltimore for neglected colored children," and the earliest teacher-training institute in Baltimore for black women.
The Baltimore Cholera Epidemic of 1832 Mother Lange was always a determined observer of the Rules and was careful as Superior to draw the line between what was appropriate service for the Oblates (a teaching order) and the roles traditionally assigned to African-American women. In the summer of 1832, for example, a cholera epidemic broke out in Baltimore, and the Bureau of the Poor appealed to local religious orders for nurses to minister to the sick in the almshouse. Although the Oblates Sisters were a teaching order and were not obligated to care for the sick, Mother Lange and eleven of the Oblates gladly volunteered their help. All returned alive. But the foundress had good reason to feel chagrined afterwards because no official thanks were ever tendered to the Oblates even though the Sisters of Charity, a white nursing order, did receive public recognition for their efforts.
BibliographyThis excerpt is from the essay by Elaine Breslaw and Joan Andersen in Notable Maryland Women (1977).
The most important source of information on Sister Mary Elizabeth Lange is the diary kept by Father Joubert. The diary, written in French and with an English translation is in the archives of the Order on Gun Road. The only published history of the Order is Grace Sherwood, The Oblates' Hundred and One Years (1931), but it is out of date. Sister Paradite Young, An Oasis in the Ghetto (1969) is useful. Sister M. Wilhelmina Lancaster, the Oblates' archivist in 1976 when this piece was researched, shared her as yet unpublished papers on Elizabeth Lange. Also useful are two master's theses: Sister Mary Emma Hadrick, "Contributions of the Oblate Sisters of Providence to Catholic Education in the United States and Cuba, 1829-1962" (Catholic University, 1964), and Sister Mary Liberta Dedeaux, "The Influence of St. Frances Academy on Negro Catholic Education in the Nineteenth Century" (Villanova College, 1944). Other information can be found in Walter Charlton Hartridge, "The Refugees from the Island of St. Domingo in Maryland," Maryland Historical Magazine 38 (June 1943), 103-122 and Sister M. Immaculata, Mother M. Theresa Maxis Duchemin (1945).
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