Henriette DeLille

If you live in New Orleans, you probably know who Henriette DeLille is. If you don’t, I see a promising career in your future.

The Henriette DeLille Commission Office is located at 6901 Chef Menteur Highway, New Orleans, LA 70126. Everyone loves getting real paper-and-stamp mail. I have been there. It is next to a girls high school and across the street from an old folks home. It is located in the mother house of an order of nuns.

Now, I am going to copy off the back of a prayer card I picked up at Mass this morning:

Henriette DeLille is the first U.S. native born African American whose cause for canonization has been officially opened by the Catholic Church. She was born a free woman of color in New Orleans in 1812.

By 1836, she was inspired by a small band of women to assist the sick and dying and to catechize the uninstructed among her people. By 1841, this group of pious women was both encouraged and recognized by the Church. The Sisters of the Holy Family trace their official origin to 1842.

By 1851, Henriette has personally purchased a home for these women to live in community and further their ministry. At her death, in 1862, Henriette DeLille was known as one “who for the love of Jesus Christ had made herself the humble servant of slaves.”

The sisters are passing out brochures about Ven. Mother Henriette, as the nuns call her. There must be a push on for her canonization. The steps are as follows:

Servant of God
Venerable
Beatified (Blessed)
Canonized (Saint)

The more you know…