Caribbean American Religious Sister and Educator

1789-1882

Elizabeth was born in the Caribbean in about 1784, perhaps in San-Domingo, which is now called Haiti, and perhaps in Cuba. Her parents were mixed race, working class people. They had some, but not many rights and enough money for Elizabeth to get an education. Where Elizabeth lived, there were a few unkind land owners who enslaved many, many slaves. The slaves came together to fight for their freedom, but the revolution was violent and Elizabeth and many others fled to the United States as refugees. Elizabeth landed in Baltimore with her arms full of books and her mind full of ideas.

Baltimore was a complicated place in the early 1800s. Slavery was still legal so there were many Black people who were suffering in bondage. There were also many people like Elizabeth, free Black people who were refugees from the Caribbean islands. In fact, the community of free Black people was growing quickly in Baltimore, but Black people had very few rights and were not even allowed to go to school. 

Elizabeth, however, already had an education. Her heart broke for all the girls she saw who had no such privilege. How much an education would help them! She and her roommate, Marie, decided to do something about it. They began teaching young girls of color to read and write in their own home. The girls loved to learn, just like she did, and she could see their minds and hearts growing with ideas and passion. It was such satisfying work to Elizabeth, that she and Marie began a whole school, right in their small home. She used her own money to buy books and supplies, until every dollar she had ran out. 

A local priest, Father James, noticed their school. Father James had found it very difficult to teach his congregants the scriptures when they could not read and he was glad to hear of Elizabeth and Marie’s school. He suggested that they make their school an official Catholic school so it could have enough money to keep going, but to do that Elizabeth and Marie would need to become religious sisters. The church, however, still held onto their sins of racism and did not allow Black people to take vows during that time. Elizabeth, Marie, and James would have to change the system. 

They started a new order, the Oblate Sisters of Providence, a welcoming Catholic order for Black women. Elizabeth was baptized Mary Elizabeth, and she became the first ever African American Mother Superior. Their heart’s work was to educate Black youth and teach them about the love of God. 

The order grew and grew. Soon, Mother Mary Elizabeth was busy not just teaching, but tending to the sick, caring for orphans and finding homes for widows. When a cholera epidemic came to Baltimore, Mary Elizabeth was one of the few who was brave enough to care for those who were sick and dying. 

Mary Elizabeth and Marie’s school, St Francis Academy, is still teaching students in Baltimore today. It is the oldest continuously operating school for Black Catholic children in the United States. It was not easy, the school and the Oblate sisters faced many obstacles. They had to beg on the streets when they lost their funding. For a time, Mary Elizabeth took a job doing chores so that the school could stay open. The sisters often faced racism and poverty. But Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange continued to care, love, and teach all the way to the end of her life. “Our sole wish is to do the will of God,” she said.