Servant of God Mary Lange

Foundress, Oblate Sisters of Providence
Date of Birth: 1794
Date of Death: February 3, 1882
Date of Profession: July 2, 1829

-Born in Santiago, Cuba where she lived in a primarily French speaking
community.
-She received an excellent education and in the early 1800s moved to the
United States.
-By 1813, Providence lead her to Baltimore, Maryland where a large
community of French speaking Catholics from Haiti was gathered.
-As an educated person, independent thinker and a doer it didn’t take her
long to recognize that the immigrant children needed an education. There
was no free public education for African American children in Maryland
until 1868.
-She and Marie Magdalene Balas opened a school in her home in the Fells
Point area of Maryland. They operated the school for over ten years.
-Providence then intervened again, sending Reverend Father James Joubert,
SS, to encourage Mother Lange to found a religious congregation for the
education of African American girls. Father Joubert provided spiritual
direction, financial assistance and helped to recruit young women to join
the community.
-For years Lange felt God’s call to consecrate herself and her works entirely
to Him. But at this time black men and women could not aspire to the
religious life. Yet, God provided a way.
-On July 2, 1829, she and three other women professed their vows and
became the Oblates Sisters of Providence.
-Mother Lange became the foundress and first superior general of the
congregation. She served as superior from 1829 to 1832 and again from
1835 to 1841.
-The community educated and evangelized African Americans. However,
she was always open to meeting the needs of the time. Which lead the
community to care for youth, provide a home for orphans, educate freed
slaves and admit them into the congregation and care for the terminally ill.
-After Fr. Joubert died in 1843 there was a sense of abandonment. However,
Mother Lange never lost faith in Divine Providence.
-Mother Mary Lange practiced faith to an extraordinary degree. In fact, it
was her deep faith which enabled her to persevere against all odds. To her
black brothers and sisters she gave herself and her material possessions until
she was empty of all but Jesus, whom she shared generously with all by
witnessing to His teaching.
-In close union with Him, she lived through disappointment and opposition
until God called her home, February 3, 1882 at Saint Frances Convent in
Baltimore, Maryland.
(Adapted from the Oblate Sisters of Providence Website)

Prayer

Almighty and Eternal God, You granted Mother Mary Lange extraordinary trust in Your providence. You endow her with humility, courage, holiness and an extraordinary sense of service to the poor and the sick. You enabled her to fund the Oblate Sisters of Providence and provided educational, social and spiritual ministry especially to the African American community. Mother Lange’s love for all enabled her to see Christ in each person, and the pain of prejudice and racial hatred never blurred that vision.  
Deign to raise her to the higest honors of the altar in order that, through her intercession, more souls may come to a deeper understaning and more fervent love to you.
Heavenly Father, glorify your heart by granting also this favour (state your request) which we ask through the intercession of Your faithful servant, Mother Mary Lange. Amen.
For more information: http://www.motherlange.org