Local group wants you to meet the Venerable Henriette Delille, 'Servant of Slaves' (Video)

The Friends of Delille New Jersey Chapter performs area corporal works of mercy in the name of Venerable Henriette Delille, “Servant of Slaves,” the first native-born African American to be considered for sainthood.

Delille is currently before the Vatican’s Office for the Congregation of Saints within the Catholic Church. Although Delille was from New Orleans, the New Jersey chapter promotes this cause with the hope of celebrating the first African American Saint within the Catholic Church, according to its website.

Delille was declared “venerable” by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 after the Vatican approved historical documentation demonstrating she had practiced a life of “heroic virtue.”

The Friends of Delille New Jersey Chapter received its endorsement from the Sisters of The Holy Family and the Archdiocese of Newark in the Spring of 2016 to operate as a chapter throughout New Jersey, said founder Dr. Susan Rich. Its mission is to promote Delille’s canonization by telling her story and continuing her work assisting the poor, caring for the sick and elderly, and instructing the unlearned. It also encourages devotion to Delille and gathers reports of favors requested and granted through her intercession, according to the chapter’s website.

Venerable Henriette Delille, who founded the Sisters of the Holy Family in New Orleans in 1842, is depicted in a stained-glass window at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans. The Diocese of Little Rock, Ark., submitted formal documentation from a fact-finding mission regarding an alleged miracle, a healing through the intercession of Mother Henriette of a 19-year-old Arkansas college student in 2008. (CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz)

The chapter has involvement from parishioners from St. Peter Claver Church, St. Theresa of Calcutta Church and Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Montclair, St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Bloomfield, Holy Name of Jesus in East Orange, Sacred Heart in Jersey City, and The Church of the Presentation in Upper Saddle River.

Delille was born in New Orleans, La., in 1812 as a free woman of color. Delille’s great, great-grandmother was a slave from West Africa. Her mother and the other women in her family followed the plaçage system, which allowed for women of color to be kept by wealthy white men, according to the Sisters of the Holy Family in New Orleans, the second congregation for Black women religious, which Delille founded in 1842. Delillie’s destiny was to follow in her mother and grandmother’s footsteps.

At the time, Blacks could not attend a Catholic Church or become a priest or a nun. When Delille was 24 years old, she had a religious experience and expressed a simple, yet profound declaration of faith and love. On the blank page of a book on the Eucharist, she wrote in French: “Je crois en Dieu. J’espère en Dieu. J’aime. Je v[eux] vivre et mourir pour Dieu.” (“I believe in God. I hope in God. I love. I want to live and die for God.”)

Delille then drew up the rules and regulations for devout Christian women and recruited two friends, Juliette Gaudin, and Josephine Charles, in her mission to build a religious society. With a three-pronged program and her set of rules, they

set about caring for the sick, helping the poor, and instructing the ignorant of their people, — free and enslaved, children and adults — in the name of Jesus Christ and the Church. Records show they also served as godmothers to many slaves and free people who were baptized in addition to witnessing many marriages.

In 1836, they formed the Sisters of The Presentation. But although their good works were praised by so many, their numerous attempts to be officially recognized as a religious order by the Church were denied, according to Rich.

“Unfortunately, Henriette’s status as a free woman of color did not open any doors for her religious calling,” Rich said. “Henriette’s calling to minister to African slaves upon their arrival into the port of New Orleans allowed her to serve them and teach them about God.”

Delille and the other sisters educated and taught religion to the enslaved when it was against the law in pre-Civil War New Orleans.

They took elderly women into their home who needed more than just a visit, and later opened America’s first Catholic home for the elderly, according to the National Catholic Register. The early sisters also cared for the sick and the dying during the yellow fever epidemics that struck New Orleans in 1853 and 1897.

“After many years praying, living, and ministering as ‘sisters,’ they were finally permitted to take vows in St. Augustine Church in 1852. It was at this time when they were officially recognized as The Sisters of The Holy Family,” Rich said.

The Sisters of The Holy Family was the second congregation of Black women religious.

“In the eyes of the world Henriette may not have accomplished much, but her obituary and the Catholic Church tell us otherwise,” the Sisters of the Holy Family wrote in their paperwork asking permission for Delille’s canonization process. “(Henriette) devoted herself untiringly for many years, without reserve, to the religious instruction of the people of New Orleans, principally of slaves. . . .’ The last line of her obituary reads, . . . ‘for the love of Jesus Christ she had become the humble and devout servant of the slaves.”

Mother Delille’s sainthood cause was opened in 1988 by the sisters of the order she formed in the 1800s. It was approved unanimously by U.S. bishops in 1997, and she was declared venerable in 2010. The process to sainthood has four phases: servant of God, venerable, blessed, and saint. A miracle through Delille’s intercession is needed for her beatification.

The Congregation for the Causes of Saints at the Vatican is investigating a case of an Arkansas mother who prayed for the intercession of Mother DeLille, asking for healing for her daughter. Her daughter’s aneurism healed in 2017, according to reports.

Rich said she first became familiar with The Sisters of The Holy Family, and their foundress, when she attended her first National Black Catholic Congress in New Orleans as a high school sophomore in the 1970s.

“After reading about Venerable Delille’s life and visiting New Orleans many times, it did not take long before I recognized Venerable Delille’s total devotion to God along with her many corporal works of mercy,” Rich said, adding she relates to her as an African American.

*The Friends of Delille New Jersey Chapter. (Susan Rich)*

Father Stephen Fichter is the chaplain for the Friends of Delille New Jersey Chapter and has a special connection to Delille. His granduncle, Father Joseph Fichter, a notable Harvard scholar, was instrumental in the beginning works for Venerable Delille’s cause for sainthood.

“I think that having a Friends of Delille chapter in the Archdiocese of Newark is important because we are such a racially diverse and inclusive Archdiocese,” Father Fichter said. “Our local chapter engages in so many wonderful educational endeavors and charitable giving to those most in need.”

The local chapter’s works of ministry include a recent clothing drive at Mountainside Hackensack Meridian Hospital with the assistance of Father Andrew Njoku of the hospital’s Pastoral Care Office. Over one hundred items were collected to provide warmth to families receiving services at Family Promise of Essex County, Inc. in Montclair.

In keeping with Delille’s dedication to education, the chapter runs the Friend of Friend Mentoring Program where the story of Delille is presented to students at Catholic schools throughout the Archdiocese. Students learn that they can lead a holy life by mirroring her good deeds such as donating to the poor or creating a meal for the homeless. Over the years, they have created dinners for Salvation Army clients and have organized giving trees for youths whose mother or father is incarcerated.

They have also held Mass intentions for Delille, Stations of the Cross, and contributed to the Women’s Commissions Day of Reflection.

Rich said Father Fichter’s guidance on performing these works, which mirror the corporal works of Delille, has enabled members to expand their work to The Mercy House and Catholic Charities.

Father Fichter invites all to get to know Mother Delille’s story.

“I hope that many more people will get to know Mother Delille and will imitate her virtues and good works,” he said.

Delille is one of six African American Catholics up for sainthood. The others are:

Mother Mary Lange, founder of the Oblate Sisters of Providence, who has the title Servant of God;
Sister Thea Bowman, the first African American member of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, who has the title Servant of God;
Julia Greeley, known as the city of Denver’s “Angel of Charity,” who has the title Servant of God;
Father Augustus Tolton, the first recognized African American priest ordained for the U.S. Catholic Church, who has the title Servant of God;
Pierre Toussaint, a Haitian American hairdresser, philanthropist and former slave brought to New York City, who has the title venerable.

To learn more about the Friends of Delille New Jersey Chapter, visit https://www.friendsofdelillenewjersey.com/about-us .

Featured photo: The only photograph of Mother Henriette Delille, a free Black woman born in New Orleans around 1810. Her sainthood cause is currently before the Vatican. ( The Sisters of The Holy Family)