• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
An image of Mother Mary Lange stands inside the chapel of Mother Mary Lange Catholic School in Baltimore. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

Mother Mary Lange shows us the way

February 1, 2022
By Archbishop William E. Lori
Catholic Review
Filed Under: Charity in Truth, Commentary, Feature

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

February is Black History Month. It is a time when we celebrate the outstanding contributions of people of African descent. It is also a time to remember and acknowledge the racial injustice that has stained and continues to stain the history of our country and our Church. It is my hope that the synodal process, now under-way throughout the Archdiocese of Baltimore, will constructively confront these realities so that all of us may truly journey together, without prejudice or fear, toward the Kingdom of God.

One who truly showed how to do this was Elizabeth Clarisse Lange, better known to us as Mother Mary Lange. Born circa 1784, she grew up in Santiago in Cuba, likely in the French-speaking quarter of that city. She was well-educated and it is said she was part of a prominent family.

Around 1818, Elizabeth, accompanied by her friend Marie Madeleine Balas, came to the United States and eventually settled in Baltimore. Here she encountered many French–speaking refugees from Haiti.

She quickly recognized the need to educate their children. Using their own financial resources, Elizabeth and Marie Madeleine opened a school for these children in their home at Fells Point. Let us remember their courage: two Black women opened a school for children of color in a state where slavery was still the law of the land. Soon their school included not only refugees from the Caribbean but also the children of freed slaves living in Baltimore.

About the same time, a Sulpician priest, Father James Joubert, was ministering to Black families in the lower chapel of St. Mary’s Seminary on Paca Street. He came to know their needs, including the dearth of educational opportunities they faced. In his search for those who might fill this need, he encountered Elizabeth Lange and Marie Madeleine. Even as he encouraged them to expand their school, he sensed what was already in the heart of Elizabeth and Marie, namely, a desire to consecrate themselves wholly to God through vows of chastity, poverty and obedience. With the approval of the Archbishop of Baltimore, James Whitfield, Elizabeth founded the Oblate Sisters of Providence and took as her religious name Sister Mary Elizabeth.

Mother Lange was a woman of courage and initiative. With only three members in her new religious order, she set out on her mission to educate “young women of color.” Soon the Oblate Sisters attracted new members. She founded St. Frances School here in Baltimore, a school that continues to flourish.

Eventually, the Oblates would sponsor Catholic schools in some 25 cities in the United States and beyond. Along the way, Mother Lange and her sisters encountered racial prejudice and hatred. Though small of stature, Mother Lange stood tall. She overcame these obstacles by her wholehearted love of God and her love for the children she and her sisters were educating. Mother Lange was not a talker, but a doer, right up to her death in 1882.

Even this brief outline of her life demonstrates why her cause for sainthood is so worthy. What, then, can we do to hasten the day when Mother Lange will be declared a saint? Let me suggest four things:

First, we need to be familiar with Mother Lange’s story and share it with everyone, especially with young people.

Second, we need to pray for Mother Lange’s canonization in every parish throughout the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Each of us should keep her prayer card at hand and pray the prayer for her canonization daily.

Third, we need to pray to Mother Lange, entrusting to her the cares of our hearts and not hesitating to ask her for special favors, including physical cures and solutions to intractable problems.

Fourth, when we receive favors, we need to report them to the Oblate Sisters of Providence. We can do this online at motherlange.org (click on Mother Lange Guild). Let us pray earnestly for Mother Lange’s canonization. That is how we not only celebrate history but also create it!

Read More Charity in Truth

Come away and rest awhile

Be at rest in God alone  

Son of St. Alphonsus

God really loves me

The aroma of Christ

The divine spark

Copyright © 2022 Catholic Review Media

Print Print

Share
Share on Facebook
Share
Share this
Pin
Pin this
Share
Share on LinkedIn

Primary Sidebar

Archbishop William E. Lori

View all posts from this author

| Recent Commentary |

Images of Mary: Can we find the Blessed Mother in the Old Testament?

How public opinion can influence migration policies

Question Corner: Is it simony that my parish wants to charge a fee for having a funeral livestreamed?

Reckoning with empire: A Catholic critique of American foreign policy in a nuclear age

Wide shot of a sunrise on the beach, with a figure standing toward the left watching the light come into the sky

We’re at the beach. Let’s go see the sunrise

| Recent Local News |

Gun buyback exceeds expectations, previous totals

Radio Interview: The situation in Gaza with Catholic Near East Welfare Association

Patrick Brice sentenced to home detention for attacks on elderly pro-life supporters

Notre Dame of Maryland University joins with Milwaukee college to address teacher shortage

Sister Agnese Neumann dies at 95

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • For Gazans, the deep silence of hunger has replaced noise of daily life
  • Hope is knowing God is always ready to forgive, pope says at audience
  • Images of Mary: Can we find the Blessed Mother in the Old Testament?
  • Report: Christian church attacks down, but recent totals still higher than 2018-2022
  • How public opinion can influence migration policies
  • Question Corner: Is it simony that my parish wants to charge a fee for having a funeral livestreamed?
  • Home viewing roundup: What’s available to stream and what’s on horizon
  • Petition filed at Supreme Court seeks overturn of landmark same-sex marriage ruling
  • Head of Spanish political party criticizes Catholic Church’s defense of Muslim community

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

en Englishes Spanish
en en