As the nation’s first Catholic diocese, the Archdiocese of Baltimore is home to many trailblazers, including history-making women. During this Women’s History Month, we highlight five of them.
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
Canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1975, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton was the first American-born saint. Archbishop John Carroll invited her to Baltimore to serve as a school mistress. She took her first religious vows in 1809 and moved with a small band of sisters to Emmitsburg where she began the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph. St. Elizabeth Ann established St. Joseph’s Academy and Free School, the first free Catholic school for girls staffed by sisters in the United States. Many trace the modern Catholic school system in America to St. Elizabeth Ann’s Emmitsburg institution. She died in 1821.
Servant of God Mother Mary Lange
Believed to be of Haitian descent, Mary Elizabeth Lange arrived in Baltimore as a refugee from Cuba around 1813. She established St. Frances Academy in Baltimore in 1828 to educate Black children in an era of slavery, founding the Oblate Sisters of Providence in 1829 as the world’s first sustained religious community for women of African descent. Members of her order would later staff other schools around the country and other parts of the world. The Vatican is currently considering her cause for sainthood. She died in 1882.
Mother Mary Demetrias Cunningham
Mary Frances Cunningham was a parishioner of St. Martin in West Baltimore during the 1880s. Concerned about providing religious instruction to Black children, she started a Sunday school for them at her church. With the permission of Cardinal James Gibbons, she established the Mission Helpers of the Sacred Heart in 1890, taking “Mother Mary Demetrias” as her religious name. The women’s religious community began an industrial school for Black women and has served in numerous parishes throughout the archdiocese, in other states, Puerto Rico and Venezuela. She died in 1940.
Dr. Barbara McGraw Edmondson
Dr. Barbara McGraw Edmondson, the founding principal of School of the Incarnation in Gambrills, was the first lay woman to serve as superintendent of Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. She ministered from 2010 to 2017 and now serves as head of school at Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School in Washington, D.C.
Sinsinawa Dominican Sister Mary Montgomery had previously served three years in the early 1980s as co-superintendent of Catholic schools.
Dr. Diane Barr
Dr. Diane Barr is the first woman to serve as chancellor of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, holding the post since 2008. She is the highest-ranking woman in a leadership position in the archdiocese. Trained in both civil and canon law, Barr previously served as court administrator and judge for the Archdiocese of Atlanta’s Metropolitan Tribunal. Barr has acted as a key adviser to Cardinal Edwin F. O’Brien and Archbishop William E. Lori. She serves as the chief archivist of official archdiocesan records, overseeing the development of all archdiocesan policies, proper appointment of corporators and other legal matters.
Email George Matysek at gmatysek@CatholicReview.org
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