The Monsignor William Barry Memorial Library welcomes all to join in the celebration of Black Catholic History Month. If you have any questions, suggestions, or concerns please contact me at mnembhard@barry.edu, or 305-899-4051.
Meeting in Fordham University in New York, the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus of the United States voted on Tuesday, July 24, 1990 to designate November as Black Catholic History Month. November marks a time when the Church prays for all saints and souls in loving remembrance, as well as a time to recall the saints and souls of Africa and the African Diaspora. The decision to designate November as Black Catholic History Month, also depended on the fact that a number of important dates to Catholics of African descent fell within this month. Read More.
Catholics first arrived in what is now the United States in the middle of the sixteenth century. The settlement, named in honor of St. Augustine, was made in what is now the northern part of Florida by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés in 1565. These first settlers were Spanish speaking, all were Catholics, and some were white and others black. In fact, on the first page of the baptismal register appear the names of infants who are described as black or mulattoes. Read More.
A militant national organization of black Catholics that sought to eliminate discriminatory practices against African Americans especially in Catholic institutions. The key figure in its foundation was Dr. Thomas W. Turner, a black Catholic educator associated with Hampton Institute, Hampton, Virginia. Early in 1917, he and a small group of black friends organized the Committee against the Extension of Race Prejudice in the Church. To achieve their objectives, these pioneers used written personal appeals to members... Read More.
(SSF, Official Catholic Directory #1950), an African-American congregation of sisters who work among the poor and underprivileged. The congregation was founded at New Orleans, Louisiana, Nov. 21, 1842, by Henriette De Lisle and Juliette Gaudin, two freeborn black women, under the direction of Étienne Rousselon, vicar-general of the diocese, and with the assistance of Marie Jeanne Aliquot, a French immigrant who remained an auxiliary of the society until her death in 1863...Read More.
A predominantly African-American Catholic fraternal organization founded Nov. 7, 1909 at Mobile, Ala., by three Black laymen (Gilbert Faustina, Frank Collins and Frank Trenier) and four Josephite fathers (Revs. Conrad F. Rebesher, John H. Dorsey, Samuel J. Kelly and Joseph P. Van Baast), and placed under the patronage of St. Peter Claver. It was incorporated on July 12, 1911. The organization was later extended to include fourth-degree knights (1917), junior knights (1917), ladies auxiliary (1922), and junior daughters... Read More.
Established in August 1968, the National Black Sisters' Conference (NBSC) seeks to provide ongoing support on the formation, education, and support of African-American women religious; to develop resources for the deepening of spirituality and promotion of unity and solidarity among African-American women religious; to facilitate the development of religious education from an African-American perspective; to stimulate the growth of African-American spirituality; ...Read More.
The Oblate Sisters of Providence, an order of black nuns, pioneered in the area of black Catholic education in America. The order was founded in Baltimore in 1828 by a group of free women of color who had fled the turmoil of slave insurrections on the French island colony of San Domingo. Elizabeth Lange, one of the order's founding members, had already been involved in educating black children in Baltimore when she was approached by a local priest with the idea of founding a "religious society of virgins and widows of color." Three other Haitian women joined Lange in the formation of the community... Read More.
Foundress; b. New Orleans, 1834; d. Savannah, 1903. Her mother was a Creole of African and European ancestry, her father was Native American. Orphaned at a young age, she came to live and work in Savannah, Georgia. She taught black children in her home, in secret, because instructing such children was against state law at that time. In Savannah, she married Abraham Beasley, a black Catholic and widower from Richmond, Feb. 9,1869. She was baptized in the Catholic Church, at the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist, March 27, 1869. Read More.
(SSF, Official Catholic Directory #1950), an African-American congregation of sisters who work among the poor and underprivileged. The congregation was founded at New Orleans, Louisiana, Nov. 21, 1842, by Henriette De Lisle and Juliette Gaudin, two freeborn black women, under the direction of Étienne Rousselon, vicar-general of the diocese, and with the assistance of Marie Jeanne Aliquot, a French immigrant who remained an auxiliary of the society until her death in 1863. Read More.
Canonization is a solemn declaration by the pope in which a deceased member of the faithful is proposed as a model and intercessor to the Christian faithful and venerated as a saint on the basis of having lived a life of heroic virtue or having remained faithful to God through martyrdom [W. J. Levada, "Glossary," Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2d ed. (Washington 2000)]. Read More.
The article offers information related to "There are no African American saints. A lay Catholic group seeks to change that" by Alejandra Molina, which appeared in the periodical "National Catholic Reporter" on January 2022, is presented. Topic includes on Ralph Moore went into St. Pius Church in West Baltimore late one night with his friends and painted the statues of Jesus and Mary black a "parting shot" before he left Catholicism. Read More.
The article discusses the highlights of a special event held at the Saint Katharine Drexel Chapel at Xavier University of Louisiana to announce an effort to advance the canonization of Catholic African Americans Pierre Toussaint, Henriette Delille, Mary Elizabeth Lange, Augustus Tolton, and Julia Greeley. Also mentioned are the attendees at the event including members of the Joint Conference of Black Catholic Clergy, Black Sisters, and Black Catholic Seminarians, and Black Catholic Deacons. Read More.
The article presents several candidates for the first African American Catholic saint from the U.S., as the canonization for African Americans becomes an initiative by the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University in New Orleans. Pierre Toussaint opened the first African American Catholic school in New York. Henriette Delille founded the Sisters of the Holy Family, a religious order of consecrated women. Augustus Tolton built and developed an African American Catholic parish. Read More.
Religious sister, educator, lecturer, vocalist, evangelist; b. Bertha Bowman in Yazoo City, Mississippi, Dec. 29, 1937; d. Canton, Mississippi, March 30, 1990. In August of 1953, at the age of 15, Bowman entered the formation program of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in La Crosse, Wisconsin. She graduated from Viterbo College in La Crosse and then pursued ...Read More.
Former slave, hairdresser, entrepreneur, philanthropist; b. 1766, the French colony of Saint Domingue (in modern day Haiti); d. June 30, 1853, New York City. Toussaint's mother and maternal grandmother were house slaves on a plantation in the Artibonite River Valley, near Saint Marc. The owner, Pierre Bérard, a devout Catholic treated his slaves in a humane manner. Read More.
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