Tag: courageous saints

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Mother Mary Lange, an educator after my own heart

I have a soft spot for saints who were teachers. And I have a quirky desire to dig up as many unknown saints as I can in my reading, so I’d like to introduce you to this incredible woman, Mother Mary Lange, who founded the Oblate Sisters of Providence in Baltimore, Maryland.

Mother Lange’s cause for canonization has been open since 1991, and perhaps moving closer to the day she will be canonized.

I wrote about her in my book, My Badass Book of Saints, because she has some unusual ties to the Caribbean, and I wanted to explore her further. She and I share a common circumstance in our immigration stories. Both of us are refugees; her family fled the dangers of the Haitian Revolution and my family fled the dangers of the Cuban Revolution.

Born Elizabeth Lange in 1790, some sources say she was born in Haiti or the Dominican Republic, and then emigrated to Santiago de Cuba, others say she was born in Cuba. She eventually emigrated to the United States and settled in Baltimore, Maryland.

She dedicated herself to educating the Black children in her community and fervently wanted to consecrate her life to the Lord. At that time, there were no orders of religious sisters taking women of African descent. The Emancipation Proclamation was decades away, and educating slaves was illegal. Elizabeth took it upon herself to privately fund her efforts to educate the children in her community. She did this with another like-minded young woman, and together they formed a small school out of her home, serving the needs of the Catholic African-American community in which she lived.

When the local bishop found out, he urged her to found an order for African-American women, and thus, she became the foundress of the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first religious order for women of African descent. Her little school became the Baltimore Academy for Colored Girls and later changed it’s name to St. Frances Academy. Today, the school is co-educational and continues to serve a largely African-American student body.

 

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Featured Saint: Rose of Lima

St. Rose of Lima medalI have recently developed a special devotion to St. Rose of Lima. I feel like she picked me, instead of the other way around.

At the recent Edel Gathering in Charleston, I happened to have her assigned to me as my hall pass and conference patron. There’s a more complicated story about that. I’ll share it another time, but suffice to say, she’s my girl now.

Coincidentally, or God-incidentally, she’s also featured in my very favorite chapter of My Badass Book of Saints.

Because I grew up Catholic and attended Catholic schools, I knew of St. Rose in that way that most kids get to know saints — there was probably a statue of her somewhere, most likely in the convent or a classroom, and if she wasn’t a martyr with some fantastic tale of a beheading, then that’s about where the story ended for me.

I’m desperately trying to make up for lost time when it comes to familiarizing myself with the lives of extraordinary men and especially women whose holy lives inspire me to grow in sanctity — one story at a time.

St. Rose, the story goes, was so beautiful that she cut off her hair and rubbed pepper all over her face in order to repel suitors.

That got my attention.

She consecrated her virginity to Christ, in spite of her father’s opposition. He wanted her to marry and blocked her from becoming a nun. He finally gave in to her, and allowed her to pursue an ascetic life, retired to her rooms.

Although she never became a nun, she did enter The Third Order St. Dominic and served the poor and sick in her community. I liked her for serving the poor, something that pulls at my heart, too.

“The gift of grace increases as the struggle increases.” -St. Rose of Lima

But her care for the sick drew me in. I started reading about St. Rose at about the same time my father’s cancer took a bad turn, and the more I read about her, the more I began to see the beauty in his caregivers, starting first with my mother but also in the loving selflessness of nurses and other health professionals.

As I learn to accept and go with the flow in my own husband’s illness, I take great solace in knowing I have in St. Rose a companion and prayer partner. That I continue to encounter her in odd moments, whether in a chapel, or like at Edel, in a medal picked out for me by someone else, tells me she has taken an interest in me.

Blows my mind a little, but why not? You can’t beat having a Saint want to befriend you, now, can you? Takes spiritual friendship to a new level. And grace.

 

 

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Featured Saint: Philip Neri

neriSaint Philip Neri is one of my favorite saints. OK, every Saint is one of my favorite saints. I might as well own it.

As far as saints go, St. Philip had quite a life of influence, even though he sought humility. He was born in Florence, Italy in 1515 to a family of means. He seemed destined for success in business but had a spiritual conversion that ultimately led to the priesthood. Neri worked with the poor and sick, and ministered to prostitutes.

Neri’s gift was engaging people in conversation, and then leading them to conversion by having them ponder questions he posed to them. He’s probably best known for creating the Oratory, a congregation he founded for mission work in Rome, and dedicated himself to preaching sermons through Rome.

St. Philip Neri became increasingly popular. He was playful and clever, and often made himself a source of ridicule in order to deflect much of the admiration that came his way. His wisdom, and particularly his use of humor, has drawn me to him, as it did those who knew him. St. Philip approached life with a joyful heart, and endeavored to spread that joy.

I leave you with his best advice:

It is useful for those who minister the word of God, or give themselves up to prayer, to read the works of authors whose names begin with the letter S, such as Saint Augustine, Saint Bernard, etc.

 

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