Baltimore, Md., Dec 11, 2019 / 00:30 am
In the race to see who will become the first canonized black American saint, one candidate's cause has advanced: Mother Mary Lange, a renowned educator and founder of the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first community of religious sisters in the United States for women of color.
In an announcement last week from the Archdiocese of Baltimore, where Mother Mary Lange lived and served, Archbishop William Lori said that "I'm happy to say her cause is moving along."
After meeting with Vatican officials about Lange's cause last week, Lori reported that the paper arguing for her life of heroic virtue was nearly finished, and that the "positio," another document arguing for her cause for canonization, was complete and being sent to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. If approved, the document will be forwarded to Pope Francis, who would then be able to grant the title of "Venerable" to Mother Mary Lange.
Scant concrete details are known about the early life of Mother Lange. She was born Elizabeth Clarisse Lange sometime around the year 1784, most likely in a French-speaking area of Santiago, Cuba. Her parents were reportedly refugees who fled to Cuba from a revolution in their native Saint Domingue (in present-day Haiti), according to the Black and Indian Mission Office.