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Sister
Marcia Hall of the Oblate Sisters of Providence speaks at Villanova
By Elizabeth Solly
'05
On Nov. 16, the Department of Africana Studies
introduced guest speaker Sister Marcia Hall, of the Oblate Sisters of
Providence order. Sister Hall, who earned her Ph.D. in sociology from the
University of Michigan and currently serves as vice principal of a Catholic
school in Baltimore, began her presentation with a “pop quiz” about the
Oblate order. She then proceeded to detail their extraordinary history.
According to Sister Hall, the Oblate community was
founded by Elizabeth Lange, a Haitian refugee who came to Baltimore in the
early n19th century. She was a woman of color in a slave-holding state and
a French-speaker in an English-speaking country, but she was determined to
do the work of God.
She started a school for refugee children in her own
home, which evolved into St. Francis Academy in 1828. The school prospered,
taking in boarders, day-students and orphans, referred to as “Children of
the House.”
In 1829, Elizabeth Lange took vows of poverty,
chastity and obedience with three of her friends. This marked the official
establishment of the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the oldest congregation
of black women religious in the world. Elizabeth Lange changed her name to
Mother Mary Lange at this time, and modern-day Oblate sisters refer to
themselves as “Daughters of Mother Lange.”
Throughout its development, the Oblate Sisters of
Providence order, as an organization of women of color, has faced many
obstacles. One bishop asked the sisters to disband and become servants
instead. Some of the original members found the opposition too great and
headed to the Midwest, where they “passed” for white and started their own
order.
Through all this, Sister Hall explained, the Oblate
sisters have persevered and prospered. There were 300 members at their peak,
though that number has dwindled to a current membership of 95 (reflective of
a universal decline of participants in religious life). They have missions
in 22 states, as well as the Dominican Republic. St. Francis Academy has
expanded and Sister Hall will take over as principal for the school next
year.
Sister
Hall then opened the floor for questions, and shared some of her personal
experiences and inspirations as a Daughter of Mother Lange. |
