Mother Mary Lange O.S.P.

Who is Mother Mary Lange O.S.P.?

  • Born in Cuba, the French-speaking Elizabeth Clarisse Lange arrived in Baltimore in the early 1800s. Many French-speaking refugees from Haiti were settling in Baltimore at the same time.
  • Mother Mary Lange founded St. Frances Academy in Baltimore in 1828. It was the nation’s first Catholic school for African Americans and still operates today.
  • Mother Lange founded the Baltimore-based Oblate Sisters of Providence in 1829, the nation’s first women’s religious community for those of African ancestry.
Translate »