Oblate Sisters of Providence

1829

In 1829, three Caribbean women founded the Oblate Sisters of Providence in Baltimore, Maryland, making it the first Black Catholic order of nuns. After taking their vows, Sisters Mary Elizabeth Lange, of Cuba, and Mary Rosine Boegues and Mary Frances Balas, of Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti), established the order. They opened a school to educate African American girls and women and eventually established a home for widows and orphans.