Henriette Delille Center and Sisters of the Holy Family
Why is it significant?
You stand along historic Henriette Delille Street, named in honor of Venerable Henriette Delille, one of the most heroic, selfless, and revered religious pioneers in American history.
Key Facts
| Place | Henriette Delille Center and Sisters of the Holy Family |
|---|---|
| Address | 1200 Henriette Delille St, New Orleans, LA 70116, United States |
| Geo Coordinates | 29.96450, -90.07500 |
| Part of Walk | Tremé, Congo Square and Armstrong Park: The African American Cradle of Jazz |
| Generated | Generated |
You stand along historic Henriette Delille Street, named in honor of Venerable Henriette Delille, one of the most heroic, selfless, and revered religious pioneers in American history. Born in New Orleans in 1812 as a free woman of color of French, Spanish, and African descent, Delille was expected by her family to participate in the placage system, an accepted colonial institution wherein wealthy white men took young women of color as formal concubines in exchange for financial support.
Delille courageously rejected this system of exploitation, declaring: "I believe in God. I hope in God. I love. I want to live and die for God."
In 1842, in this very Tremé neighborhood alongside Juliette Gaudin and Josephine Charles, Delille founded the Sisters of the Holy Family, officially recognized as only the second Roman Catholic religious order for Black women established in the United States. Under Delille's leadership, the sisters took solemn vows of poverty and devoted their lives to serving those whom society discarded: establishing the first Catholic school for free and enslaved Black girls, caring for abandoned elderly former slaves in the South's first nursing home, and nursing yellow fever victims through recurring epidemics. Despite facing deep racial prejudice from white church authorities, who initially forbade the Black sisters from wearing religious habits in public, their order expanded across Louisiana and the Caribbean. In 2010, Pope Benedict XVI declared Henriette Delille "Venerable," advancing her cause toward official sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church.
Standing in the quiet street that bears her name, you are humbled by the extraordinary courage of a woman who defied social oppression to dedicate her life to love and justice. Henriette Delille remains a shining saint of New Orleans.
Walk southeast along Orleans Avenue toward the historic Basin Street jazz corridor.