Holy Women of Paca Street

Holy Women of Paca Street. St. Mary's Park.

Original Site of St. Mary's Seminary and University (established 1791) , First Roman Catholic Seminary founded in the United States

, St. Mary's Historic Seminary Chapel (1808) was designed by Maximilian Godefroy (1765-c. 1847) for the Sulpician Fathers to serve the seminary and college communities on the site. Until 1858 it also served the surrounding neighborhood as a parish church. Among those who worshiped in the chapel were three holy women: Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton, Mother Mary Lange, and Mother Theresa Maxis Duchemin. With the support and encouragement of the Sulpician Fathers, they established three of the country's first religious communities., St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821) , Mother Seton, a widow with five children, arrived in Baltimore in 1808. A recent convert to the Catholic faith, she was invited here by the Sulpician Fathers and took up residence on Paca Street. Here she opened a school for girls and, more importantly, discerned a call to religious life. She founded the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph's in 1809. Over its history, the community has opened and staffed schools, hospitals, orphanages, and social outreach programs., In 1975 she was the first native-born American to be declared a saint., Mother Mary Lange, O.SP. (c. 1794-1882) , Mother Lange came to Baltimore from Cuba as a free woman of color in the early 1800s. A gifted teacher, she opened a school for black children in the Fells Point neighborhood. Later she was asked to open a school for the daughters of the Haitian refugee community who worshipped at St. Mary's Historic Seminary Chapel. A call to religious life led to the founding of the Oblates Sisters of Providence in 1829, the first community for religious women of color. Dedicated to serving people of color, the Oblate Sisters have opened and staffed schools, social outreach programs, an orphanage, and a home for the elderly over their history. Mother Lange's cause for sainthood was introduced in 1991., Mother Theresa Maxia Duchemin, I.H.M. (1810-1892) , Mother Duchemin was a member of Baltimore's Haitian refugee community and a free woman of color. She worshipped at St. Mary's Historic Seminary Chapel and was enrolled in a school operated by Mother Lange. She was a founding member of the Oblate Sisters of Providence. In 1845 she departed Baltimore to found a new religious community in Monroe, Michigan, dedicated to the education of children and young women, the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. She later established communities in Scranton and Immaculata, Pennsylvania.