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When author Lisa Brown first discovered the subject of her book, “Posing as Nuns, Passing as White: the Gouley Sisters,” she was intrigued. She had never heard of the African-American order Sisters of Our Lady of Lourdes, even though she had grown up as an African American in New Orleans and attended St. Julian Eymard, Xavier Preparatory High School and Xavier University. It wasn’t until she read the 1990 “The History of Black Catholics in the United States” by Benedictine Father Cyprian Davis, a co-founder of the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus, that she discovered the long-lost order.
“I wondered how I could have lived in New Orleans all my life and not known about this order of nuns,” she said in a recent lecture at the Jefferson Parish Library main branch in Metairie.
Father Davis, a Xavier Institute for Black Catholic Studies faculty member, encouraged her to compile a history on black Catholic sisterhoods. Brown accepted that challenge and started research in 1999 as a graduate student at the University of New Orleans. Two years later, she chose it as her master’s thesis. (The book is modified from the thesis.)
Research from the archives of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, the Benedictine order in Kentucky, St. Louis Cathedral sacramental records (documenting free people of color who were baptized Catholic), the Williams Collection at the Historic New Orleans Collection and even real estate transfers led to more questions than answers. But, she gleaned interesting facts of the order that existed from 1883-1928.
“I found proof that three women of color had established that order,” Brown said.
Brown surmised that since the Gouley family – free persons of color – lived in the 2200 block of North Peters, the twin sisters Marie Emilie and Marie were probably inspired to become religious sisters by the Benedictine nuns who taught at nearby Holy Trinity Church, although they didn’t attend school there.
A long road
In 1872, the two entered the Order of St. Benedict in Covington, Ky. A decade later, when the time came to profess perpetual vows, Marie Emilie was refused by Benedictine Mother Alexia Lechner and dismissed from the community because of years of obstinacy and disruption of the order. Marie Emilie also was refused entry into the Benedictines in New Orleans.
Her twin, Marie Gouley, proclaimed final vows in Covington, Ky., as Sister Mary Radegundes and stayed until she joined her sister’s new order as Sister Marie Anastasia in 1888. She died in 1928 at age 88.
Her refusal of vows prompted Marie Emilie’s persistent letter-writing campaign to New Orleans Archbishop Napoleon Joseph Perché to establish her own Catholic religious order. (She claimed having a vision of founding an order in honor of the Virgin Mary, named the Sisters of Our Lady of Lourdes.)
Marie Emilie then wrote to Pope Leo XIII for permission, and Brown said, “The pope responded affirmatively to her wish through Archbishop Perché and stipulated that she had to approach the archbishop for permission.” Papal approbation was never achieved.
In February 1883, Archbishop Perché received the vows of Marie Emilie Gouley, now Mother Marie Euphrasia, order superior (she died in 1922 at age 81); and sisters Marie Philomene Gouley (Sister Marie Agnes, who died in 1922 at 83) and Marie Catherine Louisa Gouley (Sister Marie Lucie, the last survivor, signaling the order’s demise.) The Sisters of Our Lady of Lourdes became the fifth congregation for women of color, Brown said.
“I think (Archbishop Perché) just let her go, and if it fails, it fails; if it succeeds, it succeeds, but I’ve never really studied his papers, only what the Gouley sisters wrote,” Brown said.
Archbishop Perché limited the order to Gouley family members and required them to live at home with their mother. New members could be accepted, but the convent would dissolve when they died (and it did). Archbishop Perché died later that same year, leaving the order without much support from future archbishops, Brown said.
From what Brown discovered, the order was poor and lived in substandard housing for most of its existence. Its main apostolic endeavor was education. Brown found the first mention of a school in an 1887 document. The order taught catechism (stressing First Communion preparation) to children of color and Italian-Americans who lived in the French Quarter.
When their education ministry ceased, “the sisters took up needlework and embroidery and made artificial flowers to augment their income,” Brown said, citing Father Davis’ book. At its peak, the order had only nine nuns.
“It seemed like they stayed mostly in their convent,” Brown said. “One thing I noticed about them, they were never fazed by things that happened around them. They stayed in their own world. All they saw was their family and what was related to what they wanted.”
Through her research, Brown developed an awe for the “tenacious spirit” of the women who founded the local religious congregation.
“If you persevere and have faith, you can do whatever you want,” she said. “No matter what people feel or how negative they are about you, do whatever you want in life.”
Since so many questions remain to be answered about the nuns, Brown vowed to continue her research.
“I want to go a little further,” she said. “I think there is more to it than what I’ve seen and presented. I want to find out more about their brother (John William Severin Gouley, born 1832 and a medical school graduate in 1853 who became a doctor in New York). To me, this is just a fascinating story.”
Brown is currently working on a tour-guide book of the New Orleans site where the Gouley sisters resided. Order her book at [email protected].
Christine Bordelon can be reached at [email protected].
Tags: Gouley sisters, Lisa Brown, Uncategorized