LA CROSSE—Sister Marydel Bissen, Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration, 94, died on July 4, 2023, at St. Rose Convent, La Crosse, WI. She was in the 72nd year of her
(OSV News) Little is known about the early life of Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange, whom Pope Francis declared venerable June 22. However, it is possible she may become one of the United States first Black Catholic saints.
Likely of what today is Haitian ethnicity, Mother Lange born Elizabeth Clarisse Lange emigrated from Cuba shortly after the War of 1812 and made her way to Baltimore, where she ran a school for African-American children in her home. Sulpician Father James Joubert had