No Cross, No Crown: Black Nuns in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans

By Mary Bernard Deggs

Book Overview

Nineteenth-century New Orleans was a diverse city. The French-speaking Catholic Creoles, whether black, white, or racially mixed-so different from the city's English-speaking residents-inspired intense curiosity and speculation. But none of the city's inhabitants evoked as much wonder as did the Sisters of the Holy Family, whose mission was to evangelize slaves and free people of color and to care for the poor, sick, and elderly.

These women, whose community still thrives, are portrayed in an account written between 1896 and 1898 by one of their sisters, Mary Bernard Deggs, who shortly before her death made it her mission to record the remarkable historical journey the women had taken to serve those of their race. Although Deggs did not officially join the Sisters of the Holy Family until 1873, she was a student at the sisters' early school on Bayou Road and thus would have known, as a child, Henriette Delille, the founder and first mother superior of the Sisters of the Holy Family, and the other
women who joined her.

This account captures, in a most graphic way, the founding of the
Sisters of the Holy Family in New Orleans in 1842 and the difficult years that followed. It was not until 1852 that the foundresses were able to
take their first official vows and exchange their blue percale gowns for
black ones (and it was 1873 before they were permitted to wear a formal
religious habit). Shortly before Delille's death in 1862, Union forces
seized the city, and Delille's successor, Juliette Gaudin, faced dire
economic circumstances. The war and postwar years economically devastated
New Orleans and its population. Freed slaves poured into the city,
unintentionally adding themselves to the already overwhelming mission of
the sisters. Those were the poorest and most uncertain years the sisters
were to face.

We know very little about Sister Mary Bernard Deggs herself, but her history of the early years of the Sisters of

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0253215439
• ISBN13: 9780253215437
• Release Date: August 2002
• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 9.3"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Holy Family Nuns Give Their All For God and The Poor

After reading two books on Henriette Delille categorized as historical fiction, I chose No Cross No Crown to sort the fiction from the facts. The introduction was loaded with background for the book starting with Bishop John Carroll appointing Louis William Dubourg as apostolic administrator of the vast territory created by The Louisiana Purchase. Dubourg frustrated by the lack of manpower and resources as well as the deplorable situation in New Orleans, decided to take his case to the Pope and get help or resign. Rather than accept his resignation, the Pope made him Bishop over the vast territory and Dubourg spent months recruiting religious to help manpower it. Against this background, Henriette Delille and her two friends, Juliette Gaudin and Josephine Charles, all free people of color, started their work serving those most in need in the black community. Their work resulted in a religious community later named Sisters of the Holy Family. Sr. Mary Bernard Deggs was chosen to write this journal on the early years of the community most likely because she was one of two members of the community that personally knew Henriette. She began the journal in 1892 and it ends wither her death in 1896. The book has 5 chapters with the first covering Henriette and Juliette Gaudin, and the rest covering one administrator each chapter ending with Sr Mary Ellen Jones. The journal takes us inside the minds of the nuns showing how deeply they depended on God and how much they sacrificed for Him. Often, they gave everything they had to care for the poor, leaving themselves to suffer the cold and drinking sugar water to kill the hunger pang before going to bed. The journal is very frank, not covering up the failings of some the members. Some were jealous of their leaders and coveted their power. Some left the community. But most did their best to accomplish God’s work on earth. The real value of the book is the insight to the members thoughts that are repeated chapter after chapter and gradually affecting our own relation with God.