Eliza Healy

Eliza Healy (December 23, 1846 – September 13, 1919) was an educator, a member of the Congregation of Notre-Dame and the first African-American Catholic Mother Superior. She is a member of the Healy family, which is known for its illustrious achievements in spite of institutional racial segregation in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Family History

Born in 1846 in Macon, Georgia, Eliza Healy was the youngest daughter of Michael Morris Healy, an Irish immigrant and successful plantation owner, and Eliza Clarke, a biracial slave.[1] Born in County Roscommon, Ireland, Michael travelled to Canada as a member of the British army.[2] He then emigrated to Jones County, near Macon, Georgia. The couple lived together from 1829 until their deaths in 1850 and raised 10 children, nine of which survived to adulthood. Because of the partus sequitur ventrem principle, Eliza and her siblings (James, Hugh, Patrick, Sherwood (Alexander), Michael, Martha, Josephine (Amanda) and Eugene) were legally considered slaves, even though their father was a free white man and they had three fourths white ancestry. Georgia state law at the time prohibited slaves from receiving an education and prohibited manumission, so the Healy children were sent to the North to have an education and higher quality of life than what slaves in the South were accorded. When Eliza's parents died within months of each other in 1850, her five older brothers and one older sister were already living in the North. The three youngest Healy children, including Eliza, left Georgia after their parents' death and relocated to New York.[3]

Early life

Even though Michael was Catholic, his children were not baptized Catholics. Eliza and her two younger siblings, Josephine (Amanda) and Eugene, were baptized Catholic in New York in 1851.[4] Eliza and Josephine both attended schools operated by the Congregation of Notre-Dame in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu and in Montreal, Quebec.[5] Eliza and Josephine joined their siblings in Boston, Massachusetts when Eliza finished her secondary education in 1861.[6]

Religious Life

On May 1, 1874, at the age of 27, Eliza entered the novitiate of the Congregation of Notre Dame in Montreal and, in December of that same year, received the habit and her new religious name. Despite the customs of the times, the fact that she was black was not a hindrance to her admission by Mother Saint-Victor and her council. In fact, some twenty years earlier, Eliza's older sister, Martha Ann Healy entered the Congregation as professed Sister Sainte-Lucie from 1855 to 1863.[1] Martha Ann received then a dispensation from her vows.[4] After pronouncing her first vows on July 19, 1876, at twenty-nine years of age, Sister Saint Mary Magdalen began teaching at Saint-Patrick’s Academy in Montreal. Two years later, in 1878, she was among the three sisters who opened the CND mission in Brockville, Ontario. Some of the other places she taught were, Sherbrooke, Quebec, (1881-1886) and at St-Anthony’s in Montreal (1886-1888 and 1890-1894). After a year as assistant superior in Ottawa, Sister Saint Mary Magdalen was superior of a convent in Huntingdon, Quebec from 1895 to 1897 where her strong administrative skills enabled her to work in other capacities. From 1897 to 1898, she was also superior at St-Denis’s Academy. The two following years she was dean of English studies at the Congregation's sixth Mother House and from 1900 to 1903 she taught at École Normale Jacques-Cartier, section pour filles, in Montreal.[1]

From 1903 to 1918, Sister Saint Mary Magdalen was superior and headmistress of the Villa Barlow in St. Albans, Vermont, where she reorganized the school and its community. She was the first African American woman to receive this distinction.[4] Documents from the Congregation indicate that it was in a precarious financial situation at the start of her tenure and the community was prepared to abandon the site. She "had to struggle against the parish and even the diocesan authorities. Her wisdom enabled her to unravel the complicated problems, to assure the resources, to pay the debts, and to make this...mission one of our most prosperous houses in the United States." She also managed the health and hygiene practices of her fellow religious sisters and pupils in her charge.[4] In 1918, her fifteen years as superior came to an end when the new Code of Canon Law set limites to terms for religious superiors. Sadly but obediently, Sister Saint Mary Magdalen accepted a new challenge as superior of Notre Dame Academy in Staten Island, New York,[7] where in a short time, she improved the academy's financial situation. After eight months, due to health reasons, she had to leave this position, returning to the Mother House in Montreal. She died on September 13, 1919, of heart disease.[8] Her funeral was held at the Mother House on Friday, September 19.[1]

Legacy

Archives written by Eliza's community members describe her as having business and organizational acumen, an optimistic disposition and high expectations for her Congregation. They particularly noted her leadership skills and devotion to prayer. They described her as "so attractive, so upright! . . . She reserved the heaviest tasks for herself . . . in the kitchen, in the garden in the housework . . . She listened to everyone . . . was equal to everything . . . spared herself nothing . . . so that nothing was lacking to make the family (of the community) perfect."[4]

All three of the Healy daughters were professed nuns, though Martha left religious life in 1863. Four of the six Healy sons devoted their lives to Catholic religious orders. No surviving documents written by the Healy siblings ever address the issue of race, even though the issue of race lies at the core of their family history. Her brothers James and Alexander were described as visibly black, but Patrick's racial identity was not known outside of his Jesuit community. No surviving documents indicate that any of the Healy siblings engaged in the black Catholic community.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Manning, Margaret (1994). "Une fleur rare". Courrier Marguerite Bourgeoys (52): p. 10.
  2. ↑ Manning, Margaret (1994). "Une fleur rare". Courrier Marguerite Bourgeoys (52): p. 10.
  3. ↑ "Healy, Eliza". African American National Biography. Second Edition. Volume 5. New York: Oxford University Press. 2013.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Healy, Eliza. African American National Biography. Volume 5 (second ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. 2013.
  5. ↑ Manning, Margaret (1994). "Une fleur rare". Courrier Marguerite Bourgeoys (52).
  6. ↑ Healy, Eliza. African American National Biography. Second Edition. Volume 5. New York: Oxford University Press. 2013.
  7. ↑ Manning, Margaret (1994). "Une fleur rare". Courrier Marguerite Bourgeys (52): p. 11.
  8. ↑ Manning, Margaret (1994). "Une fleur rare". Courrier Marguerite Bourgeoys (2): p. 11.
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