The French Connection: The Sulpicians and the Religious Communities at Paca Street

by Ronald D. Witherup, PSS

The Sulpicians arrived in Baltimore from France in 1791 at the request of Bishop John Carroll, first bishop of the United States. They were invited to found St. Mary’s Seminary—the first Catholic seminary in the U.S.—which they did at One Mile Tavern on Paca Street, which is now in the center of Baltimore but then was a mile outside the city. By 1808, they had constructed a seminary chapel, designed by French-born architect Maximilian Godefroy (d. ca. 1840). It is considered the first Neo-Gothic church in the U.S. Because the main chapel upstairs was restricted to seminarians, there was also a lower chapel (chappelle basse), which served as a parish for French-speaking immigrants of color under the care of some Sulpicians. Most came from Saint Domingue (present-day Haiti).

From the beginning in Baltimore, there was always a French connection. All the early Sulpicians hailed from France, where the French Revolution had wreaked havoc on the Church. In Baltimore, many Sulpicians engaged in pastoral ministry beyond seminary formation. They became spiritual directors for women who would go on to found religious orders, such as (St.) Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton (d. 1821) who founded the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph’s. She was a widow who came from New York to Baltimore to discern her future on the advice of her Sulpician spiritual director. Within a year she took her vows in the lower chapel of the Seminary in the presence of Bishop Carroll. Shortly thereafter, Mother Seton moved her fledgling community to a more rural setting in Emmitsburg, Maryland. If she was the first to get her start at the little Sulpician chapel on Paca Street, she was not the last.

Another important figure was Mary Elizabeth Lange (d. ca. 1882), who was a regular presence at Paca Street. She was close to Sulpician Father James Hector Joubert (d. 1843), her spiritual director and a priest passionately concerned about racism and prejudice against women. Joubert established catechetical lessons for black girls with this motivation: “I thought that if a school could be opened for the colored girls where they might learn to read, it would be possible to have them recite the Catechism on Sunday.” This endeavor garnered the support of Sulpician authorities. In time, with Joubert as a co-founder, Mother Lange founded the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first community of African American women religious in the world.

Yet another directee of Father Joubert who attended the small parish community in the lower chapel was Theresa Maxis Duchemin (d. 1892). Although born in Baltimore in 1810, her mother was Haitian while her father was British. She became a founding member of the Oblate Sisters of Providence in 1830 and even became their Superior General. Prior to her association with the Oblates, however, Mother Duchemin had been active in various confraternities operated by the Sulpicians at Paca Street, perhaps as early as 1822, when she was listed as a member of the parish. She participated in Mother Lange’s project of opening a school for girls and women who had participated in the founding of the Oblate Sisters. Mother Duchemin, who was apparently  fair-skinned, remained with the Oblate Sisters until 1845, when she departed for Michigan in the company of a Redemptorist priest, Rev. L. F. Gillet, with whom she co-founded the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Two remarkable aspects of this short history are noteworthy. First, Father Joubert’s involvement with these religious communities demonstrated an extraordinary openness to people of color in a context of slavery and racism. At times he suffered opposition for his courageous stance yet never succumbed to despair. Second, Father Joubert’s commitment to the education of women is noteworthy in an era that generally restricted formal education to males. His work with these three women, all of whom had ties to the lower chapel on Paca Street, testifies to the efficacy of his ministry.

Today, the chapel can be visited; it largely looks as it did in the nineteenth century. Within it now are statues of these three visionary women; Mother Duchemin’s statue was installed in 2010. Over the years, several IHM Sisters have worked with Sulpicians either at St. Mary’s Seminary or at the historic site on Paca Street, when it functioned as a spiritual center for the French speaking women. The French connection has indeed borne fruit!

Sulpician Father Ronald D. Witherup, PSS, is former Provincial of the U.S. Province (1997-2008) and former Superior General (2008-2022).