Elizabeth Lange was born in Santiago de Cuba. Because she was well educated, it is believed that she came from a family of means. In the early1800's, Lange left Cuba to seek peace and security in the United States. She moved to Baltimore, MD, where many French-speaking Catholic refugees from the Haitian Revolution were settling. With her friend, Marie Magdelaine Balas, Elizabeth offered free education to children of Caribbean immigrants and free African Americans in her home.

In 1828, Father Joubert, S.S., with Archbishop James Whitfield's backing, encouraged Mother Lange to found a religious order to educate African-American girls. The Oblate Sisters of Providence would become the first sustained religious order for women of African descent. She took the name Mary at her profession of vows. Mother Lange served as the first mother superior of the order from 1829 to 1832, then again from 1835 to 1841. The sisters educated youth and provided a home for orphans, nursed the terminally ill during the cholera epidemic of 1832, and sheltered the elderly.

For decades, the Oblate Sisters of Providence were the sole providers of Catholic education for black children in Baltimore. The sisters' school would eventually become St. Frances Academy — the oldest continuously operating school for black Catholic children in the United States.  Mother Lange died in 1882 at her convent. In 1991, Cardinal Keeler, Archbishop Emeritus of Baltimore, began the canonization process for Mother Lange. At present, she is referred to as the Servant of God Mother Mary Lange. 

Adapted from https://catholicreview.org/meet-mother-mary-lange-the-namesake-of-the-archdiocese-of-baltimores-newest-school/

Learn more:
· https://catechistcafe.weebly.com/uploads/9/4/2/8/9428334/saints_-_lange.pdf
· https://www.motherlange.org/