Finger of God (PB) (2019)

This compelling story takes place in 1828 in the city of Baltimore, Maryland, thirty-five years before the Emancipation Proclamation. Although Maryland was a slave state, it was one of the few states that allowed free Catholic students of color to receive worship and teaching. The story is centered on Elizabeth Lange of Santiago de Cuba and her companions, who were refugees from San Dominique who fled a bloody massacre in their own country to later settle in Baltimore. Elizabeth Lange operated a free school by her own means at the time for the sole purpose of educating free students of color. This was the First of its Kind. At this crucial time in history and because slavery still existed, there were only a few places that black Catholics could worship, and one such place in Baltimore was Chapelle Base in the lower level chapel of St. Mary's Seminary. It was in this moment in time with the outstanding teaching of Elizabeth Lange and her companions, the two worlds of Elizabeth Lange and Father Joubert, a French priest came together by the will of God to orchestra the formation of the Oblate Sisters of Providence. The churches first community of black nuns formed in the history of the America. This endeavor at first was met with a lot of oppositions within the Catholic Church at the time, but the two faithful servants sent by God, Mother Mary Lange and Father Joubert, endured it all. This formation became authentic and ordained from the Pope in 1832. Mother Mary Lange became the founder of the Oblate Sisters of Providence. The story of the Oblate Sisters of Providence represents a true historical place in American History.