June 29: The Institute Catholique

Welcome to the American Catholic Daily Reader podcast. Today is June 29th, and our story is The Institute Catholique. My name is Marie Justine Siernair. I was born in Guinea. When I was perhaps seven years of age, I was carried to Saint-Domingue. I am, as a result, not aware of the name of my father or my mother, nor do I know my age. I was married to Bernard Couvent, free negro, whose widow I now am. We have had no children.

I bequeath and order that my land at the corner of Grand Homes and Union Streets be dedicated and used in perpetuity for the establishment of a free school for the colored orphans of the Faubourg Morindy. Also, I declare that said lands and buildings shall never be sold under any pretext whatsoever.

Signed, Madame Marie C. Couvent, native of West Africa, former slave, free woman of color. Shortly before her death on June 29, 1837, Marie Couvent dictated those words to her priest, Father Constantine Manaholt of St. Louis Cathedral, New Orleans.

Couvent had come to New Orleans decades earlier in the wake of the great Haitian slave uprising. In Louisiana, she found freedom, and through her hard work and the work of her husband, New Orleans' preeminent Afro-Creole carpenter, Bernard Covent, she built up a substantial fortune.

Although it took more than ten years of legal wrangling after her death, that fortune eventually gave rise to the Institut Catholique, a private Catholic school that made it possible for thousands of the city's free black children to learn what their patroness never did, how to read and write.

At the time of the school's founding, New Orleans prohibited free black children from attending public schools. In order to educate their children, the city's wealthier African Americans hired private tutors or sent their children to school in France. Couvent's legacy, once secured, helped to provide for the rest.

Although the Institut Catholique was destroyed by a hurricane in 1915, a steady succession of Catholic schools have operated on the property ever since, ensuring that the wishes of a former slave are honored to this day. Marie Couvent's life exemplifies the power of foresight and generosity.

She transformed personal success into communal opportunity, ensuring that the next generation could access education she was denied. Her vision created lasting change, illustrating that true freedom includes the ability to empower others. Consider a way today that you can support education or empowerment for underserved communities in your area.

Thank you for listening to the American Catholic Daily Reader podcast. Join us tomorrow, June 30th, for another story of faith and courage in America.