Religious Figure. She received acclaim for being the founder of the African American religious community, Sisters of the Holy Family. While her maternal great-grandmother was a slave from West Africa, she was a fourth-generation free woman of color, hence she was a quadroon, who was trained to be a mistress to wealthy white men. Her father was a white man of French descend. Although raised as an educated lady of privilege and comfort, she rebelled her planned lifestyle; after the death of her two young sons, she had a religious experience becoming a Roman Catholic nun. When Henriette was declared to be of legal age, she sold all her property and on November 21, 1836; she and eight other black women became the Sisters of Presentation. They cared for the sick and poor and upon acceptance of the order by the Roman Catholic Church assuming the name Sisters of the Holy Family in 1842. Mother Henriette Delille died of tuberculosis at her convent which was located behind present day historic St. Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. Her work lives on with some 400 Sisters of the Holy Family working in four states and Central America. Sr Henriette Delille is the first United States native-born African American whose cause for canonization has been officially opened by the Catholic Church. In 1989, the Sisters of the Holy Family formally opened its cause with the Vatican in the canonization of Henriette DeLille and was then called Servant of God by Pope John Paul II. She was declared "Venerable" in 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI. The combined work of the doctors and theologians will be given to the members of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Two miracles have been submitted. Verification of the miracles, one in Arkansas and one in Texas, are the last two steps in an arduous process to declare Delille a saint. Both cases involve people who were near death but healed after prayers were offered to her for a healing. If positive, Henriette will be declared blessed and the Beatification Ceremony will take place in New Orleans. She will always be a historical figure of New Orleans.