Juliette Noel Toussaint

Juliette Toussaint, née Marie-Rose Juliette Noel, (ca. 1786 – 1851) was the wife of the Venerable Pierre Toussaint, a man who has been designated a candidate for sainthood by the Vatican.

Juliette, along with her husband, performed many charitable works. Among those works included opening their home as an orphanage, employment bureau, and a refuge for travelers. They contributed funds and helped raise money to build Saint Patrick's Cathedral on Mulberry Street. Due to the exemplary and devout life of the couple, they were petitioned for the cause of beatification, in which Pierre, Juliette's husband has already undergone.

Juliette's cause is still under various investigations and waits to be given an official diocesan opening.^[1][2]

Life and journey

Juliette Noel was born into slavery in the former French colony of Haiti, about the year 1786. She was twenty years younger than her husband Pierre, who had been taken to New York by his wealthy exiled owners in the wake of the Haitian Revolution. Though still a slave himself, he worked tirelessly to purchase Juliette's freedom along with that of his sister Rosalie, and to provide for the women's passage to New York City. At length he succeeded, and thus in 1811, the 25-year-old Juliette married her bridegroom, then in his mid-40's, in a ceremony performed by a Jesuit priest in St. Peter's Church, Lower Manhattan. When Pierre's sister Rosalie died not long afterward, Juliette and Pierre raised her young daughter, Euphemie, as their own, but the young girl died of tuberculosis at age 14.

A devout Roman Catholic, Juliette consecrated and shared her husband's religious fervor and philanthropy, sheltering orphans and refugees in their home, nursing plague victims when a plague break out in New York, and helping the needy of every race, color, and creed. They even also provided financial help to the Oblate Sisters of Providence in their missions and charitable works.

After her death in the year 1851 at age 65, she joined their adopted daughter Euphemie in the Toussaint plot in Old St. Patrick's churchyard, although her funeral had been held at nearby St. Peter's. When Pierre Toussaint died two years later, he was buried beside them, but as the cause for his canonization gained momentum in the late 20th century, his remains were subsequently transferred to the crypt of St. Patrick's Cathedral on 5th Avenue in 1990. After Pierre Toussaint gained the title as a "Venerable" by Pope John Paul II, many of the people began supporting for opening the beatification of Juliette, who they say served equally with Pierre.^[3][4][5][6]

References