Reading Between the Lines of the Ursulines Nuns’ Prayer Books

Its lavish beauty is a far cry from the other, a standard brown leather-bound book with plain gilt edges—the type owned by most people in 18th- and 19th-century New Orleans.  

The Historic New Orleans Collection’s holdings include a wide array of prayer books like these. They were typically given as gifts to mark major religious milestones within the Catholic tradition. The books in HNOC’s holdings were acquired from the Ursuline Convent. Many of the Ursuline nuns in early New Orleans came from France, and their families gave them the books as parting gifts. Wealthy families gave extravagant volumes, embellished with mother-of-pearl and ivory and featuring designs like stars and stripes along the edge. Women from less-fortunate families received plainer books. This disparity reflects the class divide that shaped life in the convent, which remains an underdiscussed part of the sisters’ legacy.  

Residents of 18th-century New Orleans struggled with sickness, poor education, and, in the eyes of its leaders, social deviance and immorality. To help address these problems, Commissioner Jacques de La Chaise requested that nuns be sent to care for the colony’s sick and indigent. In 1727, 12 nuns arrived belonging to the Order of Saint Ursula, dedicated to educating women and girls. Their assignment in the young colony was to establish a convent, run the hospital, and create a school for girls.  

Upon arrival, however, the Ursulines were most eager to convert the Indigenous population in the area. They wanted to stop the spread of Protestantism and “save the souls” of the people. Following the Natchez Revolt of 1729, in which the Natchez attacked a French settlement near present-day Natchez, Mississippi, the Ursulines took in orphaned and widowed family members of French soldiers and began to focus their attention on caring for and educating them.  

Having exhausted their attention on converting Indigenous people, they shifted toward evangelizing free women of color, lower-class French girls, and especially enslaved Black women. Many of those women had already been baptized Catholic, as required by the Code Noir (the set of French colonial laws governing people of color in Louisiana). 

The evangelical work of Ursulines was extensive, and they managed it by employing a sort of class system typical of religious orders at the time: choir nuns, converse nuns, and soeurs tourières (laywomen who worked as go-betweens with the outside world for the cloistered sisters). Choir nuns were able to vote and hold office within the convent, and were responsible for the teaching that order was known for. They tended to come from means; their families gave large dowries for their daughters to be in the order.  

The converse nuns, who came from working-class families, could not hold office or vote and were more or less glorified housekeepers and servants. However, the converse nuns were not the only convent residents who did the work of servants.  

The Ursulines didn’t just educate enslaved women—they were also enslavers. The nuns were given six enslaved African women upon their arrival in Louisiana as a part of their agreement with the French government. They also enslaved Indigenous people. These forced laborers worked in the convent hospital and carried out cooking, cleaning, errand running, and other assorted duties. Records provide few specifics of the lives of those enslaved by the Ursulines, but we do know of the atrocities experienced by other enslaved people in New Orleans during this period. 

Contemporary accounts of the Ursulines typically state that the nuns cared for and educated young women and girls regardless of race or class. But the truth is more complicated: While the white students received a full education covering all the usual subjects, enslaved residents received only catechism. 

The prayer books at HNOC are beautiful handheld pieces of history that signify a foundational part of the story of New Orleans. At the same time, they act as a peephole into the landscape of injustice that existed at that time, both within and outside the convent.