Artist Paints Modern Saints

CNS photo/Dave Hrbacek, Catholic Spirit

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Bernadette Gockowski works on a watercolor painting of Mother Henriette Delille May 3, 2019, at her home in St. Paul, Minn.

Bernadette Gockowski works on a watercolor painting of Mother Henriette Delille May 3 at her home in St. Paul, Minn. Mother Delille lived in New Orleans in the 1800s and founded the Sisters of the Holy Family, a congregation of black sisters. She was declared venerable by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010. Gockowski decided to paint a portrait of the saint after researching her. “She has an amazing story,” Gockowski said, adding that Mother Henriette became a nun “before the Civil War, when it was illegal for an African American to be a nun.”