NEW ORLEAN'S ORIGINAL "SLICED BREAD"

New Orleanians love a good crunchy French Bread. Whether it's a foot-long or a pistolette, as long as it has a nice crust that can hold the gravy, we are good! Most folks know that the French colonized New Orleans, but do you know the role the Ursuline Nuns played?

In 1727, a group of Ursuline Nuns were brought from Rouen, France to New Orleans to staff the hospital. Although the Ursuline mission was originally to educate young women, repeated, unanswered pleas to the Sisters of Charity—whose mission focused on caring for the poor and sick—led officials to turn to the Ursulines instead. A choice that was suggested by the Jesuits who were also committed to education, and were politically motivated to have the Ursulines join their mission. After months stuck ay sea, they finally arrived to their destination. The nuns were put in temporary lodging at the far end of the city located next to the mill workers, or enslaved people. The farthest they could be from the city center—a physical reminder of the separation of church and state, as well as the hospital they were to tend.

Marie Tranchepain, who joined the Order of St. Ursula to evade religious persecution in France, became first Mother Superior in New Orleans. She had a vision, that a Jesuit she did not know, would lead her to a foreign land where she would establish an Ursuline Convent. Twenty-six years later, despite setbacks and political turmoil, that is what she did.

The female population when she arrived mostly consisted of African slaves and forçats—French convicts sent to New Orleans as slaves. The average marrying age was twelve. She defied many, to include the King of France himself, to tend to the needs of the females in the Crescent City. Marie Tranchepain's "girls" included the nuns from France, Native Americans, enslaved Africans, prostitutes, wealthy French girls, and any orphan female. They were all educated, they were her mission in this life. This quote from A Century of Pioneering - Heaney sums Marie Tranchepain up:

Tranchepain means Cut-Bread or Slice-Bread. Uncouth as the name may appear to casual attention, it has rich significance and a latent grace of appropriateness... Thus the name of the Superior was not an unsuitable one. Her life was to be consumed in benevolent usefulness. She was to divide a divine bread, to dispense a heavenly manna, to distribute intellectual and moral and spiritual nourishment to the multitude.

Although Marie Tranchepain plays a supporting role in Convent, her life was quite possibly the spine of New Orleans and it's community. So next time you hear the phrase "best thing since sliced bread," give a nod to the New Orlean's original sliced bread—Marie Tranchepain.

Making French Bread!