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Eliza Healy (December 23, 1846-September 13 1919) was an educator and the first African-American Catholic Mother Superior. She is a member of the Georgia-based Healy family, which is known for its high achievements in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Family History
Eliza Healy was born to Michael Morris Healy, an Irish immigrant plantation owner, and Eliza, a mixed race slave woman. Michael Morris Healy was born in Ireland and emigrated to Jones County, near Macon, Georgia. The couple lived together from 1829 until their deaths in 1850 and raised 10 children, nine of which survived to adulthood. Eliza and her were siblings (James, Patrick, Michael, Hugh, Alexander, Eugene, Martha and Josephine) were sent to the North for their education because Georgia law at the time prohibited slaves from receiving an education. When Eliza's parents unexpectedly died, her five older brothers and one older sister were already living in the North. The three youngest children, which included Eliza, left Georgia and were successful in arriving in New York.

Early Life
Even though Michael was Catholic, his children were not baptized Catholics. Eliza and her two younger siblings, Josephine and Eugene, were baptized Catholic in New York in 1851. Eliza and Josephine attended schools operated by the Congregation of Notre Dame in Montreal, was the community in which their older sister Martha was professed a nun in 1855. Martha then received a dispensation from her vows in 1863. Eliza and Josephine joined the other members of the Healy in Boston when Eliza finished her secondary education in 1861.

Religious Life
In 1874, at the age of 27, Eliza entered the novitiate of the congregation of Notre Dame in Montreal. She made her first profession in 1876 and received the name Sister Saint Mary Magdalen. She taught in several schools operated by her congregation. From 1895 to 1897, she was superior of a convent in Huntington, Quebec and her administrative skills enabled her to work in other capacities. She managed the English studies at the mother house of the Sisters of Notre Dame in Montreal. She later taught at the Normal School from 1900 to 1903. From 1903 to 1918, she was superior and headmistress of the Villa Barlow in St. Albans, Vermont, where she reorganized the school and its community. Documents from the congregation indicate that the congregation was in a precarious financial situation at the start of her tenure and the community was prepared to abandon the site. Eliza "had to struggle against the parish and even the diocesan authorities. Her wisdom enabled her to unravel the complicated problems, to assure the resources, to pay the debts, and to make this...mission one of our most prosperous houses in the United States." Eliza also managed the health and hygiene of her fellow religious sisters and pupils in her charge. In 1918 she was dispatched to serve as superior of the Academy of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament on Staten Island, New York and in a short time, she improved the academy's financial situation. Her health soon declined and she returned to the mother house in Montreal. She died of heart disease.

Legacy
Archives written by Sister Saint Mary Magdalen's community members describe her as having business and organizational acumen, optimistic disposition and a demanding superior. They particularly noted her leadership skills and devotion to prayer. They described her as "so attractive, so upright!...she reserved the heaviest tasks for herself...in the kitchen, in the garden in the housework...She listened to everyone...was equal to everything...spared herself nothing...so that nothing was lacking to make the family [of the community] perfect."

No documents written by the Healy siblings ever address the issue of race, but their race lie at the core of the family history. Her brothers James and Alexander were visibly black, but Patrick's racial identity was not known outside of his Jesuit community. Neither Eliza nor her None brothers engaged in the religious community participated in the black Catholic community.