Catherine Seals

Mother Catherine Seals (c. 1874 – August 12, 1930) was an American religious leader and faith healer based in New Orleans. During the Spiritualist/Spiritual Movement of the 1920s, she led one of the largest congregations. She founded the Temple of the Innocent Blood, "one of the largest African American religious organizations of the early twentieth century," in what is now the Lower Ninth Ward.

According to most sources for her life, George Jenkins was an alcoholic. She went to a local houseboat-based faith healer, John Cudney, known as Brother Isaiah. After hours of waiting, Brother Isaiah denied her due to her race. In Catherine's own pleas to God, she pled that if God cured her, she would heal others, regardless of race. In a trance, she had seen that this location was Jesus's true birthplace, leading her to name the area "the Manger."

Much of what is known about Mother Catherine's life comes from field interviews conducted by the Louisiana Writers' Project as part of the Federal Works Progress Administration.