James was born on September 6, 1777 of noble lineage at Saint Jean d'Angely on the western coast of France.
The destruction of church and family records which accompanied the revolutionary outbursts in the French provinces have left no documentary trace of his parentage. Orphaned at an early age he found shelter with kind-hearted relatives in Beauvais.
As a youth he was enrolled in the school of Reboisen-Brie to prepare for a military career, but later he abandoned his studies in order to take up a position in the French tax department. Later, he had ecclesiastical studies.
Sent overseas in 1800, Joubert was assigned duties in the French West Indian island of Santo Domingo, where a paternal uncle, C. Joubert de Maine, was engaged in business. In September 1804 an uprising of slaves took place in which some of his relatives were massacred. Both uncle and nephew escaped, and eventually reached Baltimore, Maryland. De Maine became a teacher and De la Muraille, under the guidance of his fellow countrymen, the priests of Saint Sulpice, entered St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore, as a student for the priesthood.
Joubert completed his ecclesiastical studies and was ordained priest by Archbishop Carroll in 1810. The same year he was admitted by his teachers as a member of their Society and as such consecrated his life to the education and training of the clergy. He was appointed teacher of French and of geography at St. Mary's College, established by the Fathers of St. Sulpice with the hope that it would both develop candidates for the Church and aid materially in the sustenance of the ecclesiastical Seminary of St. Mary's. It became, however, a select school to which were sent the children of prominent non-Catholic families from Maryland, from distant states of the Union, and from the French and Spanish West Indies. Father Joubert became successively disciplinarian and vice-president.
In 1827 he began work among the French West Indian Negroes who had followed their masters in exile to Baltimore. They had settled around the seminary, worshipped in its chapel and, speaking only French, were ministered to by the Fathers of the seminary. Father Joubert was given the charge of catechizing them. Pitying their ignorance, he thought of establishing a school where the little ones could at least be taught to read and write and receive religious instruction. He lacked, however, all means, nor could he look forward to any future help. His ecclesiastical superiors approved his plans but could offer no material aid. Eventually he discovered two Catholic Negro women of West Indian birth, Elizabeth Lange and Marie Magdalen Balas, who were conducting a little school for Negro children. They were capable and willing, but were about to close the school for lack of funds.
Father Joubert then conceived the idea of founding a religious society of colored women for the education of children of their race. With the moral support of the Archbishop of Baltimore in 1828 he established the new community, which consisted of four, in a little rented house on George Street. Later with the scant but whole-hearted aid of a few lay Catholic men and women he moved them to a larger one on Richmond Street. He drew up a rule of life for the prospective Religious which was approved by Archbishop Whitfield of Baltimore in 1829, and the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda in Rome gave confirmation to the new society, the Oblate Sisters of Providence, by a rescript under date of October 2, 1831.
In 1838 Father Joubert began to fail in health, but, as best he could from his room in the Seminary, he continued to encourage and care for his spiritual children till his death in 1843.
James Nicholas Joubert was primarely known as the founder of the Oblate Sisters of Providence along with Mother Mary Lange. He provided direction, was chaplain, solicit financial assistance, and encouraged other "women of color” to become members of the first religious congregation of women of color in the history of the Catholic Church.
James was an efficient teacher, a popular and kind, yet firm, head-master, and a successful administrator.
