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Tuesday, July 15, 2025

The legacy of Mother Cornhusk

Heal­er’s es­tate in ru­ins 16 years af­ter her death

by

2270 days ago
20190428

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Sur­round­ed by dense for­est, the St An­tho­ny’s Catholic Heal­ing School es­tab­lished by the leg­endary heal­er and re­put­ed obeah woman Moth­er Corn­husk lies in ru­ins 16 years af­ter her death.

The school and an ad­join­ing chapel at Ed­ward Trace in Basse Terre, Moru­ga, used to be fre­quent­ed by peo­ple seek­ing help for per­son­al and spir­i­tu­al prob­lems.

It was where Lennie Cather­ine Brizan, bet­ter known as Moth­er Corn­husk, prac­tised her med­i­c­i­nal arts and, ac­cord­ing to pop­u­lar lo­cal leg­end, mas­tered the witch­craft which made her one of T&T’s most feared per­son­al­i­ties.

This month marked 16 years since Brizan died. Her aban­doned es­tate was in­her­it­ed by her nephew Noel Bor­neon who lives in the Unit­ed States.

Many be­lieve that Brizan was Or­isha priest­ess be­cause of her rep­u­ta­tion for delv­ing in­to the oc­cult. How­ev­er, up to the time of her death in 2003, she con­sid­ered her­self a de­vout Ro­man Catholic and spir­i­tu­al heal­er who used a mix­ture of Hin­duism and Chris­tian­i­ty to help the many peo­ple who vis­it­ed her heal­ing school over the many years.

These days, how­ev­er, not much is left of the build­ings. Thick vines cov­er the roof of the chapel named af­ter the Ro­man Catholic saint, An­tho­ny, whom Moth­er Corn­husk claimed ap­peared to her in a vi­sion. Part of her house has col­lapsed and her famed med­i­c­i­nal gar­den was par­tial­ly de­stroyed when nat­ur­al gas pipelines were in­stalled in the area.

Near­by res­i­dents are re­luc­tant to speak about Moth­er Corn­husk. One vil­lager who was tend­ing a goat near the site of the heal­ing school, went in­to the for­est trails when the Sun­day Guardian tried to talk to him.

Those who did not think the site or its leg­endary oc­cu­pant was worth the at­ten­tion.

John Brave­boy, who was dri­ving past in his ve­hi­cle, said he did not think Moth­er Corn­husk de­served any more fame.

“What she do for Moru­ga? All she ever did was for her­self and her own fame,” he said.

An­oth­er man who gave his name as Lazarius said: “I don’t think this is wor­thy of sav­ing. She did a lot of bad things to peo­ple.”

Point­ing to the shells of three ve­hi­cles which Brizan once owned, Lazarius said af­ter she died at the age of 84, a care­tak­er Roland Brave­boy took care of the premis­es. He died years lat­er and her lega­cy fell in­to ru­ins.

Mar­va Coop­er, who cared for Brizan up to the time of her death, said young peo­ple who lived with Brizan went their sep­a­rate ways af­ter her fu­ner­al.

“Leslieann, An­gela her niece, Chris­tine, Na­tal­ie…all of them left one by one,” she said.

Brave­boy was the on­ly one who stayed and when he al­so died, Brizan’s es­tate went in­to ru­ins.

Coop­er said she first met Brizan at the Princes Town mar­ket as a child many years ago.

“Moth­er used to go there every oth­er Sat­ur­day. She al­ways looked very out­stand­ing. She wore a long brown dress. The first time she saw me she told me I was a very obe­di­ent child.

“Years lat­er I went to New York and met a nephew of hers named Hillary who asked me to take back some­thing to her,” Coop­er said.

She said when she got to Moru­ga, the house was filled with peo­ple who had gone to Brizan for help. Coop­er said even when Moth­er Corn­husk could no longer walk, she con­tin­ued help­ing peo­ple.

“She was very spir­i­tu­al and led a very hum­ble life. Be­fore she died she made her own arrange­ments for her fu­ner­al. She did not want any fan­fare,” she added.

Told about the state of the chapel and heal­ing school, Coop­er said it was sad to see how such a vi­brant place like the St An­tho­ny’s Heal­ing School could go to waste. Coop­er said she would wel­come restora­tion of the fa­cil­i­ties where or­phans and oth­er de­pressed peo­ple could get help.

Reesa Moli­no said her fa­ther, Bac­ce­lo Moli­no, was one of the hun­dreds healed by Moth­er Corn­husk.

“Peo­ple would come from far to see her. Her home was al­ways open to oth­ers. She did a lot of good and helped many peo­ple,” Moli­no said. Say­ing Brizan was the moth­er of Moru­ga, Moli­no said she was hop­ing that the gov­ern­ment could name the di­lap­i­dat­ed chapel as a her­itage site. Her­man Cross al­so agreed that her lega­cy should be pre­served and all the re­main­ing arte­facts at her home and chapel should be giv­en to the Moru­ga mu­se­um.

Pre­serv­ing her lega­cy

At the Moru­ga Co­coa and Choco­late Mu­se­um, Brizan’s his­to­ry can be traced through a dis­play of some of her per­son­al items. They were do­nat­ed to the mu­se­um by her rel­a­tives.

Cu­ra­tor Er­ic Lewis, pop­u­lar­ly known as the Merikin Prince of Moru­ga, is ea­ger to pre­serve Brizan’s lega­cy.

Ac­cord­ing to Lewis, Brizan got the name Moth­er Corn­husk be­cause of her slen­der fig­ure.

“She used to come and vis­it us when I was a child. We had a ser­vice for bat­tery charg­ing, fab­ri­ca­tion and agri­cul­tur­al ad­vice as well as me­chan­i­cal re­pairs so . . . she came by us and some­times she would send her mis­ter to have the bat­tery charged,” he re­called.

“Moth­er loved be­ing around peo­ple. She took in or­phans. En­tire fam­i­lies would live in her prop­er­ty. There was a carat house ajoupa where peo­ple could come and med­i­tate. She was known for mirac­u­lous heal­ing which peo­ple thought was obeah.”

Lewis said Brizan cured his aunt, who had a painful men­stru­al prob­lem, with a con­coc­tion of com­mon fowl eggs and herbs

“I think so­ci­ety gave her a bad name be­cause of a lack of knowl­edge of herbs. She al­ways said her re­al pow­er was in the church. Every feast day of St An­tho­ny she would be in church,” Lewis said.

He said Brizan’s vast knowl­edge of herbs has been kept “alive and doc­u­ment­ed.” He added that she was feared and re­spect­ed through­out T&T and her lega­cy should be hand­ed down to fu­ture gen­er­a­tions.

Who was Moth­er Corn­husk?

Born in Grena­da in 1919, Brizan came to Trinidad at the age of sev­en. By age 14, she had been mar­ried off twice. She even­tu­al­ly set­tled in Moru­ga af­ter mov­ing there from La Brea.

As a teenag­er, Brizan got a vi­sion of the Ro­man Catholic pa­tron saint of lost things St An­tho­ny who told her she had to spend the rest of her life help­ing oth­ers. Be­fore she moved to Moru­ga, Brizan had been wan­der­ing the streets and some peo­ple be­lieved she was men­tal­ly chal­lenged. When she moved to Moru­ga, she and a fe­male friend k be­gan work­ing the land. They grew co­coa which they sold to earn a liveli­hood. A co­coa house was built and Brizan be­gan to make use of her skills as a heal­er.

She cured many ail­ments, in­clud­ing in­fer­til­i­ty but was her­self un­able to con­ceive.

“She al­ways said she was not meant to have a hus­band be­cause she out­lived all of them,” Coop­er said.

Her heal­ing pow­ers were said to be ri­valled on­ly by Pa­pa Neez­er, who died sev­er­al decades be­fore Brizan.

Pho­tos by Kris­t­ian De Sil­va

1- The ru­ins of the St An­tho­ny’s Heal­ing School

2- Rot­ted fur­ni­ture in­side the St An­tho­ny’s chapel at Ed­ward Trace, Basse Terre, Moru­ga

3- Er­ic Lewis stands in­side the chapel.

4- a pole dec­o­rat­ed with cloth used for spir­i­tu­al cleans­ing.

5- Moth­er Corn­husk’s home in ru­ins.

6- Some of her ve­hi­cles are now shroud­ed in vines.

7- Cu­ra­tor Er­ic Lewis stands out­side Moth­er Corn­husk’s home.

8- Reesa Moli­no and Her­man Cross calls for Moth­er Corn­husk’s chapel to be pre­served.


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