Saintly Six: Augustus Tolton

Over the next several months, we will be highlighting the "Saintly Six," the six Catholic men and women of African descent who were born or worked in the United States and are currently on the path to sainthood. Each lived a heroic life with valor and holiness in the face of slavery and racism. 

What can we do?  We can study and gain inspiration from their lives, pray to them for spiritual aid, and pray for their continued advancement toward canonization.

The lead story is about Augustus Tolton, the first American-born, recognized-African American priest. Below is a brief article put together by parishioner Jane Colleton about Tolton's remarkably courageous and steadfast life. 

Story #1 of the Saintly Six – Father Augustus Tolton

In 1854, John Augustus Tolton was born enslaved to a white Catholic family in Missouri.  At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, his father Peter Paul escaped and joined the Union Army. In 1863, his mother Martha Jane, fearing being sold and separated from her children, fled with them. In a leaky, boat she paddled across the Mississippi River at night under gunfire from Confederate soldiers, to Quincy, Illinois.

Local clergy and religious nurtured Augustus. He grew in the love of God and Church, evidenced a keen intellect, became a catechist for a Sunday school opened for children of color, and soon expressed an interest in the priesthood.   His achievements and passion notwithstanding, every North American seminary to which he applied rejected his application, undoubtedly because of race.  His disappointed Quincy mentors persisted, facilitating his enrollment in the Pontifical Urban University in Rome from which he was ordained in 1886. 

On his return to America, he was assigned as pastor of a Black church in Quincy, St. Joseph, which had but a handful of Black congregants. When many white Catholics from other churches began to regularly attend his Sunday Mass there, the jealousy of nearby priests forced him to seek reassignment. In 1889, he transferred to Chicago and became pastor of the Black Catholic community on Chicago’s southside, which by 1893 worshiped at the partially-completed St. Monica Church.  He died July 8, 1897, of heat stroke during a Chicago heat wave at the age of 43.     

Chicago’s retired auxiliary, Bishop Joseph N. Perry, is co-postulator (official advocate) for the cause of Fr. Tolton’s canonization.  He writes:

“Father Tolton shows us in his own life’s pattern that we can find blessing in everything, even what is most painful.  His story is one of suffering service.  Through his experiences of racial negation by a society that would separate black and white by force of the law and lawless custom, Tolton found the love of God, found his own vocation and ultimately has received his reward from God as a figure of Christian faith in action, indiscriminate love of neighbor and pastoral charity despite the bigotry that was thrown at him.” 

A Chicago Archdiocesan sketch about Tolton describes sainthood:

“To be canonized, someone must live a life of heroic virtue at a level above and beyond the ordinary practice of Christian virtue. This would include constancy at prayer, perseverance through great trials, patience in intense suffering, notable practice of the works of mercy, especially for the poor and suffering, and outstanding zeal in the spreading of God’s love and mercy in word and deed for the salvation of souls and the glory of God” ​

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops further explains: “In official Church procedures there are three steps to sainthood: a candidate becomes "Servant of God," then "Venerable" and then "Blessed." Venerable is the title given to a deceased person recognized formally by the Pope as having lived a heroically virtuous life or offered their life.”   Father Tolton’s cause has reached the Venerable stage.  For more information, visit tolton.archchicago.org. 


​See also: The History of Black Catholics in the United States by Cyprian Davis, pg 152-162

To report any spiritual or physical favors granted through prayer in Father Tolton’s name, contact Fr. Jean-Philippe and write: The Office of the Cardinal, Archdiocese of Chicago, 835 North Rush St, Chicago, IL 60611