7583: From Slavery To Sainthood.

From The Chicago Tribune…

First black Catholic priest in U.S. up for sainthood
Cardinal will appoint commission to evaluate Rev. Augustus Tolton

By Manya A. Brachear, Tribune reporter

The Rev. Augustus Tolton, the nation’s first known black Roman Catholic priest, could become St. Augustus.

Cardinal Francis George announced Wednesday that he will appoint a commission to assemble facts about Tolton’s “heroic virtues” and introduce his cause for sainthood to Rome. He also invited anyone who can report spiritual or physical favors granted through prayer in Tolton’s name to submit their testimony to the archdiocese.

“We need his prayers and his help, especially to become a more united church,” George told the Catholic New World, the archdiocese’s newspaper.

Tolton’s rise to prominence began with his family’s escape from slavery in Missouri as the Civil War began. Baptized before crossing the Mississippi River to Quincy, Ill., Tolton and his siblings became members of the Catholic Church. Years later, the parish priest there encouraged him to join the priesthood.

Because no American seminary would admit a black man, Tolton traveled to Rome to be ordained.

His aspiration to become a missionary in Africa was thwarted when the Vatican sent him back to Quincy. There, he oversaw an integrated congregation, despite opposition from the town’s white priests.

The archbishop eventually assigned Tolton to Chicago to start a mission for African-Americans in the basement of another parish.

That mission became St. Monica’s on the South Side, the city’s first black parish, which was dedicated in 1894. Tolton raised money for the parish building and oversaw its design before dying of a heat stroke in 1897 at age 43. The parish consolidated with St. Elizabeth in 1924.

Vanessa White, director of the Tolton Center for African-American Catholics at Catholic Theological Union, said Tolton’s story resembles the lives of many saints in the Catholic Church.

“Many of them did not have an easy road, and neither did he,” said White, who will lead a pilgrimage from Chicago to Quincy in honor of Tolton April 30-May 2. “To think that every seminary in the U.S. was closed to him … but that did not stand in the way of him being able to fulfill his call.”

Tolton’s grand-niece Sabrina Penn, author of “A Place for My Children,” one of only two biographies about Tolton, said she was thrilled by the recognition.

“Hallelujah,” she said. “To be born into slavery and become a priest and have the honor to be called a saint is just awesome.”