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FATHER
AUGUSTUS TOLTON
REVERED
AT
ST. AILBE |
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Augustus
Tolton was born of the marriage
union of Peter
Paul and Martha Jane Tolton in Ralls County,
Missouri on
April 1, 1854.
He had one older brother,
Charles, and two
younger sisters, Cordella and Anna.
These children were
all born into the same slavery to which their parents
were
subjected.
and was considered property of a slave owner
known as Steven Elliot. During this time the Civil
War in
the United States had begun, and Augustus' Father, Peter
Paul Tolton, fled to join forces with the Union army. In
1861
he was killed during combat. Augustus' mother,
meanwhile,
took care of their three children in Missouri. This
left her
worried though because Missouri was still a slave state.
So Martha Tolton gathered her children and they escaped
across the Mississippi River to Quincy, Illinois. devout
Catholic,
Martha
Tolton, a strong and courageous woman,
fulfilled her husband’s long quest for
freedom. She gathered
her children and walked to freedom by
crossing the
Mississippi River. Reaching safety, she
spoke to her
children, “Now you are! Never forget
the goodness of the
Lord!”
Augustus was seven years old when
he and his
family reached Quincy, Illinois. He
remembered his mother’s
counsel, and
never did forget the goodness of the
Lord.
Therefore Father Tolton
attended the all-black Lincoln School.
Prior to their escape, the slave owners of the Tolton
family
(the Elliots) had all their slaves baptized; so upon
reaching
Illinois, the family became members of the Roman
Catholic
Church.
They continued to practice their
faith after becoming
free. Augustus was enrolled in Catholic School for a
time,
but had to withdraw because of the racial prejudice of
the
parishioners who protested the presence of a “Negro”
in
the school.
Martha Tolton insisted on a
Catholic education
for her children. Some
of the School Sisters of Notre Dame
who staffed St. Boniface School tutored Augustus until
he
was accepted into St. Peter's
school by Fr. McGirr. Father
McGirr saw something special in Father Tolton, because
of his excellent grades and liking towards religion.
After graduating from St. Peter's, Augustus began to
desire
to serve the Lord more deeply by becoming a priest.
However,
at that time, the American Catholic Church did not allow
Black men to be admitted to studies in the United States
seminaries. Request to have Augustus admitted to an
American seminary fell on deaf ears, His parish priest,
disheartened by the prejudice of those in charge of
seminaries, began to tutor Augustus themselves. In
1878, he was admitted to Franciscan College at Quincy,
Illinois as a special student. Social and racial
conditions
in the U. S. made it necessary that he trained for his
calling in Rome. The two parish priests Frs. McGirr and
Richard continued their efforts to get him into a
seminary.
In 1880, they were successful and Augustus left for the
Propaganda College in Rome to prepare for the
priesthood.
After six years of studying, Tolton was ordained on
April
24, 1886 and became the first African-American priest in
the U.S. Father Tolton said his first Mass in St.
Peter's
Basilica over the tomb of St. Peter, an honor ordinarily
reserved for the Pope. On July 25, 1886, Father
Tolton
was installed as pastor of Quincy's St. Joseph Church,
a black congregation.
He
quickly gained a reputation as
a fine preacher, so much so that many of the German and
Irish Catholics began to attend Mass with the Black
Catholics!
He was most attentive to the spiritual and human needs
of
his people. Soon his Masses and instruction classes
gained prominence, and he was asked to attend and speak
at many public gatherings.
His increasing popularity
unleashed both hidden racism and the jealousy of both
Catholic and non-Catholic ministers in the area.
Upon being
forced to leave his home in Quincy because of racial
hostility,
Father Tolton settled in Chicago and founded
St. Monica's
Church (now St. Elizabeth's), the first Black Catholic
Church in Chicago. He remained in Chicago until
his death
July 9, 1897. Despite the difficulties he faced
there Father
Tolton made it known that he wanted his burial to take
place
at Quincy.
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SHRINE
TO THE SAINTS - MOSAIC MURAL
Exceptional black men and women of the past two
centuries who are role models and paradigms for
all Christians
Saint Guiseppine (Josephine)
Bakhita)
Woman of Faith and Forgiveness
(Born 1869 in Sudan - Died 1947 in Italy)
Guiseppine
( Josephine ) Bakhita was born in Sudan, Africa to a
loving, and prosperous family. At nine, she was
kidnapped and sold into slavery, where a series of
owners humiliated, tortured and mutilated her. Later in
life, in a marvelous first-person narrative she had
written, Bakhita described some of the horrors her
slavery entailed. ... it was
by a miracle of God I didn't die. He had destined me for
better things."
After prayer and discernment,
Guiseppine (Josephine) joined the religious order,
pronouncing her religious vows on December 8, 1896 at
the age of 41. Though her memoirs stop there, Guiseppine
(Josephine) lived to be 78, her life marked by
simplicity - she was a cook, seamstress, sacristan and
doorkeeper. She used to tell the teachers in the
community "You teach catechism, I will stay in the
chapel and pray for you that you may teach well."
Guiseppine (Josephine's) goodness and spiritual
authority impressed many people. One priest, who
observed her caring for victims of World War I, and
speaking bluntly about things amiss, remarked,
"That African Sister is goading me on in my
ministry!" After a biography about her was
published in 1930, Guiseppine (Josephine) became a
celebrity - speaking requests, travel engagements and
fund-raising for the Order took her time. Though her
health gradually worsened, forcing her into a
wheelchair, she remained a model of holiness and
charity. A sister asked her once "Do you wish to go
to heaven?" She answered, "I neither wish to
go nor to stay. God knows where to find me when he wants
me!" Sister Josephine Bakhita died February 8,
1947. She lay in state for three days, and mourners
noticed that her limbs remained flexible. Mothers lifted
her hands and placed them on the heads of their
children, praying for her blessing. Large crowds
followed her hearse to the cemetery. A woman of immense
faith and forgiveness, she was beatified in May 1992 as
"blessed" in the Catholic canon of saints.
Pierre
Toussaint
Pierre
Toussaint came to New York from Haiti in 1787. He was
enlisted as an apprentice to one of the city's leading
hairdressers. Tousling had a talent for the complicated
art of coiffure. The hairstyles of that day were
elaborate and hairdresser's fees were quiet substantial.
It was not unusual for a lady of fashion to spend over a
thousand dollars yearly on the care of her hair. With
his skill, courteous and cheerful manner and quiet wit,
it was not long before Toussaint had many clients.
Black and
white people in need of money to survive, to purchase
freedom from slavery, all found a generous and
openhearted friend in Pierre Toussaint. He not only
provided money, but manifested genuine care and concern
for the afflicted.
Pierre
Toussaint purchased Juliet Noel's freedom when she was
only fifteen years old. Later, as his wife, she shared
in his secret and generous charity. Their home was a
shelter for orphans, a credit bureau, an employment
agency and refuge for priest and poverty stricken
travelers. Proud to be Black, Toussaint generously
assisted his black brothers and sisters zealously to
support the Oblate Sisters of Providence, a religious
Orders of Black ladies established in Baltimore. Pierre
Toussaint was also a benefactor of the First New York
City Catholic school for Black children at St. Vincent
de Paul on Canal Street.
In
his later years, Toussaint still worked to help others.
One of his clients advised him, "Toussaint, you are
the richest man I know, why not stop working?"
He
replied, The I should not have enough to help others,
madam."
Kindness
in the Face of Prejudice. The Berards had been kind
and generous people who valued Pierre’s gifts and
person. But Toussaint lived with routine racial
discrimination throughout his life. Though a major force
behind the building of St. Patrick’s, he and his wife
were once turned away from the church by an usher who
did not know who he was. A horrified trustee attempted
to put things right by an apology, but that couldn’t
assure Pierre of a future welcome there under similar
circumstances. Throughout his life, the busy hairdresser
had to make his way on foot to all of his appointments,
because carriage drivers did not convey black people.
Like others of
his skin color, then and later, Pierre experienced
casual slights, humiliations, and daily insults. Somehow
he kept himself free from both resentment and any form
of submission. After years of slavery, he chose not to
enslave his emotions to the behavior of other people. He
knew that nothing could rob him of his human dignity,
which belonged to him as a child of God. Jesus had,
after all, chosen to die for him. In response to this
unmatchable gift, Toussaint strove to give himself to
God in turn, saying, “Jesus can give you nothing so
precious as himself, as his own mind. Do not think that
any faith in him can do you good if you do not try to be
pure and true like him.”
Pierre
Toussaint survived into an active old age. Two
years later after his wife's death, Pierre Toussaint
died on June 30, 1853, at the age of eighty-seven. He
was buried along side his wife and daughter, Euphemia in
Old St. Patrick's cemetery on Mott Street. Great
crowds who had benefited from his financial generosity,
personal charity, and counsel thronged the funeral Mass.
The New York newspapers published obituaries testifying
to his services to the city’s needy. But perhaps the
best testimonial came from General Schuyler, who said,
“I have known Christians who were not gentlemen or
gentlemen who were not Christians--but one man I know
who is both--and that man is Black.”
The Transforming Light of Faith. In 1968, New
York’s Terence Cardinal Cooke introduced Pierre
Toussaint’s cause for canonization. His successor,
John Cardinal O’Connor, who enthusiastically backed
Toussaint’s cause, moved his remains from their
resting place in old St. Patrick’s cemetery to the
crypt below the main altar of the current St.
Patrick’s Cathedral. He is the only layman interred in
the burial place of bishops and cardinals.
During
his 1995 visit to St. Patrick’s, Pope John Paul II
spoke movingly of Toussaint: “What is so extraordinary
about this man? He radiated a most serene and joyful
faith, nourished daily by the Eucharist and visits to
the Blessed Sacrament. In the face of constant, painful
discrimination he understood, as few have understood,
the meaning of the words, ‘Father, forgive them; they
do not know what they are doing.’ No treasure is as
uplifting and transforming as the light of faith.”
Pierre Toussaint received from John Paul II the title of
Venerable in 1996.
Pierre
Toussaint didn’t start an order, like Francis of
Assisi. He wasn’t known as a miracle worker, like
Anthony of Padua. He wasn’t a mystic like Catherine of
Siena or a great theologian like Thomas Aquinas. Yet the
church has set him up as a model of holiness and of
simple devotion to Jesus, and that’s what makes it
easy for us to relate to him. We may not all become
theologians or mystics or miracle workers, but we can
all do what Toussaint did. As we stay close to Jesus in
our days and rely on the presence of his Spirit in our
hearts, each of us can walk through this world in peace
and have a life-changing effect on those around us.
Saint
Katharine Drexel
Saint
Katharine Drexel,
Religious (Feast Day-March 3) Born in 1858, into a
prominent Philadelphia family, Katharine became imbued
with love for God and neighbor. She took an avid
interest in the material and spiritual well-being of
black and native Americans. She began by donating money
but soon concluded that more was needed - the lacking
ingredient was people. Katharine founded the Sisters of
the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People,
whose members would work for the betterment of those
they were called to serve. From the age of 33 until her
death in 1955, she dedicated her life and a fortune of
20 million dollars to this work. In 1894, Mother Drexel
took part in opening the first mission school for
Indians, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Other schools quickly
followed - for Native Americans west of the Mississippi
River, and for the blacks in the southern part of the
United States. In 1915 she also founded Xavier
University in New Orleans. At her death there were more
than 500 Sisters teaching in 63 schools throughout the
country. Katharine was beatified by Pope John Paul II on
November 20, 1988.
On January 27, 2000, a 1994 healing of
the deafness of a young girl from Pennsylvania was
accepted by Pope John Paul II as attributable to the
miraculous intercession of Mother Katharine. She was
formally canonized in a ceremony in Rome on October 1,
2000.
SHRINE
TO THE SAINTS - MOSAIC MURAL
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