Ven. Augustus Tolton

John Augustus Tolton was born in Brush Creek, Missouri on April 1, 1854. His parents were both Catholics, but they were also slaves. During the Civil War, Augustus's father escaped and joined the Union Army. Augustus's mother, an enslaved maid, was able to take the children and escape across the Mississippi River into Illinois and to freedom. Augustus was taken under the care of Fr. Peter McGirr, Tolton, who made it possible for him to attend St. Peter’s Catholic School, which was an all-white parish school in Quincy, Illinois. There was much opposition to his attendance at the school, but eventually, with the help of Father McGirr, Augustus graduated and went on to study at the Franciscan Quincy University. After those studies were complete, he was refused by every American seminary. However, after much hard work, he was admitted to the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome. He was ordained a priest in 1886 and offered his first Mass at St. Peter's Basilica on Easter Sunday. He returned to Quincy, Illinois and became the first Black American priest in the United States. He eventually moved to Chicago and helped establish, along with St. Katherine Drexel and other philanthropists, St. Monica's Catholic Church for Black Catholics, on the South Side of Chicago. Venerable John Augustus Tolton died suddenly at the young age of 43 on July 8, 1897. On February 13, 2012, the Sacred Congregation for the Causes of Saints granted him the title "Servant of God."  Pope Francis advanced his cause by granting him the title of "Venerable" on June 12, 2019.