Father Tolton: Vatican to study alleged miracles in first black priest’s cause for sainthood
QUINCY, Ill. (CNS) — The local ABC-TV affiliate in Quincy, where Father Augustus Tolton grew up and is buried, reported April 14 that Vatican representatives were in the United States to investigate possible miracles related to the priest’s sainthood cause.
Father Tolton was born into slavery and is the first recognized African American priest ordained for the U.S. Catholic Church. He celebrated his first Mass in the United States in the chapel of Saint Mary’s Hospital in Hoboken in 1886.
His cause for canonization was officially opened by the Archdiocese of Chicago in 2010 and he received the title “Servant of God.”
On Dec. 10, 2016, his cause took a step forward at a cemetery in Quincy where his remains were exhumed, verified and reinterred. In June 2019, Pope Francis declared that Father Tolton lived a life of heroic virtue, giving him the title of “Venerable.”
The next step is beatification, which requires verification of a miracle attributed to the sainthood candidate’s intercession. In general, a second such miracle is needed for canonization.
While Father Tolton died in Chicago in 1897, he requested to be buried in Quincy, which is in the Diocese of Springfield. He and his family had fled there after escaping slavery in nearby Missouri and it’s where he returned to minister after being ordained in Rome on Easter in 1886.
The day before his ordination to the priesthood, April 23, 1886, Father Tolton was surprised to be told that he would not be going to Africa, but to the United States. He wept bitter tears, writing: “Back to America? Back to the country where I was a slave, an outcast, a hated Black? Must I go back to America where I was not wanted as a priest? …Lord, I can conquer ignorance weakness, and heathenism. But Lord, I cannot conquer the race hatred in America.”
At the time his remains were exhumed, Chicago Auxiliary Bishop Joseph N. Perry, who is postulator of the priest’s cause, said two miracles were possible and had been sent to Rome, where they were being looked into.
“We received about 50 some testimonials of people from all over the country testifying to favors from God through (Father) Tolton’s intercession,” said Bishop Perry, one of the nation’s African American Catholic bishops.
“Remarkable things — everything from needed employment to illness in the family to all kinds of problems,” he told Chicago Catholic, the archdiocesan news outlet. “These people are really just excited about their prayers being answered because of him. He’s been pretty active up there, I think. He probably needs a secretary up there to handle all that has been put on his lap.”
In its April 14 report, KHQA-TV Channel 7 provided no details as to what the alleged miracles under investigation might entail.
In November, as part of celebrations for Black Catholic History Month, a grassroots effort emerged that called on Pope Francis to canonize Father Tolton and five other Black Catholics whose canonization “causes” have been officially opened.
These other sainthood candidates are: Mother Mary Lange, founder of the Oblate Sisters of Providence; Sister Thea Bowman, the first African American member of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration; and Julia Greeley, known as the city of Denver’s “Angel of Charity” — all three of whom have the title “Servant of God; and Mother Henriette Delille, founder of the Sisters of the Holy Family, and Pierre Toussaint, both of whom have the title “Venerable.”
More about Father Tolton’s sainthood cause and the Father Tolton Guild can be found at https://tolton.archchicago.org/the-cause. Learn more about Father Tolton’s connection to New Jersey in this historical column: Black History Month: America’s first black priest celebrates Mass in Hoboken. Learn more about the Archdiocese of Newark’s African American, African and Caribbean Apostolate by clicking here.
Contributing to this story was Nate Tinner-Williams, co-founder and editor of Black Catholic Messenger and Msgr. Robert J. Wister, Hist.Eccl.D., a retired professor of church history at Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology, Seton Hall University, who writes historical articles for the publications of the Archdiocese of Newark.
Featured image: Father Augustus Tolton is pictured in an undated photo. Born into slavery in Missouri, he was ordained a priest April 24, 1886, in Rome and said his first Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica. He is the first recognized African American priest ordained for the U.S. Catholic Church and is a candidate for sainthood. In 2019, Pope Francis declared he had lived a “virtuous and heroic life,” giving him the title “Venerable.” (CNS photo/courtesy of Archdiocese of Chicago Archives and Records Center)
