Fr. Augustus Tolton (April 1, 1854 – July 9, 1897) was a trailblazing figure in the history of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. Born into slavery in Brush Creek, Missouri, his parents, Peter Paul and Martha Jane (née Chisley) Tolton, were Catholic slaves who were allowed to marry by their neighboring Catholic slave owners.
When the American Civil War broke out, Tolton’s father escaped to join the Union army but was killed in battle. Soon after, Tolton’s mother fled with her three children, crossing the Mississippi River into Illinois with the help of Union soldiers. They settled in Quincy, Illinois, where they joined a Catholic church with a congregation largely made up of German immigrants.
Despite facing harassment and discrimination in local schools, Tolton was encouraged by his mother and his pastor, Father Peter McGirr, to pursue an education. No American seminary would admit a Black student at the time, so Tolton was privately tutored by local priests until he was admitted to St. Francis Solanus College (now Quincy University) in 1878 as a special student. With the support of McGirr and other priests, Tolton began studying for the priesthood at the Collegium Urbanum de Propaganda Fide in Rome in 1880.
In 1886, Tolton was ordained as the first African American priest in the Roman Catholic Church. He returned to the United States and served in various parishes, primarily in Chicago, where he was known for his dedication to his parishioners and his efforts to promote racial harmony. Fr. Tolton passed away on July 9, 1897, in Chicago.
He was declared Venerable by Pope Francis on June 11th, 2019 a significant step in the canonization process.
