Black Chicago Priest, 1st in U.S., may become Saint
Written by DJ Special Blend from Chicago on March 18, 2010
Legend has it that as a 7-year-old boy, Augustus Tolton escaped slave hunters by rowing with his mother across the Mississippi River to the free state of Illinois.
Tolton, who went on to become the first black Catholic priest in America, is now a candidate for sainthood, the Archdiocese of Chicago announced Wednesday.
Cardinal Francis George plans to appoint a “historical commission” to gather the facts about the Chicago priest’s “heroic virtues.” The pope ultimately can declare someone a saint following a process that includes attributing two miracles to the candidate.
Tolton was born in 1854 and was 7 when he escaped with his Roman Catholic mother from a Missouri slave owner. Growing up in Quincy, Tolton came to the attention of a local parish priest, who admitted the boy into his school despite racist threats. A German Franciscan priest noticed Tolton’s intelligence and modesty and arranged for Tolton to be educated in Rome. He was ordained a priest in 1886. (STEFANO ESPOSITO)
