Good morning St. Augustine Family!
This week we reflect on the life of Fr. Augustus Tolton who was born on April 1, 1854, ordained a priest on April 24, 1886 and died on July 9, 1897. He has been designated “Servant of God” which is the first step in the cause of canonization.
Servant of God Augustus Tolton, baptized Augustine Tolton, was the first Roman Catholic priest in the United States publicly known to be black when he was ordained in 1886. A former slave who was baptized and reared Catholic, Tolton studied formally in Rome. He was ordained in Rome on Easter Sunday at the Cathedral-Archbasilica of St. John Lateran. Assigned to the diocese of Alton, Fr. Tolton first ministered to his home parish in Quincy, Illinois. Later assigned to Chicago, Tolton led the development and construction of St. Monica's Catholic Church as a black "national parish church", completed in 1893 at 36th and Dearborn Streets on Chicago's South Side.
Father Tolton was a popular preacher and often accepted speaking engagements as a means of raising money to maintain his church and school. He was the main celebrant and homilist at the Opening Mass at the First National Colored Catholic Congress held at Saint Augustine Catholic Church in Washington, DC in 1889. Cardinal James Gibbons made arrangements for Father Tolton to speak in Baltimore. He also spoke to large gatherings in New York and Boston and Galveston. Fr. Tolton was a devout priest who described his ordination as the happiest day of his life.
As a tireless advocate for Black Catholics, he spoke eloquently on the need for the church in America to align itself with the Catholic Church universal in granting full participation in the Church to Black Catholics. Fr. Tolton said:
"The Catholic Church deplores a double slavery – that of the mind and that of the body. She endeavors to free us of both. I was a poor slave boy but the priests of the Church did not disdain me. It was through the influence of one of them that I became what I am tonight. I must now give praise to that son of the Emerald Isle, Father Peter McGirr, pastor of St. Peter's Church in Quincy, who promised me that I would be educated and who kept his word. It was the priests of the Church who taught me to pray and to forgive my persecutors… it was through the direction of a Sister of Notre Dame, Sister Herlinde, that I learned to interpret the Ten Commandments; and then I also beheld for the first time the glimmering light of truth and the majesty of the Church. In this Church we do not have to fight for our rights because we are black. She had colored saints – Augustine, Benedict the Moor, Monica. The Church is broad and liberal. She is the Church for our people."
Official Prayer for the Cause of Canonization for Fr. Tolton
O God, we give you thanks for your servant and priest, Father Augustus Tolton, who labored among us in times of contradiction, times that were both beautiful and paradoxical. His ministry helped lay the foundation for a truly Catholic gathering in faith in our time. We stand in the shadow of his ministry. May his life continue to inspire us and imbue us with that confidence and hope that will forge a new evangelization for the Church we love.
Father in Heaven, Father Tolton’s suffering service sheds light upon our sorrows; we see them through the prism of your Son’s passion and death. If it be your Will, O God, glorify your servant, Father Tolton, by granting the favor I now request through his intercession (mention your request) so that all may know the goodness of this priest whose memory looms large in the Church he loved.
Complete what you have begun in us that we might work for the fulfillment of your kingdom. Not to us the glory, but glory to you O God, through Jesus Christ, your Son and our Lord; Father, Son and Holy Spirit, you are our God, living and reigning forever and ever.
Amen