1854-1897
Father Augustus Tolton was the first black priest in the United States. Born in 1854 in Missouri, he was a former slave who was baptized as an infant and raised Catholic.
After studying at the Pontifical Urban University in Rome, Father Tolton was ordained to the holy priesthood in the Basilica of St. John Lateran upon the Easter Vigil of 1886. He offered his first public Mass a day later in St. Peter’s Basilica.
Upon returning to the United States, Father Tolton was assigned to the Diocese of Alton in Illinois, and first ministered to his home parish in the City of Quincy.
Eventually he was sent to Chicago, where he was charged with establishing St. Monica’s Church on the city’s South Side as a “national parish” for black Catholics.
Father Tolton’s success at ministering to black Catholics quickly earned him national attention within the Catholic hierarchy. “Good Father Gus,” as he was called by many, was known for his “eloquent sermons, his beautiful singing voice, and his talent for playing the accordion.”
On July 9, 1897, Father Tolton died in hospital after having collapsed the day previous due to the summer heat wave in Chicago. He was 43 years old.
Father Tolton’s cause of canonization was initiated in 2010 by Archbishop Francis Cardinal George of Chicago. In 2019, Pope Francis granted Father Tolton the title of “Venerable.”