Below are biographies of six African American leaders who are on the path to canonization. Please pray for their respective causes.
The Cause for Canonization
Extraordinary African American Catholics
Venerable Augustus Tolton (1854-1894)
Venerable Augustus Tolton is considered the first recognized African American Roman Catholic priest. He was born in Missouri to enslaved parents and was baptized in Brush Creek, Missouri. How the members of the Tolton family gained their freedom remains a subject of debate.
Because no U.S. seminary would admit him, Tolton had to travel to Rome to receiver his priestly training; he was ordained there in 1886. Back home, his ministry at his church in Quincy, Illinois was so successful that he drew congregants from the nearby white parish. Tolton led the development and construction of St. Monica’s Catholic Church as a black “national parish church,” completed in 1893 on Chicago’s South Side in Chicago, where he became pastor. He gave service to service to the community by helping the poor and sick, feeding the hungry and winning souls for God. His tireless devotion led many souls to the faith.
Tolton began to be plagued by illness, and he was forced to take a temporary leave of absence from his duties at St. Monica’s Parish in 1895. At the age of 43, on July 8, 1897, he collapsed and died the following day as a result of a heat wave in Chicago. He left a legacy that continues to this day.
Father Tolton is considered the spiritual leader of the 19th century National Black Catholic Congress movement.
On March 2, 2010, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago announced that he was beginning an official investigation into Tolton’s life and virtues, with a view to opening the cause for his canonization. On March 8, 2018, historians that consult the Congregation for the Causes of Saints unanimously issued their assent to Tolton being considered as a saint. On February 5, 2019, a Vatican committee unanimously voted to approve the cause. Father Augustus Tolton advanced along the path to sainthood on June 12, 2019, making the runaway slave-turned-priest one step closer to being the first black American saint. Pope Francis recognized the heroic virtue of Father Tolton on June 12, 2019 deeming him “Venerable” within the Church, only two steps away from canonization. With this decree, Catholics are now authorized to pray directly to Father Tolton as an intercessor before God. The next step is to discover a miracle attributed to the sainthood candidate’s intercession that is needed for beatification, and a second such miracle is needed for canonization.
Prayer: 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 sorrow we see 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, so all may know the goodness of this priest whose memory looms large to the Church he loved… Amen.
Venerable Pierre Toussaint (1766-1853)
Born into slavery in Haiti, Toussaint became a freeman, successful businessman, and philanthropist in New York City. He apprenticed under a popular hairstylist in New York City and eventually became the most sought-after hairdresser of high society women. He became quite wealthy, but instead of spending lavishly on himself, he supported the Church and the poor. He and his wife sheltered in their home orphans, refugees, and other street people. He founded one of NYC’s first orphanages and raised money for the city’s first cathedral. Even during a yellow fever epidemic, Toussaint would risk his life to help others by nursing the sick and praying with the dying.
He is the only lay person honored, alongside cardinals and archbishops, with burial in the crypt of St. Patrick Cathedral.
Prayer: O virtuous Pierre Toussaint, son of Haiti, pray for all the poor and afflicted. Pray especially for your brothers and sisters in Haiti as they seek freedom from the oppression of poverty and calamity. Through your prayerful intercession, strengthen the weak, enrich the poor, comfort the downcast, and inspire courage and hope among all those who struggle each day. Amen.
Venerable Mother Henriette Delille (1812-1862)
Venerable Mother Henriette Delille, a free woman of color, was born in New Orleans. Trained by her mother in French literature, music, and dancing, Henriette was groomed for a life as a common law wife for a wealthy man, but her strong Catholic roots led her in another direction. She founded the Sisters of the Holy Family in New Orleans in 1842. Composed of free women of color, the order provided nursing care and a home for orphans, later establishing schools as well. They taught slave children when such education was prohibited by law. She died in 1862 at the age of 49, during the American Civil War, when the city was occupied by Union troops. Friends attributed her death to a life of service, poverty, and hard work. The city of New Orleans named a street as Henriette Delille in her honor, as she had given to the poor throughout her life. Delille was the first US-born African American formally postulated for canonization in 1988, when her order opened the cause with the Holy See. Her cause was endorsed “unanimously” in 1997 by the United States Catholic Bishops. Pope Benedict XVI approved her heroic virtues and named her Venerable on March 27, 2010. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints gave its formal assent on June 22, 2010, for the commencement of the cause of beatification and gave her the title of Servant of God.
Prayer: O good and gracious God, You called Henriette Delille to give herself in service and in love to the slaves and the sick, to the orphan and the aged, to the forgotten and the despised. Grant that inspired by her life, we might be renewed in heart and in mind. If it be Your will may she one day be raised to the honor of sainthood. By her prayers, may we live in harmony and peace, through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen
Servant of God Thea Bowman (1937-1990)
Sister Thea Bowman is a joyful example of contemporary sainthood. Sister Bowman was born Bertha Bowman in Mississippi in 1937. Bertha’s grandfather had been a slave, but her parents were both professionals. Bertha was raised in a vibrantly spiritual Methodist home, and she became attracted to the life of love and service of the religious sisters in her town With her parents’ permission, young Bertha converted to Catholicism when she was just nine. Bertha was enrolled in a Catholic School, which deepened her appreciation for the Catholic faith. When she was fifteen, Bertha traveled north to Wisconsin to join the order of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in La Crosse. She attended college at Viterbo University in Wisconsin and then traveled to Washington D.C. to earn her master’s degree and doctorate at the Catholic University of America. She finished her Ph.D. in 1972 and began to teach at CUA, then her alma mater of Viterbo, and Xavier University. Sister Thea, as she became known as, worked diligently not only at education but on evangelization of Black American Catholics. The Church in the South had been wounded by the history of segregation and slavery. The social structures of sin prevented the marginalized populations from feeling welcome in the Church that they saw as a Church of white people. Sister Thea worked to create a hymnal that showcased Black spirituality and culture. She traveled across the American continent and even abroad to the Caribbean Islands and Africa to spread a ministry of joy—a ministry of proclaiming the joy of each culture’s unique differences yet their unity in Christ.
Sister Thea died on March 30, 1990. Shortly before her death, Notre Dame announced her that year’s recipient of the Laetare Medal. Sister Thea’s cause for canonization has been opened, and the United States bishops announced their support for her canonization at their 2018 fall conference.
Prayer: Dear God who by your infinite goodness inflamed the heart of your servant and religious Sister Thea Bowman with an ardent love for you and the People of God; a love expressed through her indomitable spirit, deep and abiding faith, dedicated teaching, exuberant singing, and unwavering witnessing of the joy of the Gospel, hear our prayer. Her prophetic witness continues to inspire us to share the Good News with those whom we encounter; most especially the poor, oppressed, and marginalized. May Sister Thea’s life and legacy compel us to walk together, to pray together, and to remain together as missionary disciples ushering in the new evangelization for the Church we love… Amen.
Servant of God Mother Mary Lange (1787-1882)
Mother Mary Lange, O.S.P. (1784-1882), born Elizabeth Clarisse Lange, was an African-American religious sister who was the founder of the Oblate Sisters of Providence in Baltimore, a religious congregation established in 1829 to allow African-American women to enter religious life in the Catholic Church. She also founded St. Frances Academy, the first Catholic school in the United States for black children.
In recent years, many people believed Mother Lange was born in Haiti, although new evidence indicates that Lange’s actual birthplace was Santiago, Cuba. Mother Lange made her way to Baltimore by 1813. Baltimore had a large population of French-speaking Caribbean Catholics. Rev. James Hector Joubert, a Sulpician with the backing of the Archbishop of Baltimore Monsignor James Whitfield, presented Lange with a challenge to found a religious congregation for the education of black children. Mother Lange and three others took their first vows as Oblate Sisters of Providence on July 2, 1829. The Oblate sisters educated youths and provided homes for orphans. They nursed the sick and dying and sheltered the elderly. Mother Mary Lange’s deep faith enabled her to persevere against all odds. Lange was a woman of vision and selfless commitment. She personally took action to meet the social, religious and educational needs of poor women and children. Her influence is still felt today around the world where the Oblate Sisters of Providence minister to young and old alike. Their ministry is particularly felt in Baltimore at the St. Frances Academy. Mother Mary Lange died on February 3, 1882 at St. Frances Academy convent.
Prayer: We thank you Lord for the courageous witness of Mother Mary Lange, who spent her life living out the Works of Mercy. May our hearts grow to be like hers; always open to those who are poor, widowed, elderly, orphaned, sick and those needing education. She overcame hardship, and humiliation to become a beacon of faith and virtue. If it be your will, O Lord, we ask that she may be counted among the saints in glory and made known to all as a witness of enduring charity. Amen.
Servant of God Julia Greeley (1833-1918)
Julia Greeley was a familiar sight on the streets of Denver in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Wearing a floppy hat, oversize shoes, and dabbing her bad eye with a handkerchief, Greeley was often seen pulling her red wagon of goods to deliver to the poor and homeless of the city. She had a particularly special devotion to the Sacred Heart. Her charitable work earned her the title of a “one-person St. Vincent de Paul Society.”
Born a slave in Hannibal, Missouri sometime between 1833 and 1848, Greeley endured some horrific treatment – once, as a slave master beat Greeley’s mother, the whip caught Julia’s right eye and destroyed it. Work with the family of William Gilpin, Colorado’s first territorial governor, brought her to Denver in about 1878. After leaving the Gilpins’ service, Greeley found odd jobs around the city. At Sacred Heart Parish of Denver, Julia joined the Catholic Church in 1880. She was an enthusiastic parishioner, a daily communicant, and became an active member of the Secular Franciscan Order starting in 1901. Despite her own poverty, Greeley spent much of her time collecting food, clothing and other goods for the poor. She would often do her work at night, so as to avoid embarrassing the people she was assisting. Though she was earning only $10 to $12 a month cleaning and cooking, she used much of it to help other people who were poor. Julia Greeley died on June 7, 1918, the Feast of the Sacred Heart. The Archdiocese of Denver opened Julia’s cause for canonization in December of 2016.
(from blackandindianmission.org/servant-god-julia-greeley)
Prayer: Almighty and ever-living God, we thank you for the life of your Servant, Julia Greeley, who burned with great zeal for the proclamation of your Kingdom and the needs of the poor. May we imitate her devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which she encountered each day at holy Mass. We pray that as you always lift up the lowly to places of honor, you may someday raise the name of this holy woman to your sacred altar. We ask this through the Blessed Virgin Mary , whom Julia so greatly loved and imitated… Amen. (Pedro de la Cruz—from Catholic Prayer Cards.org)
Photos reprinted with permission by the National Black Catholic Congress. Anthony VanArsdale, artist.