Pierre Toussaint began life in 1766 as a slave in Haiti.  His great grandmother was brought to the Caribbean from Africa as a slave.  His owner, Jean Berard, was Catholic so Pierre was raised Catholic.  He was educated by the owner’s tutors, which was unusual at that time.

Unrest developed in Haiti and Jean Berard sent his wife to New York for safety accompanied by Pierre and his sister, Rosalie.  There, Pierre learned the hairdressing trade, which was one of the few professions allowed slaves at that time. Pierre flourished dressing the hair of many famous people.  

New York was not an easy time for Pierre.  He was looked down as a slave and as a Catholic.

Despite this, he used the personal setting of hairdressing to profess his faith.  His clientele referred to him as “St. Pierre” because of his kindness, wisdom and exuberant proclamation of the WORD.  Many people sought his counsel.

His master, Jean Berard, died in Haiti leaving his wife penniless.  These were hard times for the Berard family, but Pierre, while still a slave, supported Madame Berard with his own monies.  The widow Berard promised Pierre freedom when she died.  He gained that freedom in 1807.

He purchased the freedom of his sister.  He also purchased the freedom of another slave, Juliette Noel.  They married and adopted the daughter of his sister, Rosalie, who had died from tuberculosis..

Peirre attended mass daily at St. Patrick’s church for 66 years and was devoted to the rosary.  He helped countless people, used most of the money he made to establish hostels for priest and travelers, contribute to hospitals, orphanages and other charitable causes.  He established an employment agency in New York, helped house and educate young men as well as helping them to find jobs.  During a cholera outbreak in the city, he was known to cross barricades to nurse the sick.  He was a large contributor to the building of the first St. Patrick’s cathedral.  

He died in 1857 at the age of 87.  Pierre Toussaint is the first layman to buried in the crypt below the altar at St. Patrick’s cathedral, which had been reserved for the bishops of the Archdiocese of New York. 

Because of his great charity and deep Catholic faith, Pierre Toussaint is on the road to canonization as a saint.  He was made a “Servant of God” by Cardinal O’Connor in 1989.  In 1996 he was declared “Venerable” by Pope John Paul II.    

Pierre Toussaint is on the road to canonization because of his deep devotion to his faith, good works, charity and prayer.  We can all be saints.  Let’s pray, hope and do good works toward that goal, which is heaven.
                                                           

If you were born in the 1940s through 80s and lived in Mississippi, New Orleans, Louisiana, Africa, France, Washington, D.C. or as far away as LaCrosse, Wisconsin, you could have met Sister Thea Bowman.  Born to a middle class protestant family, Bertha Elizabeth (given name) Bowman grew up in Yazoo City, Mississippi.  Her grandfather had been a slave, but her father, Theon Edward Bowman, M.D., was a physician.  Her mother was a teacher.

She grew up asking questions of her elders and gaining insights on how her parents and others lived, thrived and survived.  She learned coping mechanisms and skill for life, which were important for a black girl in her native Mississippi.  Thea also learned of the richness of her African-American heritage in the spirituality, history, stories, songs, prayers and traditions.

The Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, of La Crosse, Wisconsin, came to the Mississippi community and established Holy Child Jesus School, a Catholic grade school, to help educate black children in that community.  Sister Thea attended that school which greatly influenced her education and religious vocation.  At age 9, she asked to become a Catholic.  At age 15, her parents consented. She and her classmate and dear friend, Flonzie Brown White (who would later become the NAACP Field Secretary in Mississippi and active civil rights leader), would practice at being sisters.  

The influence the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration had on Elizabeth could not be quantified. Her conversion to Catholicism was borne of what she witnessed and how these white women seemed to love and care for all no matter who they were or their condition.  She joined those same sisters, whose community was in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, where she would be the only African American member of that community.  

Upon her profession as a sister, she was given the name "Sister Mary Thea” in honor of the Blessed Mother and her father, Theon.  Thea literally means “God.”  She earned a Bachelors of Arts in English at Virterbo University.  She earned her Masters and PhD. in English at Catholic University in Washington, D.C.  

As an educator, Sister Thea taught at an elementary school in LaCrosse and then at her alma mater, Holy Child Jesus Catholic School. She also went on to teach English and Linguistics at her college alma maters, Virterbo University and Catholic University as well as Xavier University in New Orleans.

Sister Thea Bowman was an educator, missionary disciple, advocate for cultural awareness and racial harmony.  She was charismatic, intelligent and blessed with a beautiful singing voice.  

The 1960s was a period of profound change in a nation torn by racial division.  There was a need for justice and equality for all.  It was also a time of change in the Church.  The 60’s announced the renewal of Vatican II.  Sister Thea was energized by the message of the Vatican Council and rediscovered her African American heritage and spirituality.  She felt renewed and “fully functioning,” which she wanted to share.  She became and evangelizer, writer and singer sharing the joy of the Gospel through the eyes of her culture and heritage all over the country. 

In 1978, Sister Thea returned home to care for her parents and with the blessing of her community accepted and appointment by the Bishop of the Diocese of Jackson, Mississippi, to direct The Office of Intercultural Affairs.  There, Sister Thea continued to attack prejudice and promote cultural awareness.  She was a founding faculty member of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University in New Orleans.  She became more involved with ministering to her fellow African Americans.  She brought her "ministry of joy” in inspirational talks to Black Congregations from Nigeria and Kenya to the United States and Canada.  She called on Catholics to celebrate their differences but to reflect their joy at being one in Christ, a joy she exhibited in her preaching and singing.  She also became instrumental in the publication of a new Catholic hymnal, Lead Me, Guide Me: The African American Catholic Hymnal, a first such work directed to the Black Community.

Sister Thea developed breast cancer in 1984, yet continued her preaching.  As her illness became worse, she became more famous.  With sponsorship from friends, she traveled to west Africa and Lourdes, France.  She appeared on 60 Minutes with Mike Wallace and was able to get him to say, “Black is beautiful.”  During the interview she said, “I think the difference between me and some people is that I’m content to do my little bit.  Sometimes people think they have to do big things in order to make change.  But if each one would light a candle we’d have a tremendous light.”  

In 1989, shortly before her death, in recognition to her contributions and service to the Church, Boston College in Massachusetts awarded her an honorary Doctorate in Religion.  When asked by her homilist what to say at her funeral, Sister Thea responded, “Tell them what Sojourner Truth said about her eventual death, ‘Im not going to die.  I’m going home like a shooting star.'”  And so she did on March 30, 1990.  Her tombstone bears the simple inscription, “She tried.”  She said, “I want people to remember that I tried to love the Lord and that I tried to love them.  She is buried beside her parents and an uncle at Elmwood cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee.  

2015 saw the 25th anniversary of her death, bringing numerous tributes.  Her 1988 albums, Songs of My People and ‘Round the Glory Manger were re-released.  In 2020, the Songs of My People: The Complete Collection was released.  The cause for her canonization as a saint was opened by the Diocese of Jackson in 2018.  She is now designated as a Servant of God, the first step to sainthood.  The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops indicated unanimous support for the advancement of Sister Thea Bowman’s canonization cause.  

                                                                   


Julia Greeley was born a slave in Hannibal, Missouri sometime in the 1830s.  When she was a child she lost her right eye when an angry slave master beat her mother and the whip caught her in the eye.    

Julia was freed by the Missouri Emancipation Act in 1865.  Thereafter, she worked as a laborer for white families in the western states, particularly Colorado.  It was there she came into the employment of Julia Pratte Dickerson, a widow, who would later marry the first territorial governor of Colorado, William Gilpin. Through their efforts, Julia was baptized into the Catholic faith in1880.  

Julia became devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary.  She attended daily mass and received Holy Communion each and every day.  In 1901, she joined the Secular Franciscans and remained an active member for the rest of her life.

Julia was known as “One-eyed Julia,” for obvious reasons and was also known as "Denver’s Angel of Charity," because of her work to help those in need.  She was also known as a ”one-person St. Vincent de Paul Society.”  Julia would travel the streets at night with a red wagon, filled with food, clothing and other essentials. She did this so she wouldn’t embarrass those she helped.   

She lived in a boarding house and gave away all that she had. When she did not have enough of her own resources, she begged for food, clothing and fuel for the needy.  She convinced young socialites to give up their old party dresses for the poor.  She even gave up her burial plot so that a poor black man wouldn’t be buried in a pauper’s grave.  

Julia taught herself to play the piano.  She entertained guests one night by playing an entire Gregorian Mass. She was known to smoke a corncob pipe on occasion.

Julia died on June 7, 1918.  Because she had lived in a boarding house, the wake and funeral were held at Loyola Chapel, a first for a Catholic layperson in Denver that has not been repeated.  Many hundreds of people came to pay their respects and gratitude.

On January 2014, an investigation was opened for her beatification.  To honor her, Julia's body was moved to the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Denver, making her the first person to be interred there since it opened in 1912.  As of May 2021, her inquiry was accepted and validated by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.  She did so much with so little.

Born in Cuba in about 1789, it is said that Elizabeth Clarisse Lange was born to the daughter of a Jewish Land owner and a slave of mixed race. They moved to Santo Domingo, where she was educated. 

The family immigrated to the United States in the 1800s and by 1813 settled in Baltimore, Maryland.  Elizabeth Lange, later known as Mother Mary Lange, recognized the need for a school to teach African American children and opened a school in her home with another woman, Marie Balas.  

A French priest, Father James Joubert, who had fled the Haitian revolution to Baltimore, was teaching Catechism to young black children but had difficulty because they could not read.  He wanted to open a school and was recommended to Elizabeth Lange and Marie Balas as they were already teaching in their home.  Father Joubert suggested the women start a community of religious and teach children.  In 1829, Elizabeth Lange, taking the name Sister Mary, founded the Oblate Sisters of Providence taking vows with three other women.  She became the Superior General of this community becoming the First African American Superior General of the first African American religious community. The school they started became known as St. Frances Academy, which is still operating in Baltimore.

The community of sisters grew.  Through evangelization of the Catholic faith by education, the sisters developed night classes for women in the city, training for vocations and established homes for widows and orphans. 

In 1832 a cholera epidemic broke out in the City.  Sister Mary and three others were chosen from the eleven members of the community to nurse the victims.  Sister Mary took on other roles, from working as a domestic to help finance the community to Mistress of Novices to help develop the religious community she began.  Mother Mary Lange died in 1832.

In 1991 Mother Mary Lange was inducted into the Maryland Women’s Hall of fame.  The school she founded, St. Frances Academy, is still operating and will celebrate its 200th Anniversary in 2028.  Likewise the Oblate Sisters continue their evangelization.  Mother Mary’s cause for beatification was opened in 1991 and Pope Francis named her as venerable on June 22, 2023, advancing her cause for sainthood. 
 
                                                                  

Father John Augustus Tolton was born into slavery in the South.  His grandparents, Matilda and Augustus Chisley were the slaves of John Henry Manning.  Matilda was a cradle Catholic.  

Upon Manning’s death, the family was forcibly separated.  Matilda and Augustus’ daughter, Martha Jane, was inherited by the owner’s daughter as a part of a wedding dowry.  John Augustus was born to Mary Jane and Peter Paul Tolton on May 29, 1854 near Hannibal Missouri.  His master, Stephen Elliot’s daughter, Sevilla, was John Augustus’ godmother and gave the children Catholic classes.  

John’s father, Peter Paul, gained his family’s freedom during the Civil War.  His father died while a soldier in the Union army.  John Augustus, his mother and siblings, moved to Quincy, Illinois, where they worked in a Tobacco Factory.

John Augustus tried to attend a local Catholic School but was not allowed due to racist views at the time.  He met Father Peter McGirr, an Irish priest, who allowed him to attend school at St. Peter’s, again to much complaint by the white parishioners. He graduated in 1872 and continued studies with various priests, and later at St. Francis Solanus College.  

Despite the efforts of Father McGirr, John Augustus could not obtain admission to any seminary in the U.S.  Through the priest’s continued help, John Augustus eventually was accepted to study in Rome, where his attended the Pontifical Urban University.  He learned Italian, Latin and Greek.  He was ordained in Rome in 1886.  He said his first mass at St. Peter’s Basilica on Easter Sunday of that year.  

He returned to the Quincy, Illinois and tried to establish a Black parish and school but met resistance from the white community and African American Protestant clergy, as well as his parish dean, who did not want to admit white worshipers to mass there.   

He was reassigned to Chicago where he enabled a “national parish” for African Americans at St. Monica’s Catholic Church.  The parish grew from 30 to 600 parishioners.  He earned attention of the Catholic hierarchy with his success at ministering to this community.  He was called “Good Father Gus” by many and was known for his eloquent sermons, singing and playing of the accordion.

Father Tolton’s own personality and his relationship with God revealed a kind and gentle soul.  He faced opposition from the communities one would expect at this time in history, but also the Christian community.  Despite this, Fr. Tolton found joy and encouraged others with their own trials.   His love, courage and devotion in the face of prejudice is to be admired, even in our own times.

Father Tolton fell ill in 1893.  He was forced to take leave of his duties at St. Monica’s in 1895 due to his ongoing illnesses.  In 1897, during a heatwave in Chicago he collapsed and died.  His funeral was attended by 100 priests and is buried in the priests’ lot in the St. Peter’s Cemetery in Quincy, which was his expressed wish.

From slavery to a slave for Christ, John Augustus Tolton was the first priest of acknowledged African descent in the United States.  In the 1880’s a black man becoming a priest was thought to be impossible.  Father Tolton was indefatigable in his desire for priesthood and in his life as a priest.

On June 11, 2019, Pope Francis issued the declaration that Father John Augustus Tolton lived a life of heroic virtue advancing him to “The Venerable Father Tolton."

 
                 

In 2010, Pope Benedict XVI declared Henriette DeLille “Venerable,” which is the second step in the canonization of a saint.  A miracle must be confirmed to move the process forward.  The miracle associated with Henriette is being reviewed.  The miraculous event in question involved a college student who developed a life threatening aneurysm, which caused her to be in a coma near death.  He mother prayed for intercession to Venerable Henriette and her daughter was cured.  That student has since obtained a masters degree at Loyola University in New Orleans.

On March 11, 1813, Henriette DeLille was born in New Orleans, into a system of common law marriage where white men entered contracts with women of color in lieu of marriage.  This was called a placage system.  Her Mother, a quadroon (1/4 African descent), was in such a relationship.  

Henriette, a complex creole woman of color, was raised in the French Catholic tradition. Her mother, desiring her to enter into a placagerelationship, taught her French literature, music and dancing.  She also taught her nursing skills, medicinal herb and medicine preparation.  

Henriette attended many balls and parties, which were necessary elements in developing social relationships for finding placage partners. Henriette, may have had two children from such a relationship.  These children died as infants and prior to Henriette’s confirmation.  

Henriette was drawn to religious life and resisted the life her mother wanted for her.  She became an outspoken opponent of the placage system.  At Age 14, as a well-educated person, she began teaching a local Catholic school that had been opened in New Orleans for girls of color.  Her desire to care for and to teach the poor increased.  This caused conflict with her mother’s ambitions for her.    

At age 21, Henriette received the sacrament of confirmation.  Her faith blossomed.  In 1835, her mother had a nervous breakdown.  Her mother was declared incompetent and Henriette was made conservator.  After caring for her mother’s needs she sold the rest of the estate. 

With these monies she founded a congregation of religious sisters which she named the Sisters of the Presentation.  They had little money and made many sacrifices to help the poor.  They cared for the sick.  They took care of the poor.  They instructed free and enslaved people.  They also cared for older women who could no longer care for themselves, and took them into their home creating America’s first Catholic home for the elderly.

Henriette faced great odds in opposition to her social, political and religious efforts and overcame them.  She was a woman of faith, hope and love.  Henriette DeLille died at age 49, while New Orleans was occupied by Union troops during the Civil War.  Her death was attributed to a life of service.  

Today, the community of sisters she established helps the poor by educating children in free schools and working in nursing and retirement homes.  While she lived her entire life in New Orleans her community now stretches from coast to coast, from California to Washington, D.C. A fitting legacy for such a remarkable woman.