Meet 6 Black Catholics on the road to sainthood

CNA Staff, Nov 28, 2024 / 06:00 am

November is National Black Catholic History Month in the United States, a time to honor the history, heritage, and contributions of Black Catholics across the nation. The National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus (NBCCC) first established Black Catholic History Month in 1990. 

Here are six prominent Black Catholics on their way to sainthood: 

Venerable Pierre Toussaint

Venerable Pierre Toussaint was born on June 27, 1766, in Haiti and was brought to New York City as an enslaved person. After his master died, he was determined to support the household. In his early 20s Toussaint became an apprentice to a hairdresser and quickly learned the trade. He became very successful and was able to support himself, his master’s widow, and the other house enslaved people, whose freedom he eventually bought. Toussaint himself was freed from slavery soon before his former master’s widow died in 1807.

Toussaint attended daily Mass and is credited by many as being the father of Catholic Charities in New York. He played a major role in raising funds for the first Catholic orphanage and began the city’s first school for Black children. He also helped provide funds for the Oblate Sisters of Providence, a religious community of Black nuns founded in Baltimore.

Toussaint died on June 30, 1853, and was declared venerable by Pope John Paul II on Dec. 17, 1997.

Venerable Henriette DeLille

Born on March 11, 1813, in New Orleans, Henriette DeLille was a religious sister who devoted her life to improving the welfare of her community, especially African Americans who were currently or formerly enslaved. She was born in New Orleans; her father was from France, and her mother was a free woman of African descent.

After being confirmed in 1834, she began pursuing religious life and sold her possessions to use the money to establish the Sisters of the Presentation, the second Black religious order in the United States. The sisters — whose name was eventually changed in 1942 to the Sisters of the Holy Family — educated enslaved people, which was illegal at the time. DeLille also established the Lafon Nursing Facility, which is the first and oldest Catholic nursing home in the U.S. 

After 20 years as mother superior, DeLille passed away on Nov. 17, 1862, and was declared venerable by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.

Venerable Mother Mary Lange

Mother Mary Lange, who was born in Cuba, came to the United States in 1813 and settled in the Baltimore area. She quickly realized that the children of her fellow Caribbean immigrants needed an education and decided to use her own money and home to educate children of color.

In 1829, Lange became the founder and first superior of the Oblate Sisters of Providence. Her deep faith helped her persevere against all odds and she gave herself completely to help her Black brothers and sisters. In addition to establishing a religious order, she also opened an orphanage, a widow’s home, and a school. 

Mother Lange died on Feb. 3, 1882, and was declared venerable by Pope Francis in 2023. 

Venerable Father Augustus Tolton

Augustus Tolton was born into slavery in Brush Creek, Ralls County, Missouri, on April 1, 1854, to Catholic parents Peter Paul Tolton and Martha Jane Chisley. In 1862, he, along with his mother and two siblings, escaped by crossing the Mississippi River into Illinois.

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Called to enter the priesthood, Tolton sought to enter the seminary but none in America would accept him because he was Black, so he studied for the priesthood in Rome and was ordained in 1886 at the age of 31, becoming the first African American ordained as a priest.

Tolton returned to the U.S. where he served for three years at a parish in Quincy, Illinois. From there he went to Chicago and started a parish for Black Catholics — St. Monica Parish. He remained there until he died unexpectedly while on a retreat in 1897. He was just 43 years old.

During his short but impactful life, Tolton helped the poor and sick, fed the hungry, and helped many discover the faith. He was lovingly known as “Good Father Gus.” Pope Francis declared him venerable in 2019. 

Servant of God Julia Greeley

Julia Greeley, also known as Denver’s Angel of Charity, was born into slavery near Hannibal, Missouri. When she was a child, her master, while beating Julia’s mother, caught Julia’s right eye with his whip and destroyed it. After she was freed in 1865, she spent her time serving poor families mostly in Denver.

In 1880, Greeley entered the Catholic Church at Sacred Heart Parish in Denver. She attended daily Mass and had a deep devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the Blessed Virgin Mary. She joined the Secular Franciscan Order in 1901 and was active in it until her death in 1918. Her cause for canonization was opened by the Archdiocese of Denver in 2016.

Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman 

Born in Canton, Mississippi, in 1937, Thea Bowman converted to Catholicism as a child inspired by the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration and the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity, who were teachers and pastors at Holy Child Jesus Church and School in Canton. Bowman witnessed Catholics around her caring for the poor and those in need, and this is what drew her to the Catholic Church.

At the age of 15, she told her family she wanted to join the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. She left her home in Mississippi and traveled to LaCrosse, Wisconsin, where she would be the only African American member of her religious community. 

In 1978, Bowman accepted a position to direct the Office of Intercultural Affairs for the Diocese of Jackson, Mississippi, and became a founding member of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University in New Orleans. She became a highly acclaimed evangelizer, teacher, speaker, and writer. 

In 1984, after the death of both of her parents, Bowman was diagnosed with breast cancer, which eventually metastasized to her bones. Despite the pain she was in, she continued her rigorous schedule of speaking engagements to share her love for God and the joy of the Gospel with others. Bowman would arrive in her wheelchair, with no hair due to chemotherapy, but always filled with joy and smiling from ear to ear. 

She died peacefully in her childhood home on March 30, 1990, and in 2018 the Diocese of Jackson opened her cause for canonization.