April 1st is the birthday of Venerable Fr. Augustus Tolton. He lived from 1854 to 1897, and was the first Roman Catholic priest in the US.
A former slave, Fr. Tolton was ordained in Rome and served as pastor of St. Boniface in Quincy, Illinois. He was known as “Good Father Gus,” who had eloquent sermons and a beautiful signing voice.
The Archdiocese of Chicago describes him as, “Father Tolton shows us in his own life’s pattern that we can find blessing in everything, even what is most painful. His story is one of suffering service. Through his experiences of racial negation by a society that would separate black and white by force of the law and lawless custom, Tolton found the love of God, found his own vocation and ultimately has received his reward from God as a figure of Christian faith in action, indiscriminate love of neighbor and pastoral charity despite the bigotry that was thrown at him.”
Read and see more at https://tolton.archchicago.org/about.
Good Father Gus, pray for us!
