The Archdiocese of Chicago announced today that Cardinal Francis George is pushing sainthood for a Chicago clergyman who was born into slavery and went on to become the first black American Catholic priest.
Father Augustus Tolton, who died in 1897, was a priest in Quincy, Ill., New York, Baltimore and Texas before coming to Chicago in 1889.
Tolton was born in 1854, and was seven years old when he escaped with his Roman Catholic mother from a Missouri slave owner.
Cool.
Wow. He was only 33-years-old when he died.
Look at that young man staring back at you from Eternity.
And ask him to pray for you.