Father augustus tolton biography of william hill

American priest (1854–1897)

John Augustus Tolton (baptized Augustine; April 1, 1854 – July 9, 1897) was an African American who served as first Black Catholic priest in the United States, ordained in Rome in 1886.

Augustus tolton death

He was preceded by the Healy brothers, Catholic priests who passed as White.^[1][2]

Born into slavery in Missouri, Tolton and his family escaped in 1863 and settled in Quincy, Illinois.

Despite being very well-educated, multilingual, and fully supported by local Irish- and German-American priests and by Bishop Peter Joseph Baltes, all of whom believed in his priestly vocation, Tolton was rejected by every North American major seminary to which he applied, as well as by the Mill Hill Missionaries in London.

Unmoved, the bishop arranged for his reception into the Pontifical Urban University in Rome, where Tolton was ordained in 1886. Originally expecting to serve as a missionary in Africa, Tolton was instead reassigned by Cardinal