An annual pilgrimage honoring Venerable Augustus Tolton, the nation’s first openly Black Catholic priest, will take place this summer, coinciding with the Jubilee Year of Hope and traveling from Chicago to Missouri.
The expanded route this year will run from Aug. 22-24 and be led by retired Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago Joseph N. Perry, an African-American prelate who serves as diocesan postulator for Tolton’s sainthood cause.
“Pope Francis has designated 2025 a Holy Year with the theme ‘Pilgrims of Hope,’” reads an event description.
“Let's make this Jubilee Year special with a weekend of spiritual renewal, reconciliation, hope, and prayer for the Church as well as Venerable Augustus Tolton's cause for canonization.”
The event is the latest from the Tolton Spirituality Center (TSC), housed in the former St. Elizabeth’s Catholic Church in Chicago. Tolton, who was born into slavery in Missouri and escaped during the Civil War, became a priest in 1886 and eventually founded the first Black Catholic parish in Chicago, St. Monica’s. It was merged into St. Elizabeth’s just over a century ago, in 1924.
Tolton was ordained in Rome due to his rejection from U.S. Catholic seminaries because of his race. He was missioned back to the United States by the Vatican, first serving in his hometown diocese in Illinois. He faced various forms of racism and anti-Catholicism during his early priesthood, and the stressors of a unique ministry after transferring to Chicago, dying in 1897 at the age of 43 from heat stroke.
Since his death, Tolton’s fame has grown around the world, with devotion to his memory leading Cardinal Francis George, OMI to open his sainthood cause in 2010. As part of the process, Tolton's body was exhumed and verified in 2016, after which Pope Francis declared him “Venerable” in 2019.
Tolton’s cause now awaits the confirmation of a miracle brought by his intercession, which would allow the pope to declare him “Blessed,” the last step before being named a saint. Vatican officials were investigating possible miracles stateside as recently as 2022.
To date, none of the seven African-American Catholic candidates for sainthood have been beatified or canonized.
This summer’s pilgrimage is the second in 2025 for Tolton, an outworking of his cause’s unique status, involving the collaboration of three dioceses: that of Chicago, where he died; Springfield in Illinois, where his family escaped to from slavery; and Jefferson City, where he was born.
The latter diocese led a Jubilee pilgrimage in April during Holy Week, also hosted by Bishop Perry, beginning at the new Camp Tolton Lodge and Retreat Center in Shelbina, Missouri, and ending at Tolton’s grave in his hometown of Quincy, Illinois. During the event, Perry blessed a memorial to the enslaved buried at Tolton’s baptismal parish, St. Peter’s Chapel in Brush Creek, Missouri.
The TSC-led pilgrimage in August is open for registration, with cost and other details available upon submission of an online signup form. Questions can be directed to the TSC office at tolton.spirituality.center@gmail.com.
Nate Tinner-Williams is co-founder and editor of Black Catholic Messenger.
