Fr Augustine Tolton was the first black priest in the United States. He and his family were slaves. His father escaped, then went off to fight in the Civil War. Later his mother and the other children escaped, traveling a very long journey to get to the river to cross to freedom. It is a story about Augustine's faith in God, working in a factory much of the year, then for three months going to school. It was a time where blacks were oppressed, even in our churches, but Augustine maintain his faith in God. He wanted to be a priest. Several parish priests saw his goodness and started teaching him about God. Augustine wanted more. He started to clean the churches and help in any way that he could. The more he loved God, the more he wanted to become a priest to help his people. The parish priest and other priests started to help him more with his education. They too saw his potential of becoming a priest. They wrote to seminaries and religious communities to accept him but none would allow a negro to enter their communities or their seminaries.. but the priest would not give up his efforts to help Augustine back in the 1800. It was the church in Rome who accepted Augustine to come and join the seminary. Augustine left for Rome, traveling all alone, by trains, ships, horse and wagon to get to where he would study the priesthood. Knowing how hurtful people were to those of his color, he had great courage to follow his dream no matter what he would experience along the way. Augustine's life is a testimony to no matter how difficult our lives have been, we need courage to continue on no matter hard it will be to reach our goals and our potential in life... as Augustine did from going from being a slave to becoming a priest who was educated in Rome.
FR AUGUSTINE TOLTON CLICK HERE
A BOOK ABOUT FR AUGUSTINE TOLTON CLICK HERE
VIDEO ABOUT THE TOLTON STRUGGLES CLICK HERE
