Venerable Augustus Tolton died in Mercy Hospital on Chicago’s South Side 129 years ago, but his legacy lives on in his cause for canonization with interest coming not just from America, but from as far away as Russia, the Philippines and South America.
“There are people who follow the saints in other cultures, especially people who are in the process,” said Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Perry, postulator for the cause. “I guess they find it rather fascinating that here in the United States we have a number of people who have causes pending. That didn’t used to be, but it certainly has been apparent.”
Tolton was born into an enslaved family and is the first recognized African American priest ordained for the U.S. Catholic Church.
Cardinal Francis George officially opened Tolton’s cause in the Archdiocese of Chicago in 2010. On Dec. 10, 2016, his cause took a step forward at a cemetery in Quincy, when his remains were exhumed, verified and reinterred. In June 2019, Pope Francis declared that Tolton lived a life of heroic virtue, giving him the title of “venerable.”
The next step is beatification, which requires verification of a miracle attributed to the sainthood candidate’s intercession. Generally, a second such miracle is needed for canonization.
“People write us all the time,” Bishop Perry said. “Given the religious fervor that’s in certain cultures in South America and the Philippines, it doesn’t surprise me.”
They request prayer cards, pamphlets — and relics.
“People are interested in relics and there just are no relics of Father Tolton,” Bishop Perry said. “When we did the exhumation back in 2016, of course, there were his bodily remains and certain insides of the coffin and so forth, and that was all situated in a new coffin.”
The coffin with its relics was sealed and reburied. It will only be opened again if Tolton is beatified.
Since there are no relics, Bishop Perry sends them soil from Tolton’s grave in Quincy. While Tolton died in Chicago in 1897, he requested to be buried in Quincy, which is in the Diocese of Springfield.
“We take some granules from his grave and people seem to be satisfied with that because it’s the closest thing that you can get to him,” he said.
As for a miracle that would lead to Tolton’s beatification, the cause is still waiting.
“I have about 30 or 40 reports of people with some extraordinary happenings due to prayer and intercession, but none of which have really hit the mark as an actual miracle,” Bishop Perry said. “But when you read them, you come to an understanding that God is working in people’s lives through Tolton’s intercession, no doubt about it.”