Father Augustus Tolton

Father Augustus Tolton (1854 - 1897)Augustus Tolton may have spent his entire life making history and enduring oppression and injustice as the first Black Catholic priest in the United States but never saw himself as the center or focus of his life. He lived for God alone and poured himself out in the service of his brothers and sisters, regardless of their color or creed.Augustus was born in 1854 to Peter Paul and Martha Tolton; both slaves in northeast Missouri. It is believed Tolton’s father ran off to join the Union during the Civil War but it is fact that Martha took baby Augustus along with his siblings Samuel, Charley and Anne and under Confederate fire crossed the Mississippi and found refuge with Catholics and abolitionists in Quincy, IL.From an early age Augustus showed an aptitude for learning and despite opposition from the white Catholics, was enrolled in St. Peter’s Catholic School and later attended what is now Quincy University. Augustus felt God’s call to the priesthoo