Special to The Message
Editor’s Note: The information in this article is from The National Black Catholic Congress’ website.
During Black History Month this February, revisit or learn more about the seven holy African American men and women on the path to sainthood.
According to The National Black Catholic Congress, seven Black Catholics are currently on the canonization journey. They are Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman, Venerable Henriette Delille, Venerable Pierre Toussaint, Venerable Mother Mary Lange, Venerable Father Augustus Tolton, Servant of God Julia Greeley and Servant of God Friar Martin de Porres Maria Ward.
Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman
Thea Bowman was born Bertha Elizabeth Bowman in 1937, the daughter of a doctor and a teacher, and raised in Canton, Mississippi. She converted to Catholicism as a child through the influence of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration and the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity, who taught her and nurtured her faith.
Thea learned survival skills and coping mechanisms from family and community members, which exposed her to the richness of the African-American culture: its history and stories, music and songs, customs and rituals, prayers and symbols.
Thea was cognizant that God was indeed the God of the poor and oppressed. Her community instructed her, “If you get, give — if you learn, teach.” She developed a deep and abiding love and faith in a God who would make “a way out of no way!”
Venerable Henriette Delille
Henriette Delille was born in 1812 in New Orleans, Louisiana, as a free woman of color. When she was 24, she experienced a religious conversion and proclaimed: “I believe in God. I hope in God. I love. I want to live and die for God.”
Eventually, Henriette founded the Society of the Holy Family, responding to the need for treatment for the enslaved, elderly and sick, and care and education for the poor.
In 1988, Archbishop Philip M. Hannan began the canonization process for Henriette. An alleged miracle attributed to Henriette is currently being tried in a Catholic Tribunal, and the decree of judicial validity was issued in the investigation of her life, virtues and reputation of sanctity. Henriette was declared Venerable by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.
Venerable Pierre Toussaint
Pierre Toussaint was born in 1766 in modern-day Haiti as a slave, but he died in New York City as a free man and a well-known Catholic.
During his lifetime, Toussaint enjoyed the reputation of an exceptionally devout and charitable person within the Catholic community. He attended daily 6 a.m. Mass in St. Peter’s Church, and he raised funds to build the original St. Patrick’s Cathedral and St. Vincent de Paul Church.
Toussaint donated to various charities, generously assisting blacks and whites in need. He and his wife opened their home to orphans and educated them.
In 1968, the late Cardinal Terence Cooke introduced Pierre’s cause for canonization at the Vatican. In December 1989, the late Cardinal O’Connor had the remains of Pierre Toussaint transferred from Lower Manhattan to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in midtown Manhattan where he is buried as the only lay person alongside the former cardinal archbishops of New York City. On Dec. 17, 1997, he was declared Venerable by Pope John Paul II.
Venerable Mother Mary Lange
Elizabeth Lange was born around 1794 in Santiago de Cuba. She received an excellent education and in the early 1800s, she left Cuba and settled in Baltimore.
Providence intervened through Father James Hector Joubert, SS, who was encouraged by James Whitfield, Archbishop of Baltimore, to present Elizabeth Lange with the idea to found a religious congregation to educate African American girls. Father Joubert provided direction, solicited financial assistance and encouraged other women of color to become members of this, the first congregation of African American women religious in the history of the Catholic Church. On July 2, 1829, Elizabeth and three other women professed their vows and became the Oblate Sisters of Providence. Elizabeth, the foundress and first superior general, took the religious name Mary.
William Cardinal Keeler, Archbishop of Baltimore, opened a formal investigation into Mother Lange’s life and works of charity in 1991. The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine for the Causes of Saints approved the cause of her sainthood in 2004, and Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore celebrated a canonical celebration at the transfer and blessing of Mother Lange’s remains. Pope Francis named her as Venerable on June 22, 2023.
Venerable Father Augustus Tolton
Augustus Tolton was born in the U.S. to two slaves, Peter Paul Tolton and his wife Martha Jane, on April 1, 1854.
As Augustus grew up, he displayed an interest in the priesthood. Finally, in 1878, he was accepted at the Franciscan College in Quincy, his hometown. Two years later, he was enrolled at the College of the Propaganda Fidei in Rome.
Augustus was ordained April 24, 1886. His first assignment was St. Joseph parish in his hometown of Quincy, where he served for two years. He was later assigned to St. Augustine, which eventually became St. Monica. This was Father Tolton’s parish for life, and it was the center from which he ministered to all the Black Catholics of Chicago. In 1889, he addressed the First Catholic Colored Congress in Washington, D.C.
The cause for Father Tolton’s canonization began in 2010. In 2015, it received affirmation of the juridical validity of the Archdiocesan inquiry into his life and virtues by the Congregation for Causes of Saints, and so Father Tolton received the distinction of Servant of God.
Servant of God Julia Greeley
Denver’s Angel of Charity was born into slavery in Hannibal, Missouri, between 1833 and 1848. Freed by the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, Julia Greeley earned her keep by serving white families in Missouri, Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico. She spent whatever she could spare to assist poor families in her neighborhood.
Julia entered the Catholic Church at Sacred Heart Parish in Denver in 1880. The Jesuits who ran the parish considered her the most enthusiastic promoter of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Every month, she went on foot to every fire station in Denver and delivered literature of the Sacred Heart League to the firemen, Catholics and non-Catholics.
Julia had a rich devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Virgin. She joined the Secular Franciscan Order in 1901 and was active until she died in 1918.
The frequent request for her cause for canonization was finally granted in the fall of 2016. As part of the process, Julia’s mortal remains were transferred to Denver’s Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception on June 7, 2017.
Servant of God Friar Martin de Porres Maria Ward
Born in 1928 in Boston, Massachusetts, to a bi-racial family, Friar Martin de Porres dedicated 51 years of his life to the Conventual Franciscan Friars, much of which was spent in Andrelândia, Brazil.
Friar Martin became the first African American Conventual Franciscan in North America. He was ordained to the priesthood June 4, 1955, and he volunteered for missions in Brazil. He was well-known for his cheerful, charitable and humble demeanor. He dedicated himself to the people of Andrelândia, particularly the poor.
His commitment to faith was reflected in his practice of the virtues of simplicity, joy, poverty and humility. Friar Martin was a devoted Franciscan friar and priest with a profound devotion to the Eucharist.
For more information on the seven holy African American men and women on the path to sainthood, visit https://nbccongress.org/noteworthy-black-catholics/#BlackCatholicCanonization.