23 May 2015

A new photo of Father Tolton

A couple of days ago one of the priests of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois kindly sent along a copy of the notes he took during a presentation given to the priest of the diocese by the Most Revered Joseph N. Perry, Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago, on the proceeding of the cause for the beatification and canonization of the Servant of God Father Augustus Tolton.

Together with the notes he sent a scanned image of a photograph of Father Gus that we had not seen before:

After looking at the photograph, which I very much like, I wrote to Bishop Perry to inquire into the details of the photo. He provided these details, together with permission to share it here:
[T]he recent photo of Father Augustus Tolton you mention I shared with the Springfield priests was recently professionally restored from the original faded/damaged framed picture that hung in the now suppressed parish of St. Peter Claver in Philadelphia.  The picture was taken in 1892 at the 3rd Colored Catholic Congress that took place there. Tolton would have been 38yrs old. Upon closure of the parish last year the picture was given to me by the pastor there.  We have just begun to feature this latest photo.
The photograph was taken just five years before Tolton's death and six years after he was ordained a priest.

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