Another pilgrimage procession to Father Tolton's grave

When I was nearing the completion of my studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University two years ago, I realized that the date of my departure from the Eternal City and my return to the Gem City nearly coincided with the date of Father Tolton's return to Quincy from Rome, only 130 years later. So it was that I organized a small pilgrimage to his grave for the celebration of Vespers.

The group of pilgrims who braved the heat to honor our beloved Father Gus enjoyed the day evening so much that they asked for another pilgrimage the next year. Looking for another occasion to mark, we made the same pilgrimage last year in commemoration of the 120th anniversary of his death on July 9, 1897.

I have again been asked to lead a pilgrimage to his grave again this year to commemorate the anniversary of his death, which I am happy to do. Because July 9th falls on a Monday this year, we will have our pilgrimage procession on Sunday, July 8th. The details are as follows, as detailed in a press release:

PHOTO: Gretchen Mason

QUINCY - Area Catholics and others devoted to the Servant of God Father Augustus Tolton will commemorate the 121^st anniversary of the death of Father Tolton with a pilgrimage procession on Sunday, July 8^th. Father Tolton died in Chicago on July 9, 1897 and is interred in St. Peter Cemetery in Quincy, where he was raised and from which he left to study for the priesthood in Rome. He returned to Quincy as a priest in 1886 and ministered in the Gem City until he left for Chicago in 1889. Father Tolton has been proposed for sainthood and the Cause for his Canonization continues.

The pilgrimage procession will begin at 4:00 p.m. at the statue of Father Tolton outside St. Peter Catholic School at 2500 Maine Street. After a few words of welcome and explanation, followed by a prayer, the pilgrimage procession will process along the south side of Maine Street where it will cross onto the east side of South 33^rd Street. It will then process along the east side of South 33^rd Street until it reaches St. Peter Catholic Cemetery.

After entering the cemetery, the procession will stop at the grave of Father Tolton for the celebration of Evening Prayer at 4:30 p.m., which is composed of Psalms, a reading from Scripture, petitions, and song. After Evening Prayer, the pilgrims will pray for more priests through Father Tolton’s intercession and for his canonization as a saint.

The pilgrimage procession will conclude with the singing of “Holy God, We Praise Thy Name,” Father Tolton’s favorite song.

Those who wish to participate in the Evening Prayer but cannot walk in the procession are invited to park near the cemetery to meet the procession at the grave; because of the small size of the cemetery, no one should park in the cemetery itself.

Chairs and bottled water will be provided at the cemetery for those who wish to participate in the Evening Prayer.

Father Dominic Rankin has gratefully accepted an invitation to preach during the Evening Prayer. It seems this pilgrimage is likely to become an annual event, if it has not already become so.

I hope you will be able to join us for this pilgrimage procession. The forecast is already showing signs of improvement and has a of 85 degrees on Sunday. If that holds true, it should be a lovely afternoon!

Covering the pilgrimage procession

The local news media did a very fine job reporting on yesterday's pilgrimage procession to the grave of the Servant of God Father Augustus Tolton on the 120th anniversary of his death, all nicely done:

• From the Quincy Herald-Whig: "Pilgrimage procession commemorates 120th anniversary of Tolton's death," by Ashley Szatala
  
• From WGEM-TV: Father Tolton honored with pilgrimage through Quincy
  
• From KHQA-TV: Tri-State Catholics honor 120 years since Father Augustus Tolton passed 

Homily on the 120th Anniversary of the Death of Father Augustus Tolton

Homily at Vespers for the

120^th Anniversary of the Death of the Servant of God

Father Augustus Tolton

Dear brothers and sisters,

The grave of Father Augustus Tolton
PHOTO: Gretchen Mason

For nearly two full days in Illinois in 1897, “the mercury had not crawled below the 80-degree mark, and the heat wave had penetrated into the innermost citadels of comfort and coolness.”[1] In its wake, twelve babies in Quincy and nine adults in Chicago lay dead, one of whom was our beloved Servant of God, Father Augustus Tolton, who died on July 9^th at 8:30 p.m. at the age of forty-three.

On July 11^th, they brought his body into St. Monica’s church in Chicago, where he served as pastor for eight years, there to lay in state until his funeral Mass the next day. His body arrived in Quincy on July 13^th and was received at the old St. Peter’s church at 8^th and Maine streets for a requiem Mass. Later that day, the Quincy Journal noted that

the church was filled with the friends of the deceased priest, whose reputation was national, and the many lovely floral tributes were evidence of the high esteem in which he was held. Seldom has St. Peter’s Church held such a large funeral assemblage as was gathered there this morning.[2]

After the Mass, the body of Father Tolton was brought in procession to this cemetery, where he was laid to rest one hundred and twenty years ago. “The cortege which followed the body to the grave was over four blocks long”[3] and “street cars took those out to the end of the line who could not be accommodated with carriages, they then walking from Baldwin Park to the burial ground.”[4] Though fewer in number, we, today, have retraced many of their steps because we, also, wish to offer some token of the high esteem in which we hold our friend, Father Gus.

A procession to pilgrims to Father Tolton's grave
PHOTO: Gretchen Mason

It was said at the time of his death that “the story of his life reads like a romance.”[5] These words may seem strange to us, given that he was born into slavery, that he endured prejudice as a boy, and that he suffered discrimination as an adult, even from a fellow priest. This does not seem like a romance to us. His was a life seemingly marked by opposition wherever he turned, save for a few moments of calm. Even his death from heat exhaustion seems unromantic, but romance did not always mean what it does today.

In the fourteenth century, a romance was a story concerning the adventures of a knight, or even of a hero. When the Quincy Morning Whig learned Father Tolton had collapsed on a sidewalk in Chicago, they called him “a gentleman of the rarest merit.”[6] Is this not a fine description of a hero, or even of what a knight was supposed to have been? Even now the Holy See is examining the life of Father Gus to discern if he did in fact lived a life of what we call heroic virtue. It remains our great hope and our fervent prayer that Mother Church will favorably judge his life and call him venerable.

Father Roy Bauer, who studied the life of Father Gus better than any of us, often reminded me of Father Tolton’s long-suffering, of his willingly and patiently enduring lasting offense and hardship. It is not a common phrase these days in which we have so little patience with ourselves or with others, in which we are quick to take offense at the smallest thing and do not hesitate about broadcasting our anger, but, I dare say, Father Gus’ long-suffering was his greatest virtue.

The now unthinkable treatment he received from one of the priests in Quincy is well known to us. In a letter to then-Archbishop James Gibbons, Father Tolton expressed something of the reason he endured such prejudice from a brother priest:

I can say this most Most Rev. father that at first the priests here [Quincy] rejoiced at my arrival now they wished I were away because too many white people come down to my church from other parishes: I am sorry of course but I can’t drive them away.[7]

This, of course, is precisely what this particular priest wanted him to do, but Father Gus did not publicly condemn or speak ill of him.

When finally he could take no more, in July of 1889, Father Tolton wrote to the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith in Rome, for which he was ordained a priest, saying:

There is a certain German priest here who is jealous and contemptuous. He abuses me in many ways and he has told the bishop to send me out of this place. I will gladly leave here just to be away from this priest. I appealed to Bishop [James] Ryan and he also advises me to go elsewhere.[8]

In the midst of his troubles with this priest, Father Gus began speaking across the country to raise money for his parish, but he never spoke against the one who should have been as a brother to him, not even after he left Quincy on December 19, 1989. Indeed, in January of 1891, Father Tolton explained to Father Slattery that “the cause of my being in Chicago now” is “the jealousy of a Dutch priest in which facts I have kept hid and will never let them out through fear of it greatly injuring the success of the mission among the colored race.”[9]

In all of this, Father Gus never mentioned the name of the priest who made his life so difficult, neither in letter nor in public speech; he simply described the reality of the situation without impugning the reputation of another. In a time in which we are quick to shout our disagreements with others or to reveal their faults in whatever way we can, Father Tolton stands as a model of long-suffering - of willing, patient endurance of hardship - a fruit of his deep humility and the strength of his faith. We might rightly say that long-suffering is the way to embrace the Cross as it comes to us; it is the offering of our sufferings with those of Christ Jesus for the sake of his body, the Church (cf. Colossians 1:24). That Father Gus was filled with an “ardent charity and self-denying zeal” was noted by Mary Elmore even during his life; his charity and zeal were the fruits of his long-suffering and in this he is a model for us to follow.[10]

The procession arrives at Father Tolton's grave
PHOTO: Gretchen Mason

The adventure of Father Gus’ life was marked by the Cross. He embraced it knowing that “the Lord will bless those who fear him, the little no less than the great” (Psalm 115:13). It is his confidence in the Lord’s loving care for us that marks Father Tolton as a Christian hero and for this reason we give God thanks for him. May Father Gus teach us to set ourselves aside for the sake of the Gospel, to glory not in ourselves, but in God alone. May he help us to “achieve the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” and be found in Christ and with Father Tolton to be men and women of the finest merit (II Thessalonians 2:14). Amen.

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[1] “Sun Shows No Mercy,” Daily Inter Ocean, July 10, 1897.

[2] “Funeral of Father Tolton,” Quincy Journal, July 13, 1897.

[3] “Priest Laid to Rest,” Quincy Daily Whig, July 14, 1897.

[4] “Funeral of Father Tolton,” Quincy Journal, July 13, 1897.

[5] “Father Tolton Stricken,” Quincy Morning Whig, July 10, 1897.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Augustus Tolton, Letter to Archbishop Gibbons, July 24, 1888.

[8] Augustus Tolton, in Roy Bauer, They Called Him Father Gus, Part 24.

[9] Augustus Tolton, Letter to Father Slattery, January 8, 1891.

[10] Mary Elmore, in Bauer, Part 27.

A pilgrimage in honor of Father Tolton

In conjunction with the 163rd birthday of the Servant of God Father Augustus Tolton, His Excellency the Most Reverend Joseph N. Perry will lead a pilgrimage to significant sites in the Quincy area related to life of the nation's first publicly recognized African-American priest.

The pilgrimage will begin in the late afternoon of Friday, March 31st and conclude in the late afternoon of Saturday, April 1st, Father Tolton's birthday.

Pilgrims will visit Father Tolton's grave, the church in which he was baptized, the farm on which he and his family labored as slaves, the general area where his mother fled with her children across the Mississippi River, the site of the church where Father Tolton served as pastor, Quincy University where Father Tolton received his education, and St. Peter's school, which welcomed him as a boy.

Along the way, pilgrims will learn about Father Tolton's life and example and seek his intercession.

If you are interested in joining us on this pilgrimage, please let me know and I will send you the necessary information. Please also spread the word to anyone else who might be interested.

Homily for the Pilgrimage Procession Commemorating Father Tolton's Return to Quincy

Pilgrimage Procession and Evening Prayer

Commemorating the 130^th Anniversary of the Return of the

Servant of God Father Augustus Tolton to Quincy

Dear brothers and sisters,

It was one hundred and thirty years ago this morning that the recently ordained Father Augustus Tolton returned to Quincy from Rome. Because I, too, recently returned to Quincy from studies in Rome, it is a day to which I feel a special affinity and a special closeness to Father Tolton.

In order to welcome him home, the priests then in Quincy chartered a special railroad car to bring Father Tolton from Springfield to Quincy. The train was named the “Q,” and when it pulled into the station at Front and Vermont streets, a brass band greeted Father Tolton by playing his favorite hymn, “Holy God, We Praise Thy Name.”

As he disembarked, a large crowd cheered and waved in greeting to the first black priest in these United States of America. Father Tolton climbed into a carriage, drawn by four white horses and decorated with flowers, and a procession with the band and the people moved from the train station to St. Peter’s church, then at Eighth and Maine streets.  As the procession moved along, the people shouted, “Father Tolton, Father Augustus Tolton! Welcome home! Welcome home!”

When the procession arrived at St. Peter’s church, Father Tolton entered the sanctuary, blessed his mother for the first time as a priest, and began giving his blessing to the hundreds of people who came to welcome him. They received him well and welcomed him gladly as a priest, though there was earlier some confusion concerning his person. In a brief notice concerning his return published in The Quincy Journal the day before, we read:

Father Tolton explains the report of his death, which was current a couple of months ago, as having arisen from a mistake in reading the cards he sent out in memory of his first mass. As the notice contained the words ‘In memoriam,’ he supposed it was taken as a death announcement.”[1]

This is but one small example of how, in many ways, his life was fraught with misunderstanding, a circumstance even present at his return to Quincy.

Father Tolton offered the holy sacrifice of the Mass for the first time in Quincy the following day at St. Boniface church, a celebration The Quincy Daily Journal called “the grandest service ever held in Quincy.”[2] It was a day on which, as Father Tolton later recalled, “everyone received me kindly, especially the Negroes, but also the White people: Germans, Irish, and all others. I celebrated Mass on July 18, in the Church of Saint Boniface with more than 1,000 whites and 500 colored people present.”[3]

Father Anselm, the rector of St. Francis College - which would later become Quincy College and then Quincy University - preached a sermon on the priesthood. Taking a text from Saint Paul as his launching point, “This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God,” a text very dear to my own heart (and from which I have taken the title of my blog), he expounded on the duties and the necessity of the priesthood (I Corinthians 4:1). Afterwards, he said to those gathered, “Rejoice today because another priest has been given to us. Rejoice, and today when he holds in his hands that of which God has said, ‘This is my beloved son,’ pray for the church and that you may live and esteem and treat him as is due a priest.”[4]

Our celebration today may lack something of the pomp and grandeur of that one one hundred and thirty years ago today and our numbers may not be so high, but our devotion is no less than theirs. We, too, have come to honor the first black priest in our country and to give thanks to God for the gift of his heroic and faithful witness.

Father Tolton ministered in Quincy for nearly three and a half years before he left for Chicago to be away from an intolerable situation of prejudice. After he arrived in Chicago, Father Tolton wrote these words to a friend:

My gratitude to those people of the Gem City is threefold. Some of the white friends and benefactors of St. Joseph’s church did not forget their colored priest Father Tolton. They did not let him go away empty handed from the Gem City, but as a token of respect they have made him a suitable donation, asking him to remember them in his prayers, and promised to do three times more if he would only remain with them. Catholics will love and respect a priest regardless of nationality; at least that is the spirit of those people in the Gem City who knew me for twenty-nine years or more. Never will I forget the happy hours spent in the little St. Joseph church. I wish them all the blessings that can be bestowed upon them, for that charitable spirit that they have always shown toward me and the colored children.[5]

Three days after his departure from Quincy, Father Tolton was voted the second favorite priest in Quincy, despite the fact that he was no longer in the city. In fact, he missed being voted the favorite priest by just eleven and a half votes.[6]

All these years later, we have gathered to keep Father Anselm’s words; we have gathered to esteem Father Tolton and to treat him as is due a priest, to treat with respect and honor one who served so faithfully as a dispenser of the mysteries – of the sacraments – of God. We have come because, as the Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI reminds us,

the true stars of our life are the people who have lived good lives. They are lights of hope. Certainly, Jesus Christ is the true light, the sun that has risen above all the shadows of history. But to reach him we also need lights close by — people who shine with his light and so guide us along our way.[7]

In Father Tolton, we see the light of a good life that illuminates before us the path of Jesus Christ.

Throughout his life, Father Tolton remained “content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ” (II Corinthians 12:10). We have no record of him bemoaning the difficulties he encountered. We have no record of him drawing public attention to the harsh treatment he received from a fellow priest. In all things, he seems to have imitated Christ the Lord and remained a humble and long-suffering servant who united himself to Christ. This Servant of God allowed the love of the Lord to motivate his life and to this love he dedicated his life. His fidelity to the Church is a clear proclamation of the Gospel, and an invitation for all people to enter into and to know the merciful love of the Lord.

In this he is a model for each of us; never did he cease his proclamation of the Gospel, not even when he encountered discrimination and prejudice. As Father Roy Bauer has said, “Some people could easily judge that his life was not a success, but God calls His servants to be faithful, not successful!”[8] The fidelity of Father Tolton cannot be doubted, and for this reason he is a model and continual reminder for us that, as Saint Paul says, “when I am weak, then I am strong” (II Corinthians 12:10). This, I suspect, is why he remained so popular in Quincy even after he left for Chicago; this is why we remain attached to him today and have come to commemorate his return to the Gem City.

Father Tolton entrusted himself completely to the Lord and we now pray that he will soon be declared Blessed and raised to the dignity of the altars, a cause which continues to move slowly forward. Let us pray that, through his example and intercession, the Lord will raise up many more such servants of Christ in our Diocese, that each of the Lord’s altars may have a priest to administer the mysteries of God.  Amen!

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[1] “Our Colored Priest,” The Quincy Journal, 17 July 1886.

[2] “Solemn High Mass,” The Quincy Daily Journal, 19 July 1886.

[3] Augustus Tolton, Letter to Cardinal Checchi, September 1886.

[4] “Solemn High Mass,” Quincy Daily Journal, 19 July 1886.

[5] Quoted in “Father Tolton,” The Quincy Daily Journal, November 13, 1889, page 4.

[6] “Lucky Ladies,” Quincy Daily Herald, November 17, 1899.

[7] Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi, 49.

[8] Roy Bauer, They Called Him Father Gus, Part Twenty-nine.