Fr. Augustus Tolton's Cause for Sainthood Moves Ahead

We've been following along on Fr. Tolton's path to Sainthood, and last week, he moved one step closer. Vatican News reports that on June 12, Pope Francis officially confirmed his "heroic virtue", putting him on the path to eventual sainthood. 

Fr. Augustus Tolton was the first African-American to be ordained a Catholic priest for the United States. He was born into slavery in Missouri in 1854, and ordained in 1886 in Rome (because no U.S. seminary would take him). During an especially hot summer in Chicago, Fr. Tolton died suddenly of heatstroke in 1897. Upon canonization, Tolton will be the first African American saint. Read more about him from Vatican News.