Black History Month celebrates African Americans who have made an impact on the United States.

That includes Black women and men —  including one from the Archdiocese of Chicago — who lived among and served the people of God in America and are on the road to sainthood.

The Catholic Church identifies three official steps to sainthood: being declared “venerable,” being declared “blessed” and then being canonized as a saint.

“Venerable” is the title given to a person recognized formally by the pope as having lived a heroically virtuous life, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. To be named “blessed,” a miracle by the person’s posthumous intercession must be recognized.

Canonization requires a second miracle. However, the pope may waive these requirements.

Venerable Augustus Tolton

1854-1897

The most important American on the road to sainthood for Catholics in the Archdiocese of Chicago is Venerable Augustus Tolton, the first native-born Black priest ordained for the United States. He ministered and died in Chicago.

Cardinal Francis George opened Tolton’s cause for canonization in 2010.

Tolton was born in slavery in 1854 on a plantation near Brush Creek, Missouri. His father escaped to try to join the Union Army during the Civil War. In 1862, Tolton’s mother also escaped with her three children by rowing them across the Mississippi River and settling in Quincy, Illinois.

Tolton had to leave one Catholic school because he and his family, as well as parochial leaders, were threatened and harassed because of his race; he found a haven at St. Peter parish and school, where he learned to read and write and was confirmed at age 16.

He was encouraged to discern his vocation to the priesthood by the Franciscan priests who taught him at St. Francis College, now Quincy University, but could not find a seminary in the United States that would accept him. He eventually studied in Rome and was ordained for the Propaganda Fidei in 1886, expecting to become a missionary in Africa. Instead, he was sent back to Quincy, where he served for three years before coming to the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1889.

He spearheaded the building of St. Monica Church for Black Catholics, which was dedicated in 1894.

He died after suffering heat stroke on a South Side street on July 9, 1897. He is buried in Quincy.

Pope Francis advanced Tolton’s sainthood cause on June 11, 2019, when he issued a decree declaring him “venerable.”

For information about his cause, visit tolton.archchicago.org.

Venerable Pierre Toussaint

1776-1853

 Patron saint of hairdressers? That may turn out to be one of Venerable Pierre Toussaint’s official patronages if he is canonized. Toussaint was born in Haiti and was brought to the United States in slavery.

He apprenticed as a hairdresser and quickly excelled at the trade, earning the patronage of wealthy women in New York City. After his owner died, Toussaint continued to support his widow and the other people enslaved by the family. The widow freed him on her deathbed.

Toussaint, who attended daily Mass, became wealthy as a hairdresser and donated to many charities in the city. He and his wife also opened their homes to Black and white people who were suffering in the city. He is the only layman buried in St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

The Archdiocese of New York opened his cause for canonization in 1996.

Venerable Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange

1784-1882

Historians believe that Venerable Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange was born in Cuba into a wealthy family and came to Baltimore as a young woman.

Mother Lange had a heart for the poor at a young age and opened her home to educate children of color in the city.

In 1828, she confessed to a local priest her long desire to start a community of religious women, even though Black people could not enter religious life at the time. Just a year later, she founded the Oblate Sisters of Providence with the support and blessing of Archbishop James Whitfield.

The sisters went wherever there was a need in the Black community, creating a school, hospitals and more. She lived a long life with many spiritual and physical tribulations. Mother Lange died on Feb. 3, 1882.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore opened her cause for canonization in 1991.

Venerable Henriette Delille

1813-1862

Venerable Henriette Delille was born a free woman of mixed race in Southern Louisiana in 1813. She was descended from people who were enslaved and spent her life in New Orleans, where she underwent a religious conversion at 24.

Like Mother Lange, she felt called to live the life of a religious woman. In 1836, she established the Society for the Holy Family for laywomen, which was dedicated to caring for the sick and the poor and education.

In 1842, she founded the Sisters of the Holy Family, who were dedicated to the same ministry.

By all accounts, Delille lived a holy and virtuous life, and the Archdiocese of New Orleans opened her cause for canonization in 1988. She is the first native-born African American whose cause for canonization was opened. 

Causes for three other people are in the initial stages, with the Holy See declaring them “servants of God”:  Julia Greeley, Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration Thea Bowman and Conventual Franciscan Father Martin de Porres Maria Ward.