February is Black History Month! In 1976, President Gerald Ford urged Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often-neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”
Black History Month became a way of teaching about Black and African-Americans’ contributions. Now, it’s seen as a celebration of those who’ve impacted not just the country but the world with their activism and achievements. February also can be a good time to investigate Black Catholic history.
While there are dozens of African saints, as yet, not a single African-American Catholic has been canonized. That should change in the next few decades (it is a very long process), as six individuals of African descent have open causes for sainthood.
Venerable Pierre Toussaint (1766-1853) was born a slave in Haiti, where he was baptized Catholic. When offered his freedom, Toussaint refused so that he could continue to support his mistress owner financially. Toussaint was a philanthropist and leader in the Black community, helping to found the first Catholic school for Black children in New York. He was the first layperson to be buried beneath the main altar at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
Servant of God Mary Elizabeth Lange (1794-1882) was born in a free, French-speaking community in Cuba and moved to the United States as a child. She founded the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first American order for women of color. Though primarily founded to educate African-American children, the order also nursed the sick, cared for the elderly and did anything else the community needed.
Venerable Henriette DeLille (1813-1862) of New Orleans could have passed as white like her mother and siblings. But DeLille wanted to show other free women of color that their lives didn’t have to be dictated by the racist system they had been born into. Though opposed by many Church and state officials, she began a religious order of women of color to serve the elderly – the Sisters of the Holy Family.
Servant of God Julia Greeley (d. 1918) was born into slavery. After she was freed, Greeley went to Denver and converted to Catholicism. She lived very simply, giving away all she could and begging on the street to provide more for the poor. To honor their dignity (and preserve her anonymity), she worked after dark, pulling a little red wagon filled with provisions throughout the city. Greeley loved the Sacred Heart and firefighters; she visited every fire station in the city each month to give them pamphlets about the Sacred Heart.
Venerable Augustus Tolton (1854-1897) was the first African-American Catholic priest to acknowledge his African heritage publicly. While his pastor supported his vocation, Tolton was rejected by every American seminary because of his race. Finally, he was accepted at a seminary in Rome. Father Tolton was sent to Illinois where, despite constant struggles with prejudiced clergy and laity, he served his people tirelessly, dying of exhaustion at 43.
Servant of God Thea Bowman (1937-1990) was born into a Methodist family in Missouri, but her experience at Catholic school led her to convert to Catholicism at age 9. At 15, Bowman entered the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, the only black sister in the community. She was a powerful voice against racism, explaining the beauty of African-American Catholic spirituality to individuals as well as to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. She died of breast cancer at 52.
I hope this Martin Luther King Jr. prayer from 1953 helps us focus on Black Catholic history this month and all year.
“Most gracious and all wise God, … We come before thee painfully aware of our inadequacies and shortcomings. We realize that we stand surrounded with the mountains of love, and we deliberately dwell in the valley of hate. We stand amid the forces of truth and deliberately lie. We are forever offered the high road, and yet, we choose to travel the low road. For these sins, O God, forgive. Break the spell of that which blinds our minds. Purify our hearts that we may see thee. … Help us to work with renewed vigor for a warless world … that transcends race or color. In the name and spirit of Jesus we pray. Amen.” (King’s broadcast from Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta)