National News

Only in Print: Push for First Black American Saint Front & Center for Faithful Group

Father Augustus Tolton.

By Alexandra Moyen

ROSEDALE — The number of American Saints is small, but the number of black American saints is even smaller. A group of faithful is looking to change that.

While there are nearly a dozen American Catholic saints, none are black, so Xavier University of Louisiana, Bishop Joseph Perry of Chicago, and Rev. Canon A. Gerard Jordan are teaming up to help several candidates advance toward sainthood.

With the pooled resources, the university is creating a center where hired staff can gather as much information as possible on the candidates. For these Catholics to become saints, two miracles have to be approved, one for beatification and one for canonization…


The rest of this article can be found exclusively in the August 1 printed version of The Tablet. You can buy it at church for $1, or you can receive future editions of the paper in your mailbox at a discounted rate by subscribing here. Thank you for supporting Catholic journalism.