Bishops announce shrine honoring Father Augustine Tolton
The Diocese of Springfield announced plans to establish a shrine dedicated to Father Augustine Tolton, the first recognized Black Catholic priest in the U.S. The shrine will be located at the closed St. Boniface Church in Quincy, the site of Tolton’s first solemn high Mass. Bishops, shrine organizers, city officials, and the faithful gathered on April 29 to unveil the project and highlight Tolton’s legacy. The shrine aims to provide pilgrims a place to learn about Tolton’s life and pray where he once prayed. Bishop Thomas John Paprocki emphasized the significance of the shrine for the local community and the wider Catholic Church.
about 12 hours ago
The Diocese of Springfield, Illinois announced the creation of a new shrine dedicated to Father Augustine Tolton, the first Black Catholic priest ordained in the United States. The project will restore the former St. Boniface Church in Quincy as a pilgrimage site, support Tolton’s ongoing canonization cause, and seek millions of dollars in donations to fund renovations and campus expansion 1.
Bishops, shrine organizers, city officials, and faithful gathered at St. Boniface Church on April 29, 2026 to unveil the plan 1.
Bishop Thomas John Paprocki called the shrine “an extraordinary moment” for the local community and for the U.S. Catholic Church 1.
The shrine will offer daily Mass, a place for prayer, and a venue for seminarians and priests to seek Tolton’s intercession 1.
Born into slavery in 1854, Tolton escaped to Illinois with his family in 1862 and attended St. Peter’s Catholic School in Quincy 1.
Rejected by American seminaries because of his race, he studied in Rome and was ordained there before returning to serve in Quincy and later Chicago 1.
Tolton died on July 9, 1897, at age 43, and is buried at St. Peter’s Cemetery in Quincy 1.
The shrine will be housed in the closed St. Boniface Church, the site of Tolton’s first solemn high Mass in Quincy 1.
Renovations are estimated at $5 million, with an additional $5–7 million needed for campus expansion and ongoing care 1.
Father Steven Arisman, chair of the shrine committee, urges Catholics worldwide to support the project financially 1.
Bishop Joseph Perry, auxiliary bishop of Chicago and postulator for Tolton’s cause, leads the canonization effort 1.
The cause was opened in 2010; Pope Francis declared Tolton “Venerable” on June 12, 2019 1.
Current work focuses on documenting a miracle attributed to Tolton’s intercession 1.
The Committee for the Shrine estimates a total need of $10–12 million and emphasizes that the project depends on the generosity of the faithful 1.
Supporters are asked to pray and contribute so the shrine can preserve Tolton’s legacy for future generations 1.
Explore Catholic canonization criteria for first African‑American priests
Catholic canonization is not granted because someone was the “first” in race or social standing; it is granted because the Church judges that a baptized person lived heroic virtue (or endured martyrdom, or offered life for others in certain recognized ways) and—at the canonization stage—was shown by a miracle to be a fruitful intercessor before God.
Before detailed trials begin, the cause relies on what is called a reputation among the faithful. In Sanctorum Mater (the Congregation for Causes of Saints’ procedural instruction), the “reputation of holiness” is described as:
“the opinion that has spread among the faithful about the purity and integrity of life of the Servant of God and about the virtues practiced by him to an heroic degree”
Similarly, the “reputation of martyrdom” is:
“the opinion that has spread among the faithful about the death endured by the Servant of God for the Faith or for a virtue connected to the Faith”
This is important for “first African-American priests” because the Church’s criterion is not their historical “firstness,” but whether the faithful can reasonably attest that their life showed sanctity (or martyrdom) in a way judged suitable for the formal process.
Pope Francis summarizes the meaning of canonization processes this way:
“The processes of beatification and canonization recognize the signs of heroic virtue, the sacrifice of one’s life in martyrdom, and certain cases where a life is constantly offered for others, even until death.”
In the Catechism, canonization is described as the Church’s solemn recognition that the Holy Spirit’s holiness is truly at work in the Church:
“By canonizing some of the faithful… the Church recognizes the power of the Spirit of holiness within her and sustains the hope of believers by proposing the saints to them as models and intercessors.”
So for any priest—especially priests whose ministries were marked by racial discrimination—the key question is always the same: Was the life lived in fidelity to grace to an heroic degree, and did it become an “exemplary imitation of Christ” worthy of proposal as a model?
The Church does not reduce heroic virtue to “doing good things” in an ordinary way. The older theological explanation of “heroic virtue” (as found in the Catholic Encyclopedia entry) highlights that heroicity involves virtue practiced with an uncommon readiness and from supernatural motives, so that the person can perform virtue “with self-abnegation” and mastery of natural inclinations:
heroic virtue enables one to perform virtuous actions “with self-abnegation and full control over his natural inclinations” from supernatural motives.
While this is not itself the Church’s procedural text, it helps clarify the “what” behind the formal verdict the Church will later make—especially when a cause is contested or when historical hardship might be mistakenly reduced to “bravery” rather than the supernatural virtues judged by the Church.
In the Acta Apostolicae Sedis decree for the cause of Augustinus Tolton (described as a diocesan cause for the priest of African descent in the United States), the text records the decisive judgment of virtues:
it “declared” that he exercised “the theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity toward God and toward neighbor,” and also “the cardinal virtues of Prudence, Justice, Temperance and Fortitude, and the virtues annexed,” “in the heroic degree.”
This is a direct example of what the Church evaluates when the “first African-American priest” question arises: the Church’s focus is the virtue structure of the person’s sanctity—faith, hope, charity, and the cardinal virtues—rather than only the biography of historical exclusion.
Sanctorum Mater gives a clear rule about the canonization phase:
“Once the decree on the confirmation of cult and on the heroic virtues or martyrdom of the Blessed has been promulgated, the… Blessed may proceed to canonization by means of the approval of one miracle that took place after the confirmation of cult.”
So the Church’s sequence matters:
(Your question is specifically about canonization criteria, so this is the part most directly tied to the final step.)
Augustus Tolton is explicitly described in the decree record as:
“the first priest of African-American… the son of slaves”
The same decree describes the social context of intense racial hostility that affected his ministry, including segregation and inability to exercise his ministry freely in certain places.
However, the Church’s verdict that matters for canonization criteria is not the historical injustice itself; it is the Church’s formal evaluation that his virtues were lived in an heroic degree. As already noted, the decree states that he exercised the theological and cardinal virtues heroically.
In other words, for a “first African-American priest,” the Church does not treat racial history as a substitute for sanctity. Rather:
The Catholic criteria for canonization—applied to any priest, including the first African-American priests—center on (1) a credible reputation of holiness or martyrdom, (2) evidence of heroic virtue (theological and cardinal virtues judged at an heroic degree), and (3) at canonization, approval of one miracle occurring after confirmation of cult.
In the specific example of Augustus Tolton, the Church’s documented judgment concerns the heroic degree of theological and cardinal virtues—not simply his historical “firstness”—and that evaluation is exactly the kind of standard canonization processes use across all cultures and centuries.