A truly edifying Biography of the Servant of God Augustine Tolton

 

Sister Caroline HEMESATH 

FROM SLAVE TO PRIEST 

A Biography of the 

Reverend Augustine Tolton 

(1854—1897) First Black American 

Priest of the United States 

With a Foreword by  Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers 

IGNATIUS PRESS    SAN FRANCISCO

Kindle Edition, 2006. 

    It would seem that some times are harder for everyone to be alive, while others weigh especially upon individuals. Our challenge would seem to be not to resign ourselves to our fate terrible or less, but rather to seek the truth and strive for true justice and equal opportunity before the law as best we can, for our own sake, for the sake of those nearest and dearest to us, and as did Father Tolton for the sake of all who cross our paths, especially those who are heavily burdened.

    With a very delicate but perceptive hand, telling the story of the Servant of God and of his family, Sr. Caroline describes the lot of slaves in the United States shortly before and during the Civil War. She draws some very important distinctions, related to place and time, regarding not only the challenges but the almost impossible odds faced by former slaves and their descendants. She follows a black child from the imposed illiteracy and countless other disadvantages of his life in slavery, through tutoring by good priests and sisters, to his formation and schooling unto priesthood at the heart of Catholicism in Rome. The book uses the utmost reserve to describe the whole cruel lot of what African Americans had to suffer as a result of the system of chattel slavery and the concomitant racism, which still dogs us even in the Catholic Church. Thanks to Sr. Caroline’s book, we can marvel at human accomplishment against all odds in the life of this man, who could realize his dream and become a priest of God.

    While not a bedtime story for small children, the book could be excellent family reading, especially with junior and senior high students. I personally gained a lot from the reading. What Scripture refers to as the whole cruel lot of slaves comes to life in Sister’s description of the Tolton family. Totally realistic but not graphic, the book simply edifies.

    Go for it! Take and read!

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI