VATICAN CITY - Father Augustus Tolton advanced along the path to sainthood Wednesday, making the runaway slave-turned-priest one step closer to being the first black American saint. Pope Francis ...

CHICAGO — A Vatican committee has unanimously voted to send the sainthood cause of Father Augustus Tolton, a former runaway slave and the first African-American priest in the United States, to the ...

OAK PARK, Ill. (WLS) -- An Oak Park church is honoring the life and legacy of a former Chicago priest during Black History Month. Father Augustus Tolton was the first Black Catholic priest in the ...

Actress Nina Hibble-Webster, right, portrays Father Augustus Tolton’s mother in the movie “Across,” written and directed by filmmaker Chris Foley of Nashville, Tenn. (Credit: CNS photo/courtesy ...

Augustus John Tolton, the second of three children, was born into slavery on April 1,1854 in Brush Creek, Missouri. He was baptized as Catholic since the Eliot family, the owners of the plantation, ...

Father Augustine Tolton, also known as Augustus, is pictured in an undated photo. Born into slavery in Missouri, he was ordained a priest April 24, 1886, in Rome, and said his first Mass at St.

A former US slave who became the first African-American to become a Catholic priest, is now one step closer toward sainthood. Pope Francis made Father Augustus Tolton "Venerable" within the church, ...