Trailblazing to sainthood, the Rev. Augustus Tolton awaits canonization

[Digitonomy]

For the Tolton Trailblazers, the canonization of their namesake would mean a change in the name of their school, the first Catholic high school in this central Missouri college town and the only school in the world named for him.

…According to the Father Tolton Guild, he was born a slave in northeastern Missouri in 1854. At 10 years old, he and his family escaped through the Underground Railroad. His father joined the Union Army during the Civil War and later died. The remaining members of the family settled across the Mississippi River in Quincy, Illinois, where a young Augustus enrolled in a local Catholic school.

After he graduated, Tolton looked to become a priest but was rejected by seminaries in the U.S. He left for Rome in 1880, expecting to become a missionary in Africa. Ordained in 1886, he was then assigned as a missionary back in Quincy.

Source

I remember hearing about this on the former Catholic Under the Hood podcast.

catholicunderthehood.com/2010/04/04/238-good-father-gus/