BORN A SLAVE Venerable Augustus Tolton was born a slave and overcame tremendous discrimination to become the first Roman Catholic priest of African descent in the United States. Augustus was born in 1854 to slaves Peter Paul Tolton and his wife Martha Jane Chisley in Brush Creek, Missouri. Augustus was the second...

“Once, in Cana of Galilee, He turned water into wine, resembling blood. Is it incredible, then, that He should have turned wine into blood? When called to a bodily marriage, He miraculously worked that wonder. Shall He not rather be acknowledged to have given the fruit of His body and...

St. Charles Lwanga and companions were martyrs for purity during Christian persecution in Uganda. CHRISTIANITY COMES TO THE KINGDOM OF BUGANDA In the early1880s, Christian missionaries entered the Ugandan Kingdom of Buganda, and were welcomed by King Mutesa. They were especially successful with the young people, many of whom served...

“Let [the Christian] examine his charity, to be able to say: I am born of God. If he lacks it, he is a deserter running away, even if he bears the seal of a Christian.” St. Augustine of Hippo (4th-5th centuries, Doctor of the Church) “Love, by its nature, is...