Pierre Toussaint. Photo credit: Wikicommons
In honor of Black History Month, we remember the Venerable Pierre Toussaint — the founder of Catholic Charities of New York — whose legacy lives on today in our work of providing help and creating hope for New Yorkers in need.
Venerable Pierre Toussaint () was born a slave in Haiti and died a freeman in New York City. He was instrumental in raising funds for the first Catholic orphanage and began the city’s first school for black children. He is credited with being the founder of Catholic Charities of New York. He is one of the six African American Catholics with an open cause for sainthood and is the only layperson buried in the crypt of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
Venerable Pierre Toussaint&#;s legacy lives on today through namesake, the Pierre Toussaint Scholarship Fund, which creates greater access to opportunity through education for Black students and their communities.
Established in , the Pierre Toussaint Scholarship Fund (PTSF) is administered by the Archdiocese of New York&#;s Office of Black Ministry. It provides scholarships to graduating high school seniors of diverse backgrounds from public, private, and parochial scho
Venerable Pierre Toussaint
Saint of the Day for May 28
(June 27, – June 30, )
Venerable Pierre Toussaint’s Story
Born in modern-day Haiti and brought to New York City as a slave, Pierre died a free man, a renowned hairdresser, and one of New York City’s most well-known Catholics.
Plantation owner Pierre Bérard made Toussaint a house slave and allowed his grandmother to teach her grandson how to read and write. In his early 20s, Pierre, his younger sister, his aunt, and two other house slaves accompanied their master’s son to New York City because of political unrest at home. Apprenticed to a local hairdresser, Pierre learned the trade quickly and eventually worked very successfully in the homes of rich women in New York City.
When his master died, Pierre was determined to support himself, his master’s widow, and the other house slaves. He was freed shortly before the widow’s death in
Four years later, he married Marie Rose Juliette, whose freedom he had purchased. They later adopted Euphémie, his orphaned niece. Both preceded Pierre in death. He attended daily Mass at St. Peter’s Church on Barclay Street, the same parish that Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton had attended.
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10 fascinating facts about Pierre Toussaint, a former slave on the road to sainthood
Toussaint was brought to New York from Haiti as a slave by his masters, the Bérard family. After the death of Mr. Bérard, Toussaint supported Mrs. Bérard financially out of Christian charity until she remarried.
He became a hairdresser at about the age of 20, while still enslaved by the Bérard family. Once in New York, he became the hairdresser of preference—and thus the confidante, of NY’s high society.
He was highly regarded for his professional abilities, but more importantly, because he would always listen to the problems of his clients with profound empathy and with a supernatural perspective.
He was highly regarded for honoring the trust put in him and would boldly refrain from gossip, especially when someone would try to elicit it in him. “The man is a hairdresser. He is no news journal,” he once responded to a gossipy client.
At his parish, St. Peter’s Church in Lower Manhattan, he joined the Blessed Sacrament Society and the Benevolence Society. He donated generously and personally visited the sick and poor.
He and his wife Juliette—who had her own business—accomplished
Pierre Toussaint: A Nobleman Made of Ebony Who Lived to Serve
When rich and poor gathered for the funeral Mass of Pierre Toussaint, these beautiful words were offered by Fr. William Quinn, a priest of old New York, on July 2,
“A stranger would not have suspected that a black man of his humble calling lay in the midst of us. Though no relative was left to mourn him, yet many present would feel they had lost one who always had wise counsel for the rich, words of encouragement for the poor, and all would be grateful for having known him. There are few left among the clergy superior in devotion and zeal for the Church and the glory of God and among laymen, none.”
But who was this obscure black man from old New York? Why such beaming words? Was he not like any other Catholic of his time? The answer to these questions are pertinent because they offer us a remedy to the racial tension, social unrest, and constant media hype about human rights violations. One finds true rest in the figure of Venerable Pierre Toussaint. Unlike agitators in our troubled times, Pierre stands out as a model of the very virtues which are so seldom practiced in our selfish, vulgar, socialistic and egalita
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