Fr. Tolton’s Canonization Timeline

• March 18, 2018
  Historical consultants to the Vatican Congregation for Causes of Saints reviewed the officio positio on the Servant of God Father Augustus Tolton and voted unanimously that the Cause can move forward to eventually make its way to the desk of the Holy Father.

• December 9 – 10, 2016
  Within prayer at the start and conclusion, the staffs of Catholic Cemeteries for the Diocese of Springfield and the Archdiocese of Chicago, in the presence of Bishop Thomas Paprocki and Bishop Joseph Perry, exhume the remains of Father Augustus Tolton at St. Peter Cemetery in Quincy, Illinois. Tolton’s remains are examined by a medical examiner, forensic and anthropological specialists, and then enfolded within a new set of priestly vestments and reinterred awaiting news of his approval for beatification. The report of the exhumation was sent to Rome.
• June 21, 2016
  The Congregation for Causes of Saints at the Vatican issues to Bishop Thomas Paprocki of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois, the nihil obstat to open the grave of Father Tolton for purposes of the canonical recognition and forensic examination of his remains.

• April 17, 2015
  The Congregation for Causes of Saints at the Vatican declared in the affirmative the juridical validity of the Archdiocesan Inquiry into the life and virtues of Father Augustus Tolton.
• April 11, 2015
  The annual Father Augustus Tolton Chicago Pilgrimage took participants to points of interest in Chicago that were vital in the ministry of the Servant of God, Fr. Tolton.
• March 9, 2015
  This day will mark the Official Opening of the Acts of the Archdiocesan Inquiry into the Life and Virtues of Father Augustus Tolton at the Congregation for Causes of Saints in Rome.

• September 2014
  On Monday, September 29, the Archdiocese of Chicago completed the diocesan phase of the investigation into the life and virtues of Father Augustus Tolton with a special ceremony in the St. James Chapel at the Archbishop Quigley Center. Documents supporting the cause for sainthood for Fr. Tolton were bound with red-ribbon and officially stamped with the seal of the Archdiocese of Chicago in melted wax, to be dispatched to the Congregation for Causes of Saints at the Vatican.
• September 26 – 27, 2014
  Third Father Augustus Tolton Pilgrimage
  Pilgrims visited Father Augustus Tolton's boyhood hometown, as well as points of interest in Illinois and Missouri that traced the historical path of Fr. Tolton’s ministry.
• March 2014
  The Cause for Canonization, underway since 2010, is progressing. The research phase is concluding, and the experts from the Historical and Theological Commission are drawing up their final reports. This March, they will come together for meetings in Chicago for discussion and submission of their conclusions to be included in the dossier. The last three years have been devoted to uncovering the records of Augustus Tolton from Quincy and Chicago newspaper archives, from the state of Illinois and Missouri slave record sources, from libraries, from Vatican archives and from religious communities that touched upon his life.

• May 11, 2013
  Second Father Augustus Tolton Chicago Pilgrimage
  Pilgrims visited points of interest in Chicago that were vital in the ministry of the Servant of God, Father Augustus Tolton.

• April 14, 2012
  Inaugural Father Augustus Tolton Chicago Pilgrimage
  This groundbreaking journey took participants to points of interest in Chicago that were vital in the ministry of the Servant of God, Father Augustus Tolton.

• On 35th Street near South Lake Park Avenue, across from the Archdiocese’s
• Cardinal Meyer Center
• At 9th and Wabash Streets, the site of Tolton’s first Chicago assignment in the lower level of St. Mary Parish
• On South Michigan Avenue, across from Mercy Hospital, where Father Tolton died on July 9, 1897
• On South Cornell Avenue, across from Catholic Theological Union, home of the Augustus Tolton Ministry Program

• November 4, 2011
  A Chicago street sign, “Honorary Father Augustus Tolton St.” was dedicated. The new sign is located at the corners of 41st Street between State Street and Michigan Avenue. Bishop Joseph Perry blessed the new sign during the event.
• June 5, 2011
  A celebration of the 125th Anniversary of the Priestly Ordination of Father Augustus Tolton and his Cause for Sainthood was held on Sunday, June 5 in Quincy, Illinois with Mass at St. Peter Church and a dinner program at Quincy University Student Center.
• February 24, 2011
  The Cause for the Beatification and Canonization of Father Augustus Tolton Proclamation and First Session St. James Chapel, Archbishop Quigley Center in Chicago, Illinois.

The Augustus Tolton cause for canonization is announced by Cardinal Francis George.