Venerable Pierre Toussaint

Born: June 27, 1766
Death: June 30, 1853
Cause for Canonization Opened: 1990
Declared Venerable: 1996

Venerable Pierre Toussaint, born into slavery in 1766 in Saint-Domingue (modern-day Haiti), accompanied his master’s son to New York City in 1787 due to political unrest in Saint-Dominque. Once there, he was apprenticed as a hair-dresser and became proficient and sought after in the profession. His master died and Pierre used his income as a hairdresser to support his widowed mistress Marie, as well as purchase freedom for other slaves, and was finally freed himself upon Marie’s death. He bought a home in Manhattan, married a freed slave, Juliette, and adopted his niece Euphemia after his sister’s death. He enrolled her in school as well as tutored her privately in French, music, and writing — their papers are preserved in the New York Public Library. A devoted parishioner of St. Peter’s Church where he attended daily Mass for 60 years and used his wealth to help various Catholic projects, notably the construction of St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the first Black Catholic elementary school in New York, as well as taking into his own home homeless and parentless Black children. Juliette and Pierre ministered tirelessly to the people around them throughout New York — Black and white alike, even caring for people suffering from yellow fever — until her death in 1851 and his in 1853. Originally buried in the Old Cathedral cemetery, Toussaint’s remains — the first and only layman — were moved and he is now interred in the crypt below the main altar of the current St. Patrick’s Cathedral Pierre is remembered as the founder of Catholic Charities in New York, where his legacy of charity and philanthropy lives on.

Read his story of steadfast faith, generosity and charity here. 

Resources:

• Prayer for the Canonization of Venerable Pierre Toussaint
• Watch: Venerable Pierre Toussaint: A Saint in the Making