Tolton: From Slave to Priest

“The Story of a True American Hero.”

Augustus Tolton’s enslaved mother knows there’s only one way to save her family – she has to escape the slave-state of Missouri for freedom in Illinois. Slipping away in the dead of night, with three children in tow, she trudges 20 miles to the vast Mississippi River. In a leaky rowboat, with bullets from angry Confederate soldiers whizzing by her ears, Mama Tolton rows to freedom. In the face of the shameful prejudice of the Church in America, young Augustus dreams of becoming a Catholic priest. His dream seems hopeless, yet against all odds he perseveres. Finally ordained in Rome, he returns home to serve people of all races as America’s first Black priest.

Directed by Leonardo Defilippis, Patti Defilippis