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Pierre Toussaint

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Pierre Toussaint
Venerable Pierre Toussaint
Born 1766, Saint-Domingue
Died 30 June 1853, New York City
State of life Married lay faithful; philanthropist
Church or tradition Latin Church; Archdiocese of New York
Ecclesial status Venerable; heroic virtues recognized by Pope John Paul II in 1996
Recognition Cause opened in 1968; heroic virtues recognized in 1996

Pierre Toussaint was a Haitian-born Black Catholic who passed from slavery to freedom in New York and used his work as a hairdresser to sustain an extensive lay apostolate of charity.

Overview

Pierre Toussaint (French pronunciation: [pjɛʁ tusɛ̃]; June 27, 1766 – June 30, 1853) was a Haitian slave, hairdresser and philanthropist, brought to New York City by his masters in 1787. He was declared Venerable by Pope John Paul II in 1996.

Freed in 1807 after the death of his mistress, Pierre took the surname of "Toussaint" in honor of Toussaint Louverture, a leader of the Haitian Revolution.[1][2] Toussaint also became a successful barber and used his wealth for various philanthropic causes. He also helped finance the construction of St. Patrick's Old Cathedral.

Credited as the de facto founder of Catholic Charities of New York,[3] Toussaint is the first and only layman to be buried in the crypt below the main altar of the current St. Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue, generally reserved for bishops of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York.[4]

Life

Origins and formation

Pierre Toussaint was born enslaved on the Bérard plantation in Saint-Domingue and was brought to New York as revolution approached the colony. Trained as a hairdresser, he entered elite homes and became financially successful while remaining legally enslaved. He supported the widowed Marie Bérard from his earnings until she freed him shortly before her death.

Vocation and service

After gaining freedom, Toussaint purchased the freedom of Juliette Noël and married her. Their home received orphans, travelers, and persons in crisis; they adopted Toussaint's niece Euphemia and supported education, religious communities, seminarians, and people sick during epidemics. He also contributed to Catholic building campaigns, including the old Saint Patrick's Cathedral, while attending Mass daily and quietly serving across racial and class boundaries.

Christian witness

Toussaint's generosity did not make slavery morally tolerable. His patience toward the Bérard family and his decision to support former enslavers were acts of Christian freedom by a man whose own legal liberty had unjustly been withheld. Historical accounts should not sentimentalize that injustice or imply that personal charity removed the need for abolition and equal dignity.

His skilled labor financed a durable apostolate without ordination, public office, or a founded institute. Marriage, foster parenthood, professional relationships, parish fidelity, the sacraments, epidemic relief, and almsgiving became forms of lay mission within the Catholic Church. The transfer of his remains to the crypt of Saint Patrick's Cathedral expresses ecclesial esteem but did not itself constitute beatification.

Ecclesial recognition

Cause and present status

The Archdiocese of New York introduced Toussaint's cause of canonization in 1968. Pope John Paul II recognized his heroic virtues in 1996, giving him the title Venerable. He remains unbeatified, so phrases such as saint of New York must be marked as devotional description rather than his canonical status.[5]

Liturgical and devotional scope

Venerable Pierre Toussaint may be invoked in private prayer, and favors may be reported through his cause. His burial at Saint Patrick's Cathedral does not authorize a public liturgical memorial. Catholic presentations should unite his heroic charity with an honest account of slavery, racism, sacramental faith, marriage, and the vocation of lay people.[6]

Biography

Early life

Pierre was born into slavery on June 27, 1766 in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, in what is now Haiti.[7] He was the son of Ursule, the mistress’s waiting maid.[1] They resided on the Artibonite plantation owned by the Bérard family.[8] The plantation was located on the Artibonite River near Saint-Marc on the colony's west coast.[9] His father's name is unknown. He was known to have a sister, Rosalie. His maternal grandmother, Zenobe Julien,[2] was also enslaved and was later freed by the Bérards for her family service.[9] His maternal great-grandmother, Tonette, had been born in Africa, where she was sold into slavery and brought to Saint-Domingue. He was raised as a Catholic.[10]

Pierre was educated as a child by the Bérard family's tutors and was trained as a house slave. The senior Bérards returned to France, taking Pierre with them, and their son Jean Bérard took over the plantation. As tensions rose, which would lead to the rising of slaves and free people of color in the Haitian Revolution, in 1797, Bérard and his second wife left the island for New York City, taking five of their slaves with them,[9] including Pierre and Rosalie.[11]

New York

Upon their arrival in New York, Bérard had Pierre apprenticed to one of New York's leading hairdressers. Bérard then returned to Saint-Domingue to see to his property. After Jean Bérard died in St. Domingue of pleurisy,[9] Pierre, who was becoming increasingly successful as a hairdresser in New York, voluntarily took on the support of Madame Bérard.[8] Jean Bérard had allowed him to keep much of his earnings from being hired out.[1] (Pierre's kindness to his mistress was noted by one of her friends, Philip Jeremiah Schuyler's second wife Mary Schuyler, whose notes were a source for the 1854 memoir of Toussaint.)[9] Madame Bérard eventually remarried to Monsieur Nicolas, also from Saint-Domingue. On her deathbed, she made her husband promise to free Pierre from slavery.

Toussaint earned a good living as a popular hairdresser among New York upper echelon. He provided the fashionable with hairstyles from both sides of the Atlantic: the powdered and augmented coiffures of the French court, and the newly popular chignons and face-framing curls favored by Americans.[12] He saved his money and paid for his sister Rosalie's freedom.[8] They both still lived in what was then the Nicolas house. He was freed in 1807.[8]

Catherine ("Kitty") Church Cruger, two years older than Toussaint, would become one of his key clients and friends. She was the daughter of John Barker Church (who would give the pistols to Hamilton for the duel in Weehawken) and Angelica Schuyler, the muse and confidante of Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. These mostly Protestant women admired Toussaint’s Catholic piety and kindness, and many corresponded with him. One of them, the prominent socialite Mary Anna Sawyer Schuyler, addressed him in letters as “my Saint Pierre”.[13][1]

Due to connections among the French emigrant community in New York, Toussaint met people who knew the Bérards in Paris. He began a correspondence with them that lasted for some decades, particularly with Aurora Bérard, his godmother. The Bérards had lost their fortune in the French Revolution, during which Aurora's father died in prison and her mother soon after. Her other siblings had married in France.[9] Toussaint also corresponded with friends in Haiti; his collected correspondence filled 15 bound volumes as part of the documentation submitted by the Archdiocese of New York to the Holy See to support canonization.[14]

Marriage and family

On August 5, 1811, Toussaint married Juliette Noel, a slave woman 20 years his junior, after purchasing her freedom. For four years, they continued to board at the Nicolas house. They adopted Euphemia, the daughter of his late sister Rosalie, who had died of tuberculosis, raising the girl as their own. They provided for her education and music classes. In 1815, Nicolas and his wife moved to the American South.[9]

Together, the Toussaints began a career of charity among people experiencing poverty in New York City, often taking baked goods to the children of the Colored Orphan Asylum and donating money to its operations.

Charity

Toussaint attended daily Mass for 66 years at St. Peter's in New York.[15][14] He owned a house on Franklin Street, where the Toussaints sheltered orphans and fostered numerous boys in succession.[1] Toussaint supported them in getting an education and learning a trade; he sometimes helped them get their first jobs through his connections in the city.[9] He raised funds for the first Catholic orphanage in New York, opened by the Sisters of Charity, in spite of the fact that it served only white children.[16]

They also organized a credit bureau, an employment agency, and a refuge for priests and needy travelers. Many Haitian refugees went to New York, and because Toussaint spoke French and English, he frequently helped the new immigrants. He often arranged sales of goods so they could raise money to live on. He crossed barricades to nurse quarantined yellow fever patients during a 1798 epidemic in New York,[13][9] working alongside noted physician and yellow-fever expert Richard Bayley.[17]

Toussaint also helped raise money to build a new Catholic church in New York, which became Old St. Patrick's Cathedral on Mulberry Street.[2] He was a benefactor of the first New York City Catholic school for Black children at St. Vincent de Paul on Canal Street.[18][2]

Later years

Euphemia died before her adoptive parents, of tuberculosis, like her mother.[9] Juliette died on May 14, 1851. Two years later, Pierre Toussaint died on June 30, 1853, at the age of 87.[8] He was buried alongside his wife and Euphemia in the cemetery of St. Patrick's Old Cathedral on Mott Street. Fr. Quinn, who eulogized Toussaint at his funeral, said he was “one who always had wise counsel for the rich and words of encouragement for the poor.” Eliza Hamilton Schuyler, daughter-in-law of Mary Anna Schuyler, described Toussaint’s funeral: “The body of the church was well filled with men, women, children, nuns, and charity sisters; likewise … people of his own color, all in mourning. Around stood many of the white race, with their eyes glistening with emotion.”[13]

Veneration

Beatification process

  1. In the 1950s, the John Boyle O'Reilly Committee for Interracial Justice, an Irish-American group devoted to social justice and equality, began researching and publicizing Toussaint's life story.[14]
  2. Because of Toussaint's reputation of great charity, Cardinal Terence Cooke, then Archbishop of New York, authorized the formation of a committee to study further.[13] Based on their findings, in 1968, his successor, Cardinal John O'Connor, strongly supported the opening of a beatification process for Toussaint, giving him the title of a Servant of God. O'Connor had Toussaint's body exhumed and examined as part of the process. Toussaint was reinterred in the main cathedral (where, up until that point, only clerics had been buried).[13][19]
  3. Toussaint is the only layman to be honored by burial in the crypt below the main altar of St Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue.[3][13] The crypt is normally reserved for bishops, archbishops and cardinals of the Archdiocese of New York.[13]
  4. In 1997, Toussaint was declared venerable by Pope John Paul II.[20]

Legacy

  • 1854, a biography, Memoir of Pierre Toussaint, Born a Slave in St. Domingo, was written by Hannah Farnham Sawyer Lee and published in Boston, one of the genres known as slave narratives.[9]
  • The Pierre Toussaint Haitian-Catholic Center in Miami, Florida, is named for him.[14]
  • Toussaint is remembered for his good works by a series of portraits in Gracie Mansion.
  • Established in 1983, the Pierre Toussaint Scholarship Fund,[21] administered by the Archdiocese of New York’s Office of Black Ministry, provides scholarships to graduating high school seniors of diverse backgrounds from schools throughout the Archdiocese to assist with the educational fees and expenses of college study.[3]
  • Toussaint Academy San Diego (formerly The Pierre Toussaint Academy of Arts and Sciences) is a residential secondary school for homeless 14–18-year-old youth founded by Father Joe Carroll in 1992 and operated as a component of Father Joe's Villages (formerly Saint Vincent de Paul Villages). Over 1,100 youth have benefitted from a healthy, stable environment to develop identity, self-worth, a sense of belonging, and a connection to the community honoring Pierre Toussaint's legacy.
  • The intersection next to St. Peter's Church (Toussaint's former parish) in Manhattan was named after him in 1998.
  • In April 2021, a large section of Church Avenue in Brooklyn, New York was co-named Pierre Toussaint Boulevard.[22]
  • In February 2024, Toussaint was featured in the New York Times Overlooked No More series of obituaries which were not published at the time of the recipient's death.[1]

See also

References

  1. Back to citation occurrence 1.0 Back to citation occurrence 1.1 Back to citation occurrence 1.2 Back to citation occurrence 1.3 Back to citation occurrence 1.4 Back to citation occurrence 1.5 Stone, Elizabeth (September 24, 2024). "Overlooked No More: Pierre Toussaint, Philanthropist and Candidate for Sainthood". New York Times. Retrieved February 20, 2025.
  2. Back to citation occurrence 2.0 Back to citation occurrence 2.1 Back to citation occurrence 2.2 Back to citation occurrence 2.3 Christian, Gina (December 3, 2023). "Black Catholic hero of charity, fed by the Eucharist, inspires faithful to holiness". Catholic Review. Retrieved February 20, 2025.
  3. Back to citation occurrence 3.0 Back to citation occurrence 3.1 Back to citation occurrence 3.2 Sullivan, Kevin (February 28, 2024). "Remembering Venerable Pierre Toussaint". Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York. Retrieved February 20, 2025.
  4. Back to citation "Black Catholics See Continued Progress on the Road to Canonization for 'Saintly Six'". Today's Catholic Newspaper. June 3, 2021. Retrieved October 20, 2022.
  5. Back to citation Archdiocese of New York: Venerable Pierre Toussaint — Official archdiocesan presentation of Toussaint's New York apostolate, reputation for holiness, and continuing pre-beatification cause.
  6. Back to citation USCCB: Venerable Pierre Toussaint — Episcopal-conference biography and current status, including enslavement, marriage, charity, Catholic practice, and burial.
  7. Back to citation Recent sources give his birth year as 1781; see discussion in Jones, Arthur.
  8. Back to citation occurrence 8.0 Back to citation occurrence 8.1 Back to citation occurrence 8.2 Back to citation occurrence 8.3 Back to citation occurrence 8.4 Davis, Cyprian (1986). "Black Catholics in Nineteenth Century America". U.S. Catholic Historian. 5 (1): 1–17. ISSN 0735-8318. JSTOR 25153741.
  9. Back to citation occurrence 9.00 Back to citation occurrence 9.01 Back to citation occurrence 9.02 Back to citation occurrence 9.03 Back to citation occurrence 9.04 Back to citation occurrence 9.05 Back to citation occurrence 9.06 Back to citation occurrence 9.07 Back to citation occurrence 9.08 Back to citation occurrence 9.09 Back to citation occurrence 9.10 Hannah Farnham Sawyer Lee, Memoir of Pierre Toussaint, Born a Slave in St. Domingo, Boston: Crosby, Nichols, and Company, 1854; Documents of the American South, University of North Carolina
  10. Back to citation Couve de Murville, M.N.L., Slave from Haïti: A Saint for New York?, London: Catholic Truth Society
  11. Back to citation Recent sources state the Bérards and their slaves arrived in New York City in 1797 - see Jones, Arthur. Pierre Toussaint: A Biography (Doubleday, 2003; Capparoe Books, 2020).
  12. Back to citation Bristol, Jr., Douglas Walter (2015). Knights of the Razor: Black Barbers in Slavery and Freedom. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-1421418391.
  13. Back to citation occurrence 13.0 Back to citation occurrence 13.1 Back to citation occurrence 13.2 Back to citation occurrence 13.3 Back to citation occurrence 13.4 Back to citation occurrence 13.5 Back to citation occurrence 13.6 "Venerable Pierre Toussaint". Archways magazine. Archdiocese of New York. Spring 2021. Retrieved February 20, 2025.
  14. Back to citation occurrence 14.0 Back to citation occurrence 14.1 Back to citation occurrence 14.2 Back to citation occurrence 14.3 Deborah Sontag, "Canonizing a Slave: Saint or Uncle Tom?", New York Times, February 23, 1992, accessed February 18, 2012
  15. Back to citation "Black Catholic History Month: Pierre Toussaint". Archdiocese of New Orleans. November 29, 2017. Retrieved February 20, 2025.
  16. Back to citation "Venerable Pierre Toussaint". Archways magazine. Archdiocese of New York. Spring 2021. Retrieved February 20, 2025; Sullivan, Kevin (February 28, 2024). "Remembering Venerable Pierre Toussaint". Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York. Retrieved February 20, 2025; Christian, Gina (December 3, 2023). "Black Catholic hero of charity, fed by the Eucharist, inspires faithful to holiness". Catholic Review. Retrieved February 20, 2025; Stone, Elizabeth (September 24, 2024). "Overlooked No More: Pierre Toussaint, Philanthropist and Candidate for Sainthood". New York Times. Retrieved February 20, 2025.
  17. Back to citation Jones, Arthur (2003). Pierre Toussaint: A Biography. New York: Doubleday. pp. 160–161. ISBN 9780385499941. Retrieved June 4, 2026.
  18. Back to citation "Boniface Hanley, O.F.M." www.ewtn.com. Retrieved December 24, 2017.
  19. Back to citation "Venerable Pierre Toussaint", Archdiocese of New York
  20. Back to citation "Venerable Pierre Toussaint". Archways magazine. Archdiocese of New York. Spring 2021. Retrieved February 20, 2025; Christian, Gina (December 3, 2023). "Black Catholic hero of charity, fed by the Eucharist, inspires faithful to holiness". Catholic Review. Retrieved February 20, 2025; Stone, Elizabeth (September 24, 2024). "Overlooked No More: Pierre Toussaint, Philanthropist and Candidate for Sainthood". New York Times. Retrieved February 20, 2025.
  21. Back to citation "Pierre Toussaint Scholarship Program". Archways magazine. Archdiocese of New York. Winter 2019–2020. Retrieved February 20, 2025.
  22. Back to citation "Church Ave Renamed in Honor of Haitian Leader Pierre Toussaint". BK Reader. April 27, 2021. Archived from the original on April 28, 2021. Retrieved April 28, 2021.

Further reading

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