Episode 1 of 2

Ordination in Rome

Name: Ordination in Rome
Start: 1886-04-24
Location: Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran

When: April 24, 1886
Where: Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran
Part of: Event of 1886: Father Augustine Tolton, the first Roman Catholic priest from the United States

Tolton was ordained in Rome on April 24, 1886, at the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran, becoming the first Black Catholic priest in the United States.

Tolton was ordained to the priesthood in Rome on April 24, 1886, at age 31 in the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran. He was the first Black Catholic priest in the United States, preceded by the Healy brothers who passed as White.

Sources

Augustus Tolton Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-24

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.