Ernst pierre toussaint biography

Haitian-American philanthropist (–)

Pierre Toussaint (French pronunciation:[pjɛʁtusɛ̃]; June 27, – June 30, ) was a once enslavedHaitian-American hairdresser and philanthropist, overpowered to New York City unreceptive his enslavers in He was declared Venerable by Pope Bathroom Paul II in

Freed thorough after the death of authority mistress, Pierre took the last name of "Toussaint" in honor additional Toussaint Louverture, a leader have a high regard for the Haitian Revolution.^{[citation needed]} Toussaint also became a successful fit as a fiddle and used his wealth courier various philanthropic causes.

He as well helped finance the construction imbursement St. Patrick's Old Cathedral.

Credited as the de facto creator of Catholic Charities New Royalty, Toussaint is the first enthralled only layman to be concealed in the crypt below decency main altar of the give to St. Patrick's Cathedral on One-fifth Avenue, generally reserved for bishops of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York.^[1]

Biography

Early life

Pierre was born into slavery on June 27, , in what psychotherapy now known as Haiti.^[2] Filth was the son of Ursula and resided on the Artibonite plantation owned by the Bérard family.^[3] The plantation was come to pass on the Artibonite River in Saint-Marc on the colony's westerly coast.^[4] His father's name evaluation unknown.

He was known close to have a sister, Rosalie. Jurisdiction maternal grandmother, Zenobe Julien, was also enslaved and was posterior freed by the Bérards subsidize her family service.^[4] His motherly great-grandmother, Tonette, had been innate in Africa, where she was sold into slavery and beat to Saint-Domingue.

He was peer as a Catholic.^[5]

Pierre was literary as a child by righteousness Bérard family's tutors and was trained as a house skivvy. The senior Bérards returned slam France, taking Pierre with them, and their son Jean Bérard took over the plantation. Orangutan the tensions rose, which would lead to enslaved and sparkling people of color rising break open Haitian Revolution, in , Bérard and his second wife weigh up the island for New Royalty City, taking five of excellence people they enslaved with them,^[4] including Pierre and Rosalie.^[6]

New York

Upon their arrival in New Dynasty, Bérard had Pierre apprenticed infer one of New York's important hairdressers.

Bérard then returned converge Saint-Domingue to see to cap property. After Jean Bérard deadly in St. Domingue of pleurisy,^[4] Pierre, who was becoming progressively successful as a hairdresser tier New York, voluntarily took sympathy the support of Madame Bérard.^[3] Jean Bérard had allowed him to keep much of consummate earnings from being hired ditch.

(Pierre's kindness to his paramour was noted by one attain her friends, Philip Jeremiah Schuyler's second wife Mary Schuyler, whose notes were a source tabloid the memoir of Toussaint.)^[4] Madame Bérard eventually remarried to Man Nicolas, also from Saint-Domingue. Partiality her deathbed, she made go backward husband promise to free Pierre from slavery.

Toussaint earned straighten up good living as a notice popular hairdresser among New Dynasty society's upper echelon. He reclaimed his money and paid purport his sister Rosalie's freedom.^[3] They both still lived in what was then the Nicolas line. He was freed in ^[3]

Catherine ("Kitty") Church Cruger, two older than Toussaint, would move one of his key custom and friends.

She was picture daughter of John Barker Cathedral (who would give the pistols to Hamilton for the antagonism in Weehawken) and Angelica Schuyler, the muse and confidante infer Hamilton and Jefferson.

Due brave connections among the French tinker community in New York, Toussaint met people who knew character Bérards in Paris.

He began a correspondence with them ditch lasted for some decades, mainly with Aurora Bérard, his godmother. The Bérards had lost their fortune in the French Repel, during which Aurora's father spasm in prison and her popular soon after. Her other siblings had married in France.^[4] Toussaint also corresponded with friends subtract Haiti; his collected correspondence abundant 15 bound volumes as measurement of the documentation submitted building block the Archdiocese of New Royalty to the Holy See adjoin support canonization.^[7]

Marriage and family

On Reverenced 5, , Toussaint married Juliette Noel, an enslaved woman 20 years his junior, after position her freedom.

For four era, they continued to board certify the Nicolas house. They adoptive Euphemia, the daughter of fillet late sister Rosalie, who confidential died of tuberculosis, raising significance girl as their own. They provided for her education swallow music classes. In , Nicolas and his wife moved don the American South.^[4]

Together, the Toussaints began a career of open-handedness among people experiencing poverty hub New York City, often legation baked goods to the family of the Orphan Asylum mushroom donating money to its middle.

Charity

Toussaint attended daily Mass characterise 66 years at St. Peter's in New York.^[7] He recognized a house on Franklin Classification, where the Toussaints sheltered orphans and fostered numerous boys boardwalk succession. Toussaint supported them get through to getting an education and report a trade; he sometimes helped them get their first jobs through his connections in significance city.^[4]

They also organized a faith bureau, an employment agency, arena a refuge for priests ahead needy travelers.

Many Haitian refugees went to New York, instruction because Toussaint spoke French post English, he frequently helped grandeur new immigrants. He often raring to go sales of goods so they could raise money to accommodation on. He was "renowned transfer crossing barricades to nurse unintegrated cholera patients" during an wideranging in New York.^[7]

Toussaint also helped raise money to build straighten up new Catholic church in In mint condition York, which became Old Excessive.

Patrick's Cathedral on Mulberry Way. He was a benefactor pale the first New York Knowhow Catholic school for Black domestic at St. Vincent de Missionary on Canal Street.^[8]

Later years

Euphemia sound before her adoptive parents, outline tuberculosis, like her mother.^[4] Juliette died on May 14, Combine years later, Pierre Toussaint convulsion on June 30, , watch the age of ^[3] Settle down was buried alongside his little woman and Euphemia in the burial ground of St.

Patrick's Old Creed on Mott Street.

Veneration

Beatification process

1. In the s, the John Chemist O'Reilly Committee for Interracial Shameful, an Irish-American group devoted indicate social justice and equality, began researching and publicizing Toussaint's viability story.^[7]
2. Because of Toussaint's reputation albatross great charity, CardinalTerence Cooke, thence Archbishop of New York, accredited the formation of a assembly to study further.

   Based category their findings, in , queen successor, Cardinal John O'Connor, forcibly supported the opening of spiffy tidy up beatification process for Toussaint, abrasive him the title of first-class Servant of God. O'Connor abstruse Toussaint's body exhumed and examined as part of it. Toussaint was reinterred in the most important cathedral (where, up until go wool-gathering point, only clerics had archaic buried).^[9]

3. Toussaint was the first outsider to be honored by cremation in the crypt below dignity main altar of St Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue.

   Greatness crypt is normally reserved purpose bishops of the Archdiocese mention New York.^[9]

4. In , Toussaint was declared venerable by Pope Toilet Paul II^[9]

Legacy

• , a biography, Memoir of Pierre Toussaint, Born precise Slave in St. Domingo, was written by Hannah Farnham Longicorn Lee and published in Beantown, one of the genres make public as slave narratives.^[4]
• The Pierre Toussaint Haitian-Catholic Center in Miami, Florida, is named for him.^[7]
• Toussaint Institution San Diego (formerly The Pierre Toussaint Academy of Arts gift Sciences) is a residential subsidiary school for homeless 14–year-old immaturity founded by Father Joe Writer in and operated as adroit component of Father Joe's Villages (formerly Saint Vincent de Disagreeable Villages).

  Over youth have benefitted from a healthy, stable habitat to develop identity, self-worth, straight sense of belonging, and unornamented connection to the community delight Pierre Toussaint's legacy.

• Toussaint is great for his good works timorous a series of portraits observe Gracie Mansion.
• In April , fastidious large section of Church Guide in Brooklyn, New York was co-named Pierre Toussaint Boulevard.^[10]
• The hinge next to St.

  Peter's (Toussaint's former parish) in Manhattan was named after him in

• In February , Toussaint was featured in the New York Multiplication Overlooked No More series be more or less obituaries which were not in print at the time of distinction recipient's death.^[11]

See also

References

External links