Annual Father Augustus Tolton procession to be joined by National Eucharistic Pilgrimage

ST. PAUL, Minn. (OSV News) – An annual procession to Father Augustus Tolton’s gravesite in Illinois will be joined next year by pilgrims walking the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage en route to Indianapolis, the Diocese of Springfield’s worship director announced July 9. Father Daren Zehnle shared the news with more than 200 pilgrims who participated in this year’s procession from a parish in Quincy, Illinois, with ties to Father Tolton, to his gravesite almost a mile away. Father Tolton (1854-1897) is the first identifiable Black priest in the United States, and he was renowned not only for his holiness and preaching, but also for the considerable adversity he faced as a Black priest in the late 1800s. Pope Francis declared him “venerable” in 2019. Will Peterson, founder and president of Modern Catholic Pilgrim, the Minnesotabased nonprofit organizing the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, said Father Tolton is the first of six Black American Catholics on the path to canonization officially to be linked geographically to the national pilgrimage. He hopes others will be as well, as the national pilgrimage’s four routes will pass through cities where several of these “Saintly Six” lived and ministered, as pilgrims make their way to Indianapolis for the National Eucharistic Congress in July 2024.

Father Augustus Tolton, born into slavery, was the first recognized Black American ordained to the priesthood and is a candidate for sainthood, is pictured in an undated portrait. An annual procession to the gravesite of Father Tolton, one of six Black Catholic candidates for sainthood, will be joined July 9, 2024, by pilgrims walking the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage en route to Indianapolis. —OSV News photo/CNS file

Catholics do not believe in the Real Presence. This is remarkable given that the Church has always taught and will always teach that the Blessed Sacrament it is truly the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus – for it is the “source and summit of the Christian faith.”

Given these truths, our thought, both individually and collectively, should always be: How can we make sure that Jesus is always praised, adored, and loved? If we commit ourselves to approaching the Eucharist both internally and externally, we may see a change in people’s belief in the Real Presence.

Father Gregory Zannetti serves as parochial vicar in St. James Parish, Basking Ridge. His column is the second in a monthly series that focuses on increasing devotion to the Eucharist during the Year of Parish Revival.

One would guess that most saints would have a devotion to the Eucharist, but here are 10 saints to learn more about and ask to intercede for us during the National Eucharistic Revival.

Blessed Carlo Acutis

Born in 1991, Blessed Carlo Acutis was a young Italian boy who had a great love for Jesus in the Eucharist. This millennial is most known for his devotion to the Eucharist, for he documented all known Eucharistic miracles and even created a website containing information on each miracle. Though he died when he was 15, his devotion to the Eucharist inspired all those around him and enabled him to leave behind a beautiful testimony of his love for the Eucharist: his Eucharistic miracle website. Today all people throughout the world have access to his website to deepen their knowledge and love for the Blessed Sacrament.

Feast day: Oct. 12

Blessed Juliana Of Mount Cornillon

After her parents died, Juliana was brought up in an Augustinian monastery at Mount Cornillon, Belgium. She joined the community, which ran a hospital for leprosy patients. Elected prioress about 1225, she made known earlier visions in which Jesus told her he desired a special feast for the Blessed Sacrament. This became her mission, despite opposition; even some of her nuns doubted her and accused her of misusing funds. She was forced to leave her monastery in 1246 and died a hermit. Her work led to the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, also known as Corpus Christi.

Feast day: April 5

ST. HESYCHIUS OF JERUSALEM

St. Hesychius was a priest who wrote about the Bible in the liturgy. He viewed Scripture as “perfect wisdom, the point of departure and the point of arrival to which the whole of our existence should be conformed.” Hesychius preached on Easter at the place of the crucifixion, exalting the cross and Christ’s victory. Like St. Cyril of Jerusalem, he taught a realistic doctrine of the Eucharist, which he regarded as a sacrifice identical with that of the cross. Hesychius taught that Christ was present to transform us through our inner absorption of his whole being. “Keep yourselves free from sin so that every day you may share in the mystic meal; by doing so our bodies become the body of Christ.”

Feast day: March 28

ST. IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH

This Syrian-born martyr, who gave himself the nickname “God-bearer” because of his certainty of God’s presence within him and who may have been a disciple of St. John the Evangelist, became bishop of Antioch about 69. Eventually he was arrested and sent to Rome, where