QU Campus Ministry is holding an event on April 13–14, the Fr. Tolton Pilgrimage. The Pilgrimage is in commemoration of Father Augustus Tolton and his life. It will be a two–day, 35 mile walk from Saint Peter’s in Brush Creek, Missouri, where he was born, to Saint Peter Cemetery where he is buried. Mass will be held at the Cemetery to conclude the Pilgrimage.

Joe Niemerg and Hunter Hildebrand organized the Pilgrimage. Niemerg hopes the event will grow bigger as Fr. Tolton is a candidate to be canonized as a saint.

“Father Augustus Tolton was the first African–American priest in the United States. He was a student here when the college was called Saint Francis Solanus College. He was born in Brush Creek, Missouri, and he fled there because he was a slave. He fled slavery, came over the Mississippi and came to Quincy, where he grew up, became educated and eventually pursued the priesthood,” Joe Niemerg, senior, said. “The pilgrimage that we’re doing is we’re walking from the church in Brush Creek, where he was baptized at Saint Peter’s, to his grave, which is here at Saint Peter Cemetery in Quincy. It’s about 35 Miles that we’d be walking in two days to commemorate his life and his journey into Quincy.”

“This is the fourth year the pilgrimage has been done, but this is the first year that QU Campus Ministry has taken it upon themselves,” Niemerg said. “In the past, it has been a group of guys wanting to commemorate Father Tolton. It’s becoming more established.”

This is the fourth year the pilgrimage has been held, with 13 people participating, one of which is a QU alum.