Next U.S. Saint Is Likely to Be Ex-Haitian Slave

The next American to issue from the saint-makers’ assembly line will probably be layman Pierre Toussaint, born a slave in Haiti in 1766.

He migrated to New York in 1787 and became a well-known barber there. He was a benefactor of the African American community and a founder of the city’s first Roman Catholic orphanage.

Toussaint, who died in 1853, still has a devoted following among immigrant Haitians in New York. A cause for him was formally opened in 1989.

The detailed exposition of his life and virtues, called a positio , won approval from a panel of historians on May 31.

It is now before nine theologians; if at least six of them agree on his heroic Christian virtues, Toussaint will move to the list of new blesseds awaiting papal benediction.