Pierre Toussaint

Pierre Toussaint was born into slavery in 1766 on the Bérard plantation near Saint-Marc in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti). As a youth he was trained for household service. In the late 1780s, as unrest that would become the Haitian Revolution spread, Jean Jacques Bérard brought part of his household, including Pierre, to New York City. There Pierre was apprenticed to a leading hairdresser and mastered a trade that made him financially independent and well known among the city's elite.

After Bérard returned to Saint-Domingue and died, his widow, Marie Elisabeth Bérard, was left in reduced circumstances in New York. Pierre supported her household with his earnings as a hairdresser. She granted him legal freedom around 1807, near the time of her death. He took the surname Toussaint and continued as one of New York's most sought-after hairdressers, serving prominent families, saving and investing, and acquiring property. He used his means chiefly for charity rather than display and kept working long after he might have retired.

In 1811 he married Juliette Noel, whose freedom he had purchased. They had no biological children but adopted and raised his niece Euphemia, who died of tuberculosis in 1829. Pierre and Juliette were known for quiet, persistent philanthropy. They sheltered orphans and refugees from Saint-Domingue, Black and white. He contributed to the building of Old St. Patrick's Cathedral, helped fund Catholic care and schooling for Black children in New York, and supported other works of the Church. During yellow fever and other epidemics he crossed quarantine lines to nurse the sick without regard to race.

Toussaint was a devout Catholic who attended daily Mass for decades, chiefly at St. Peter's Church on Barclay Street. He lived simply and was widely respected in New York for courtesy, generosity, and faith. Juliette died in 1851. Pierre died in New York City on 30 June 1853 and was buried in the churchyard of Old St. Patrick's Cathedral. In 1990 his remains were moved to the crypt of St. Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue, a rare honor for a layperson. The Archdiocese of New York opened his cause for canonization; Pope John Paul II declared him Venerable in 1996. He has not been beatified or canonized.