Haitian-born Pierre Toussaint, whose remains rest under St. Patrick’s Cathedral, honored in immigrant mural

By Liseberth Guillaume | The Associated Press. Additional reporting by The Haitian Times.

NEW YORK (AP) — New York’s iconic St. Patrick’s Cathedral is unveiling a massive new mural that honors the city’s immigrants, including formerly enslaved Haitian philanthropist Pierre Toussaint whose image appears alongside modern-day migrants and other famous local figures.

Born enslaved in Saint-Domingue, now Haiti, Pierre Toussaint was brought to New York in 1797 when his French owners fled the revolution. As the New York Times reported and church records show, he soon became one of Manhattan’s most sought-after hairdressers, with clients that included the Schuyler and Hamilton families. 

With the earnings he was allowed to keep, Toussaint purchased freedom for relatives, married Juliette Gaston — whose freedom he also secured — and together they opened their home to orphans and the poor. 

His philanthropy extended to funding churches, supporting Black Catholics and helping finance the original St. Patrick’s Cathedral. In 1997, nearly 150 years after his death, Pope John Paul II declared him “venerable,” the first step toward sainthood. Today, Toussaint’s remains rest under the cathedral’s main altar — making him the only non clergy member, and the only Black person, interred there.

Spanning the sides to the Manhattan landmark’s entryway, the 25-foot-tall (7.6-meter-tall) artwork of everyday immigrants and notable historical figures such as journalist and social activist Dorothy Day and former New York Gov. Alfred E. Smith, the first Roman Catholic to receive a major-party nomination for president, comes amid a federal crackdown on immigration that has divided many communities across the country.

The piece was not intended as a political message, according to the Rev. Enrique Salvo, the Roman Catholic church’s rector, but nevertheless sends a message.

“We want anyone that comes in to feel loved and welcomed,” said Salvo, who is himself an immigrant from Nicaragua. 

“It’s a reminder that it doesn’t matter what’s happening … politically. We have to treat everyone with love and respect.”

The work, titled “What’s So Funny About Peace, Love, and Understanding,” also just brightens up the space for the 6 million visitors that come into the church every year, said Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York who commissioned the piece.

“It was very drab,” Dolan told reporters Thursday of the old entryway ahead of the mural’s official unveiling at Sunday Mass. 

“So, we thought at least we need to spark it up and get some illumination.”

The mural, by local artist Adam Cvijanovic, in part honors Irish immigrants who contributed to the cathedral’s construction. 

One section depicts the Apparition at Knock, in which, according to Catholic lore, the saints Mary, Joseph and John the Evangelist appeared to locals in the Irish village in 1879 — the same year, Dolan noted, the cathedral opened its doors. Elsewhere, Irish immigrants are seen arriving on a ship.

Cvijanovic said it was also important to him to represent Native Americans in the piece, which features St. Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American saint.

Dolan praised the painter for creating what he described as “an effusive ode to the greatness of this city and those who came here, and those who have turned into their leaders.”

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