Bio

 

 Pierre was born in what is now Haiti (then called Saint Domingue) to an enslaved family. His maternal great-grandmother Tonette was born in Africa where she was captured into slavery, and her daughter, his grandmother, was named Zenobe Julien. His mother’s name was Ursula and he had a sister, Rosalie, but his father’s name is unknown. Their sugar cane plantation was located on the Artibonite river outside of the city of Saint-Marc. The Bérard family that owned the plantation educated Pierre to be a house slave, and he was raised Catholic. He was also taught to read and write by his grandmother, and learned to speak French fluently from reading books of sermons. 

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By 1797, tensions in Haiti were rising as the enslaved population was orchestrating an uprising for their freedom. Jean Bérard and his wife decided to leave the island because of this, and took Pierre (who was in his late teens or early 20s), Rosalie, their aunt, and 2 other enslaved folks with them to New York City. Jean returned to the plantation a few years later, but died while doing so, never returning to the United States. Pierre, who had been apprenticed to a hairdresser and was very successful at the trade, supporting his family and the now-desititue Madame Bérard. 

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Hairstyles for rich French women at the time were very elaborate, and Pierre learned how to add false extensions, powder hair, and create curls and chignons. He found patronage in the wealthy women of New York City, some of whom left records of him as a beloved hairdresser and saint. Two of his clients were Alexander Hamilton’s wife and daughter. He even developed close friendships with some of the women as he spent long and regular hours with them, one of whom was Angelica Shuyler, whose sister eventually even published his memoir later in life. 

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By 1807, Pierre had even made enough money to buy his and his sister’s freedom. Madame Bérard’s health was failing, but he continued to care for her even after this, bringing her ice cream and tropical fruits and flowers. In 1811, he married a woman named Marie-Rose Juliette Noel, whom he had known in Saint Domingue, and also purchased her freedom. They continued to stay with the others Pierre had arrived with for 4 years. When Rosalie died, they raised her daughter Euphémie (whose father had also abandoned them), and educated her. They also taught her music, French, and English. Some of her papers still exist in the New York Public Library. The family was devastated when she died of tuberculosis, like her mother, at the age of only 14.

 

Until New York outlawed slavery in 1829, Pierre, even on his way to work, even as a free person, had always run the risk of being abducted and sold to the South. He could not use public transportation, which made this even more dangerous, especially to the threat of being attacked by racists. Catholic prejudice put him at even more risk. Even as a holy man, Pierre admitted that it was not easy for him to bear this racism, and it was hard for him to control a “quick temper”.

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By 1815, the Toussaints (he had taken the name when obtaining freedom after Toussaint L’Overture, leader of the Haitian Revolution) moved to a smaller home on Franklin Street in Manhattan and began to open their doors to the community. Pierre and Juliette attended St. Peter’s Church on Barclay Street, where St. Elizabeth Ann Seton had also gone to Mass. Though they may never have met, he did raise funds for her school as well. For 66 years, they were involved in this community, taking in orphaned children of color, whom they also educated and trained in trades to allow them to find jobs. They were generous philanthropists, donating to the church that became St. Patrick’s, the First New York City Catholic School for Black children, the St. Vincent de Paul parish for French-speakers, and a Catholic school in Baltimore that educated Black girls. They organized a credit bureau and an employment agency. They also assisted immigrants to New York by being a French translator, and gave financial help to individual priests, friends in Haiti, enslaved persons seeking to buy their freedom, travelers, those struggling with adjusting to their new lives in America, and even his godmother, Aurora Bérard, in Paris.

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Each time an outbreak of Yellow Fever hit New York, Pierre was selflessly available to care for the sick, even though he had experienced the disease in Haiti and knew how dangerous it could be.

 

Pierre continued to work through this time as a hairdresser for the wealthy. Though friends reminded him he had enough wealth to comfortably retire, he would not stop working so that he could have enough for others. This was especially after the fire of 1835 destroyed what would be about $900,000 of his money today. 

Even after he had become renowned in his community, he and his family were initially turned away from the new St. Patrick’s church, which he had helped to fund, because of his race. 

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In 1852, Juliette died, and Pierre, slowly declining in health as well, was grief-stricken. He died in 1853 and was buried with Juliette and Euphémie at Old St. Patrick’s. His funeral was overflowing with people of all races that had loved him. Newspapers in New York ran obituaries full of his praise, as well.

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In 1939, a 9 year old Black student challenged a white seminarian to name one Black Catholic that had been esteemed by white Catholics. In his mission to do so, he discovered Pierre’s legacy, which may have been forgotten otherwise.

 

In 1989, his remains were exhumed to be placed below the altar of St. Patrick’s, which is an honor no other lay person has ever received. 

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When some Black historians suggested in the mid-20th century that Pierre had been too “accepting” of slavery and not having done enough as an abolitionist as a reason not to canonize him, others pointed to how he did not take the last name of the family that had owned him when he gained his freedom (and too a name with a significance completely opposite), and at how he asked that only Black community members be part of the funeral processions for himself and Juliette. 

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He was given the title “Servant of God” as a first step in the beatification process in 1989, and in 1996, he was declared “Venerable”.

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