By SISTER JEANA VISEL, OSB
Special to Catholic Times

In late November 2022, my youngest brother Edward Visel was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He had been experiencing symptoms for a year, and as he was only 36, the doctors took a lot of time exploring less problematic kinds of issues before getting to the scan that identified the cancer. As most people know, by the time pancreatic cancer gets diagnosed, it usually is too late to be able to do much about it. So, I knew from the beginning that this was probably going to be a terminal illness, and Edward would need a miracle if he were to survive. Right away I started asking family, friends, and coworkers to pray with Father Augustine Tolton for Edward.

This seemed an appropriate choice of a holy person to promote for a few reasons. Father Tolton served in both rural Illinois and in Chicago. My family is from Winnebago, near Rockford, and at the time of his sickness, Edward was living in Chicago. In his own life, Father Tolton had been denied by all the seminaries in the United States, and I work at Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology in southern Indiana, run by the Benedictine monks of Saint Meinrad Archabbey. Our own Father Cyprian Davis was the author of the definitive work on black Catholic history in the United States. If this awful situation might provide the space in which some historic wrongs might be righted in some way, I was game to try. I attended the ordination of one of our seminarians in Springfield not too long prior, and so I had the prayer card and information for the promotion of Tolton’s cause.

A difficult time ensued. Edward went through multiple rounds of chemo and radiation; at a certain point he had blockages in his liver ducts that required surgery to fix. After that he had a plastic tube coming out of his side into a bag. While he was very brave and in many ways accepting of his situation; at a certain point it became clear that the cancer had metastasized and there would be nothing further they could do. When he couldn’t tolerate any more chemo, he went on hospice in early March, and he passed away March 11. It was 16 months from his diagnosis to his death. 

We didn’t get the miracle of physical healing I had hoped for. Nonetheless, within the time of Edward’s sickness, I think he did experience a spiritual healing that in the long run was of the more important kind. While we grew up in a good Catholic home, and at one point I thought Edward might someday become a Jesuit, he fell away from his faith sometime after graduating from college in 2009. At college, he had studied secular philosophy, and while he had a contemplative bent, his sharp mind wrestled with certain Church teachings. We argued. For some years, he (and my other siblings) no longer attended Mass with my parents and I when we would be together. When I shared with Edward that I would be praying with Father Tolton for a miracle, and I sent him information about him, his response was a cool, “Interesting.”

In November 2023, on my way home to Winnebago for Thanksgiving, I drove four hours out of my way to visit the tomb of Father Tolton in Quincy. I poured out my prayers for Edward, hoping that maybe something would happen. I got home and nothing changed. In December, my supervisor, president-rector of Saint Meinrad Father Denis Robinson, OSB, went to Quincy to give a parish mission. He also visited the tomb of Father Tolton and prayed for Edward. Again, nothing happened.

In early January 2024, I was at the SEEK Conference in St. Louis, and on Jan. 3, I took an opportunity to pray with a charismatic prayer team. I simply told them that I had two major grief points in my life. As they prayed, one of them said she had the image of a big mountain blocking my way, and she prayed that God would remove obstacles in my life. I was a teary mess and thanked them. That evening, I was at dinner when my mom called and left a message with the good news that that day, Edward had been anointed and received Communion. When I talked with her later, I told her the charismatics had been praying that an obstacle would be removed, and she affirmed that yes, an obstacle had indeed been removed for him. He now was open to the faith. 

My mom was with him in Chicago for chemo that week, and that weekend, they went to Epiphany Mass at St. Michael’s in Old Town. Apparently, it was a fantastically beautiful experience, with the choir singing the Schubert Mass. Edward received Communion. At some point, he told my mom that he wanted to have a funeral there, so that his friends “could see St. Michael’s.”

As he declined in the following weeks, he regularly received Communion, and he was anointed more than once. I was with him during one of his last weeks, when he no longer could eat more than a bite or two a day and could barely speak. I brought back Communion from Mass, and asked if he wanted to receive, if he could handle it. He said, “Yes.” 

His last days were painful, as he no longer could swallow the medications he had been on and was going through withdrawal even as he was getting palliative medicines in other forms. Even as he no longer could speak, my mother, a secular Carmelite, coached him through some spiritual battles. She told him that he had given up so much, and that the last thing he had to give up was his will. She could tell that he was struggling at one point, that perhaps he was having a face-off with God over something he had done or failed to do, and he looked scared. But eventually he came to peace.

When he died, we held a beautiful Catholic funeral for him at my parent’s parish, St. Anthony of Padua in Rockford, with the notice that another Mass would be held at St. Michael’s in Chicago at a later date. While he had had a difficult journey, Edward ended his time on earth at peace with his faith and the consolation it offers. I credit Father Tolton’s prayers for helping bring him to that place. I continue to pray that Father Tolton will eventually be recognized as a saint, and that my other siblings will return to the Church. For now, though, I am grateful that at least Edward was able to be united to Jesus.

• Sister Jeana Visel, OSB, is an adjunct assistant professor of spirituality at Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology in Indiana. 

About Father Tolton

Father Augustine Tolton was born into slavery in 1854. In 1862, his mother and siblings made a daring escape across the Mississippi River to Illinois. After settling in Quincy, he went to school at St. Peter’s Catholic School. He later went to seminary in Rome because no American seminary would accept a black man. Thinking he would minister in Africa, once he was ordained, he was instead sent back to Quincy, where he arrived to thousands of supporters. Known for his incredible singing and homilies, Father Tolton spent several years in Quincy before transferring to Chicago. He died of heatstroke at the age of 43 on July 9, 1897, and is buried at St. Peter’s Cemetery in Quincy. Pope Francis declared him “Venerable” on June 12, 2019, the second step of four to becoming a saint in the Catholic Church.