Touchy Subject

[cmotherofpirl]

THis is from the Philly Catholic paper:Saints of Africa: The Glory of the Early Church

By Susan Brinkmann

CS&T Correspondent

“I will never serve! You can cut off my head, but I will not be a soldier of this world, for I am a soldier of Christ.”

These were the courageous words of St. Maximilian, an Algerian Christian who refused to serve in the Roman army in A.D. 295. Only moments after this brave witness, he was decapitated and later buried near the grave of another famous African saint, St. Cyprian of Carthage, the illustrious Father of the Church who also lost his life for defending Jesus Christ.

We have all heard stories such as these about the early martyrs of the Church, but few are aware how many of these first Catholics were of African descent.

Thanks to a new book on the subject by Father Vincent J. O’Malley, C.M., “Saints of Africa,” many of these little known facts are finally coming into the light.

“Over 117 million Catholics live in Africa — almost twice as many as in the United States,” O’Malley writes.

“Is it any surprise that the saints of Africa number in the thousands? They include three Popes, three doctors of the church, eight ancient Christian writers, thousands of martyrs, hundreds of monk, plus countless religious and lay leaders. Yet, how many of us can name even a handful of these saints?”

How many are even aware that a thriving Black Catholic Church existed in North Africa long before St. Patrick was ever born?

By the second and third century, Ethiopia was already a Christian country, and Tagaste, in present-day Algeria, was the home of such giants of the Church as Augustine and his saintly mother, Monica.

St. Aurelius, St. Cyprian, St. Eugenius, St. Marcellinus, Sts. Perpetua and Felicity, and countless others all hailed from the great city of Carthage, now in Tunisia. Sts. Marcellus and Cassian were from the present-day Tangier in Morocco.

Pope St. Victor of Carthage was elected pope in A.D. 189. He was the first pope whose cultural background was Latin rather than Greek.

O’Malley writes, “… Because he promoted the use of the Latin language, culture and traditions, the Church in his time shifted its orientation from Greek to Latin. He was also the first pope from Africa.”

Pope St. Melchiades became Pope in 311. Ancient sources say that he was from Proconsular, Africa, which is now Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, although later sources dispute this and claim he was of Roman origin and African descent. At any rate, his reign was as glorious as it was brief.

During Melchiades’ papacy the Emperor Constantine came to power, ending the horrific Diocletian persecutions. Tolerance of all religions was made law by the Edict of Milan in 313.

The Empress Faustus gave the Lateran Palace to the Pope during this calm epic in Church history.

Unfortunately, Melchiades did not live long enough to enjoy it and died in 314.

Pope St. Gelasius was named Pope in 492. The most ancient sources of information state that he was African by birth. Later documents claim he was born at Rome but was of African descent.

Whatever the case, the significance of his contribution to the Church has never been disputed. Gelasius was one of the most remarkable Popes of the first centuries of the Church, but he was largely eclipsed by the fame of Pope St. Leo I.

Gelasius contended with threats to the Roman papacy during the last days of the Roman empire. John Chapin writes in The Catholic Encyclopedia, “There was little that subsequent generations could add to his explicit statements about papal supremacy or the relations between Church and State. …”

Early Church Prominence

“Egypt, Cyrene and Ethiopia are mentioned in the scriptural stories of the last days of Jesus and the first days of the spread of the Church. …”

O’Mally writes about the role of Black Catholics in the early days of the church.

Simon of Cyrene (Libya) was taken from the crowd to assist Jesus in carrying his Cross. At Antioch, Lucius of Cyrene was among the handful of teachers and prophets from whom the Spirit called Barnabas and Paul to serve as missionaries among the Diaspora Jews and gentiles. … Both St. Luke and St. Paul write favorably about Apollos of Alexandria. …”

The period from 180 to 311 was one of intermittent persecution of African Christians.

During this time, the young Christian mothers, Perpetua and Felicity of Carthage lost their lives in the amphitheater. The Christian centurion, St. Marcellus of Tangier, was martyred for refusing to worship Roman gods and the courageous bishop of Thibiuca, St. Felix, became one of the first victims of the Diocletian persecution when he refused to surrender sacred writings to the authorities.

“Despite the bloodshed,” O’Mally writes, “the universal Church grew enormously. In Africa, by 225, at least 70 bishops oversaw dioceses in Numidia and proconsular Africa. … By the time Augustine was appointed bishop of Hippo in 396, over 300 bishops were serving in Africa. …”

St. Antony, known as the “Black Monk” is considered the founder of monasticism. A black man born in 251, he sold his family’s considerable wealth after the death of his parents to pursue a life devoted to prayer, fasting and piety. For twenty years he lived in solitude in an abandoned fort atop Mont Pispir in Egypt but eventually attracted so many followers he came out and began to teach them. Antony eventually organized these fledgling ascetics into the first Christian monastic community.

St. Moses the Black was once a thief. He became Christian after fleeing to the desert to escape punishment for a crime and encountering monks whose behavior converted him to the Faith. … “He became renowned for his love of solitude and expressions of mercy,” O’Malley writes. “He also suffered on account of his sin.”

O’Malley recounts a story from “The Sayings of the Desert Fathers” about a council being held in Scetis.

“The Fathers treated Moses with contempt, in order to test him, saying, ‘Why does this black man come among us?’ When he heard this, he kept silence. When the council was dismissed, they said to him, ‘Abba, did that not grieve you at all?’ He said to them, ’I was grieved, but I kept silence.’”

Eight Africans are counted among the Church’s 87 ancient Christian writers and Athanasius, Augustine and Cyril are among the 33 doctors of the church.

[Ekilharas]

Hi Mulls and everyone else too,

I belong to St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Greenwood Mississippi. It has been a mission church for over 50 years. Blacks are the majority members here. Recently, a spanish mass was started on Saturday evenings to encourage the spanish speaking population to join us. It has been a great success. Whites are definitely in the minority here.

We have an elementary school, pre-kindergarten thru sixth grade. 125 kids are enrolled. I love attending the friday morning school mass. The kids do all the readings and everything. It is really great.

Our Priest is also serving two other parishes at the same time. He is Franciscan and we also have two friars (brothers) and 6 or 7 Franciscan Sisters who run the school and help with the office work.

It is a totally amesome place full of the Holy Spirit. You should visit sometime! It would give you a whole new perspective.

blessings,

Nell

[phatcatholic]

i'm still curious about bruce s. ........

[Muschi]

Our parish has a pretty good mixture of people from all races.

Our deacon is black/American...(He and his wife ROCK as far as I'm concerned, they are kindof like spiritual "parents" to me and I love them dearly).

Plus we just got a new priest who hales from Nigeria!

Our Church truly is what we call it.......UNIVERSAL! - God bless! - Muschi

[Dave]

Most Holy Trinity parish in Augusta, GA, one of my former parishes, is about half black. The parish got that way when two other Catholic parishes, one of which was a black parish, closed. They merged with Most Holy Trinity.

[BLAZEr]

And there's been many black saints, as well as African popes. St Martin de Porres is one of my favorite saints, and he was African American.

Not to mention that the President of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops is black, and there are 13 black bishops in the U.S. That's bishops, not priests.

So... I think it's regional.

ummm, Martin de Porres was not African American. He was African Peruvian . . . unless you're somehow using American to mean South American.

[hopeful1]

We have a priest at my church who's black, and so is our violin player at the youth service and we have an alter server who is (how catholic tho may be a different story). At least that's all i can think of for now

[Mateo el Feo]

It's worth noting that Justice Clarence Thomas is Catholic. :-)

God Bless! :)

[ZmeFly]

The reason there are not many black cathloics goes back to american history.

Most african americans are decendents of slaves, with upper class protestant white masters. Yes upper class, only about 20-25% of the population of the slave states owned slaves.

These masters often shared thier religion with them seeing it as a way to stabalize them and keep them under control.

Catholics in this country were of very small #'s in the early colonies, except for a few spanish coloinies and mexican ones.

The form of Christianity that blacks came in contact with more often was the a protestant form around the 1800's. We all know that religion is something that usally stays as a family heritage. Thus today many blacks that are christian are protestant.

Well that my theroy anyway. :mellow:

[Norseman82]

Let's not forget Alan Keyes.

And the auxillary bishop who confirmed our parish 8th graders last month is African-American.

So if you want to get to know more African-American Catholics, get to know more African-Americans.

[mulls]

ok so i guess my experience is an east coast phenomena

[foundsheep]

ok so i guess my experience is an east coast phenomena

No its not, It happens here in California, but catholicism here is predominately hispanic not white, so I guess it does really depend on which part of the country your in. But I do believe the history of Black Americans has a lot to do with the subject.

[foundsheep]

It's worth noting that Justice Clarence Thomas is Catholic.  :-)

God Bless!

Is That really a Good example? :drool:

[marielapin]

Well, in B'ham, we had a good number of blacks in our parish, and we had an amesome black priest.

I must interject though that the protestant church I went to had zero blacks (except the ones that cleaned the building). So for me it was a big change, and a change I heartily welcomed.

Here in Fort Walton, we have an even more diverse parish, with many many oriental, spanish, mexican, black, jamaican, indian, etc. people. Oh, and our bishop is black. Apparently there is a high number of blacks in our diocese.

[foundsheep]

The reason there are not many black cathloics goes back to american history.

Most african americans are decendents of slaves, with upper class protestant white masters. Yes upper class, only about 20-25% of the population of the slave states owned slaves.

These masters often shared thier religion with them seeing it as a way to stabalize them and keep them under control.

Catholics in this country were of very small #'s in the early colonies, except for a few spanish coloinies and mexican ones.

The form of Christianity that blacks came in contact with more often was the a protestant form around the 1800's. We all know that religion is something that usally stays as a family heritage. Thus today many blacks that are christian are protestant.

Well that my theroy anyway. :mellow:

Lets not forget they used a protestant bible to teach them english and how to read.

[Lil Red]

well, i would have to say my parish is pre dominately white, with some Native Americans. But there is another parish here (actually two) that serve more minorities.

[marielapin]

well, i would have to say my parish is pre dominately white, with some Native Americans. But there is another parish here (actually two) that serve more minorities.

how many minorities are there in Montana anyhow?

[Lil Red]

most of the minorities are Native American, but it depends on where in Montana you're at. In my town, we have a lot of N.A. and hispanics. In other town, a lot of people from (I'm not sure) China? It's a foreign country that they're from I just can't think of it. We do have a lot of reservations in Montana, so it's mainly Native Americans.

[marielapin]

cool. sounds a lot like colorado as well.

[Lil Red]

cool. sounds a lot like colorado as well.

yup.