Black Saints

[Rogerteder]

Some of you know that I teach high school, and I was wondering if any of you know a good place to look for black saints. February is black history month, and I would like to incorporate lessons about black saints. Thanks

 

[JPUSC]

A google search turned these up:

nbccongress.org/black-catholics/african-saints-01.asp
catholicevangelism.org/saints.shtml
africanamericans.com/BlackSaints.htm

Pope Benedict XVI’s *Spe Salvi *also tells the story of St. Josephine Bakhita.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephine_Bakhita
vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20071130_spe-salvi_en.html

 

[chewchoo]

saints.sqpn.com/saint-benedict-the-black/
saints.sqpn.com/saint-martin-de-porres/
saints.sqpn.com/saintm34.htm
saints.sqpn.com/saintc13.htm

assisted the american slave population
saints.sqpn.com/saintp10.htm

 

[DavidFilmer]

I would like to incorporate lessons about black saints.

Some of the Early Church Fathers were African (such as my absolute most favorite ECF, St. Cyprian of Carthage, who was so influential that he was nicknamed “the African Pope”).

But Egyptian society was racially mixed - historians did not record the skin-tone of these Fathers. But, surely, it is possible that these ECF’s were not pure Caucasian.

 

[Ghosty]

It’s not known what his skin color was (such things weren’t often recorded back in the day, believe it or not), but St. Augustine, perhaps the most famous Latin Father and Saint, was African.

A lot of people don’t realize this, because he wrote in Latin, a “European” language, but that was because North Africa was ruled by the Roman Empire in his time, and Latin was a scholarly language (he also spoke his own native language, but didn’t write in it). He was Roman through and through, but “Roman” in that time included everyone from France to the Sahara borders, from Spain and Morocco to Syria.

Racism, at least as we understand it today, wasn’t very much of a factor in the times when Christianity was founded. It’s a cultural development that took many centuries to solidify.

Peace and God bless!

 

[Padraig_77]

JPUSC and chewchoo gave some examples of Black African saints.

However, some of the other Saints mentioned like St. Cyprian of Carthage and St. Augustine of Hippo were not black. They were North Africans. Black Africans come from Sub-Saharan Africa, while the inhabitants of North Africa (above the Sahara) were in ancient times and still today Caucasians.

For example, St. Cyprian was either of Punic (Phoenician) or Berber stock. St. Augustine was a Numidian Berber. The Berbers are the original inhabitants of North Africa and are very interesting people. You should read up on them; they have quite a fascinating history. They are Caucasians, though, so St. Cyprian and St. Augustine would not be examples of Black saints. Remember: Africa does not always mean black; it’s just a geographic location.

Hope this helps.

 

[Rogerteder]

Thank you very much!!!