Let’s proclaim Africa’s saints

Last month, as I observed our parish making preparations for the visit of the relics of my favourite saint, St Thérèse of the Child Jesus, I wondered why we never hear much about African saints within the Church.

I bet many Catholics do not know a single name of a Catholic African saint, with the exception of St Augustine of Hippo and his mother Monica, and perhaps Charles Lwanga. And if you are one of those people who think North Africa is not really Africa, then St Augustine does not really count.

Most canonised African saints lost their lives in defence of their faith, or their refusal to denounce it. But nothing much is known about them by the faithful. Is this because, other than St Augustine, no African saints have been named a Doctor of the Church (as St Thérèse has), prompting the in-depth study of their faith and spirituality by theologians, writers, professors, and so on?

In Acts 8: 26-40, we learn that Philip encountered an Ethiopian eunuch. The unnamed eunuch was “a court official of  Candace, that is, the queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury”.

Obviously the first recorded African convert to Christianity (let’s ignore the speculations about whether Simon of Cyrene, who helped Christ carry his cross, converted to the faith or not) certainly was aristocratic, or rather an important and influential man who occupied such a high office in Ethiopia. In black Southern Africa, the trend of aristocrats being the first to convert to the faith continued during the missionary days.

The fact that the Ethiopian eunuch returned to his homeland glad (“he continued on his way rejoicing”) tells us that the Christian faith existed in Africa as early as the first century. Why is it that most of this is almost hidden?

The latest research counts about 701 black Catholic saints. Some led big groups of unnamed martyrs, who usually aren’t counted among these 701 (though Lwanga’s fellows are). There were, for example, the Martyrs of Alexandria, who were canonised due to their heroic virtue in assisting plague victims and burying the dead, in 261.

There is St Maurice of Aganaum and Companions who were martyred around 237 in Aganaum. St Maurice and his companions (said to be 6000 soldiers) were martyred by Emperor Maximian because they refused to sacrifice to the Roman gods.

What strikes me most about them is the lack of the usual saintly truck, miracles et al. They are recognised for countless acts of bravery as Christians who sometimes put their lives at tremendous risk by coming to the aid of those affected by the plagues and burying the dead and poor. This is a common daily thing in our continent, and many who make this supreme sacrifice go unnoticed on official books, though clearly known to the hearts of the communities they helped.
My interest in black Catholic saints was stoked by my spiritual mother, Sr Cleophas Trant, when we both still lived in Port Elizabeth. She worked then in a coloured community whose parish church was called St Martin de Porres.
St Charles Lwanga and St Martin de Porres are about the only black saints named in books on lives of the saints. Hopefully very soon the likes of Sudan’s St Josephine Bakhita will be included. There’s also the sainthood cause of Tzaneen’s Benedict Daswa, who was martyred in 1990, that surely should be of particular importance for us in this country.

I believe saints are special individuals who lead commendable lives we can all learn from. Some showed extraordinary courage in their faith; something that is slowly but surely being demanded of us in our era also. It is a grave mistake that the Church hides this light under the bushel instead of putting it on the mountain hill. These lives would certainly be relevant, especially to African children, to demonstrate that sainthood is not just a Western thing.

African Catholic saints, especially those who are black, should be studied and emulated in the same way their European counterparts are. For far too long have they been omitted from books on the lives of the saints and from the pulpits of our universal Church.