The African giants of the early Church

Last month I gave a portrait of the early Church. Before we leave that period of Church history, we need to give an indication of the role the African continent played in the development of Christianity.

This is because many people think that Christianity was first brought to the continent by European missionaries from the 16th century onwards.

The truth is that Africa and Africans from North Africa and Egypt made an important contribution to the universal Church before North Africa was conquered by Arabs and converted to Islam from about 697AD.

By North Africa I refer to the region where present day Morocco, Libya and Algeria are situated. These countries were considered to be part of the Western Church where the language of the Church was Latin, whereas Egypt, with its Christian centre in Alexandria, used Greek and was considered to be part of the Eastern Church.

I will comment on five Christians from North Africa who made a mark on the early Church.

Tertullian and Cyprian developed what is referred to as the Theological School of Carthage. By the year 180AD Tertullian had began developing theological ideas in Latin when the leaders of the Church in Rome still thought that people could only pray and teach in the Greek language. He was thus ahead of other thinkers in using the language that was to be adopted as the language of the Church.

Tertullian’s ideas were subsequently developed by St Cyprian, bishop of Carthage from 248-258. He became a major thinker for the universal Church. His influence on the Church of the time was exceeded only by another African, St Augustine of Hippo.

The highest point in the development of the early Church in Africa was during the time of St Augustine. He was born in what is now eastern Algeria. His father was a Roman, but his mother, St Monica, belonged to an indigenous African ethnic group called the Berber.

It was his mother who shaped Augustine’s life, praying for him for years and years before he got converted and became a model Christian.

Eventually Augustine became the bishop of Hippo. He was a model bishop and played a major role in defending the Catholic Church against the heresies of the time.

Augustine wrote about a hundred books. Two of these, City of God and Confessions, are classics that are still widely used today.

The influence of Augustine on the universal Church was perhaps second only to that of the apostle Paul. Martin Luther, the great Protestant Reformer, was an Augustinian monk, and today Augustine is acknowledged by both Catholics and Protestants as one of the greatest heroes of the faith.

Martyrdom was one of the distinguishing features of early Christianity. St Cyprian was among many Africans who paid the highest price for Christ. Among the most well known African martyrs of the early Church are St Felicitas and St Perpetua.

Felicitas was an African slave girl who managed to convert her mistress Perpetua to Christianity. Perpetua was a married young woman who was martyred at age 22 in about 203.

Before she died, Perpetua wrote a fascinating account of how she and others were condemned to death. At that time some Roman emperors would force Christians to sacrifice to pagan gods. Those who agreed would be given certificates and their lives would be spared. Those who refused would be sent to the gallows.

In the case of Perpetua, the authorities used her baby and her father to persuade her to reject Christ. When it came to her turn to be questioned about her faith by a Roman judge, her father suddenly appeared holding her baby in his arms. He pleaded: “Have pity on your child.” The judge added: “Spare the tender years of your child. Offer a sacrifice for the prosperity of the emperor.”

Perpetua loved her child and her father, but she would not deny Christ. To die for one’s faith was to die as a witness of Christ. She goes on to explain what happened when all in her group had confessed their faith in Jesus: “Then the judge passed sentence on us all and condemned us to the wild beasts.”