African Christianity-A Brief History

Ethiopia was converted to Christianity through the efforts of St. Frumentius (c.380), a Syrian and former slave in the royal household. Under his influence the royal family was converted. Requesting from St. Athanasisus, patriarch of Alexandria, a bishop for the growing number of Catholics in Ethiopia, Frumentius, who had been freed by the young king, Ezana, and was on his way back to Syria, was persuaded by Athanasisu to become bishop of Ethiopia. Thanks to St. Frumentius and the young king, Ezana Ethiopia was rapidly Christianized. It received its liturgy from Egypt and today it follows the Coptic Rite and its own district usages. In the Ethiopian liturgy, the clergy at times dance and the drum is used. There is a tremendous devotion to he Blessed Virgin and a very strong monastic tradition. It is true to say that Ethiopia is one of the oldest Christian countries in the world. Ethiopia  was a Catholic country before Ireland or Poland or any northern European country had received the faith. After the Council of Chalcedon is 451 when the heresy of Monophysitism was condemned (the Monophysitism  taught that Christ had on one nature, the divine), the Coptic Church of Egypt withdrew form unity with Rome and the other Churches in the Roman empire. Ethiopia, always under the influence of the Coptic Church, withdrew also. As a result, The Ethiopian Church is now is schism from the Catholic Church. Despite many attempts the heal the division, the schism continues. Most scholars are of the opinion that with a little effort the questions regarding one or two natures of Christ could be easily resolved. There were a large number of Ethiopians and Eritians to follow the Ethiopian liturgy and are united with Rome. Thus, among Catholics of the Eastern Rites, the Black Church of Ethiopia holds an important place. There is an Ethiopian college in the Vatican for training Ethiopian students for the priesthood. 

                                                    Ark of the Covenant

     In the seventh (7th) century, Islam swept through Egypt and North Africa. Although some Ethiopians are Moslem, the country remained a bastion of Christianity down through the centuries. Ethiopia, a Black nation is one the few Christian nations to triumph over the attacks of the Moslem invaders...      

                                                       John the Baptist                    

...Nubia was converted to Christianity in the sixth (6th) century. The great Byzantine emporer, Justinian, sent missionaries to the area. His wife, Theodora, who secretly supported the Monophysite heresy, sent Monophysite missionaries. Thus both Catholicism and Monophysitism were introduced in the sixth (6th) century. It is only in very recent years that excavations have been made in the northern part of Sudan which have enabled us to discover the remains of brilliant Black Civilization. Christian Nubia was a civilization of churches, frescoes, manuscripts , etc. For a long time historians believed that Christianity had not survived long after the Arab attacks in the seventh (7th) century. Recent excavations revealed the body of a Nubian bishop who lived at the end of the fourth (4th) Parts of Nubia were still Christian about a century before Columbus discovered America.

                                                       The Messiah

The area known a North Africa, where the Roman African provinces of Mauritania, Cyrenaica, Numidia were located, had a brown-skinned population known as the Berbers. The Romans colonized parts of the area, establishing large estates. Christianity spread rapidly in this area. The people possessed slaves. Some of the slaves were from the Sub-Saharian part of Africa. In large cities like Carthage, there were Blacks to formed part of the population. In the sixth (6th) century, we have a letter written by St. Fulgentius of Ruspe entitled "Concerning the Salvation of an Ethiopian on the point of Dying." The letter  was in answer to one sent by Ferrandus, the deacon in charge of the Church at Carthage (today in Tunisia). The letter was about a Black adolescent who was a slave in the household of a wealthy Christian. The young man had been enrolled as a catechumen for baptism at the main church at Easter.

                                                          African Sanctus

In working on a paper for the Black Catholic Convocation which was held in the year 2002, your editor encountered the scholarly research by African-American Benedictine historian, Father Cyprian Davis. We thought that we would pass it on as, contrary to what we can do to popular thought, a reminder of how deep our Black Catholic roots are. "Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, this is the queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury, who had come to Jerusalem to worships." Acts 8:27

                                                           The Creation