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African Christianity-A Brief History
Father Robert Miller
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 Athanasius 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 the 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 in 451 when the heresy of Monophysitism was condemned (the Monophysitism taught that Christ had only one nature, the
divine), the Coptic Church of Egypt withdrew from 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 in schism from the Catholic Church. Despite
many attempts to heal the division, the schism continues. Most scholars are of the opinion
that with a little effort the questions regarding the one or two natures of Christ could
be easily resolved. There were a large number of Ethiopians and Eritians who 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 of 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 emperor, 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). Is is only in very
recent years that excavations have been made in the northern part of the Sudan which have
enabled us to discover the remains of a 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 have revealed the body of a Nubian bishop who lived at
the end of the fourth (4th) century. Parts of Nubia were still Christian about a century
before Columbus discovered America...
Messiah
The area known as North Africa, where the Roman African provinces
of Mauritania, Cyrenaica, Numidia were located, had a brown-skinned population known has
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 Africa. In large cities like Carthage, there were also Blacks
who 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 a slave in the household of a wealthy Christian. The young many 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 to be
held in the year 2002, your editor encountered the above scholarly research by the
African-American Benedictine historian, Fr. Cyprian Davis. We thought that we would pass
in on as, contrary to what can 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 worship." Acts 8:27
The Creation
Holy angels Church, An African American Catholic Church.
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