Do you know of any black saints? I’m trying to learn more about different saints in general, but I wanted to start there.

queerlychristian:

Awesome! Some I can name off the top of my head are St. Augustine (yes, one of the most influential theologians was Black) and his mother St. Monica, Felicity and Perpetua (two of my sapphic faves!) Catherine of Alexandria, Martin de Porres (his mother was either African or Native American), St. Moses the Black (yes that’s his title lmao), St. Benedict the Moor (also his official title), and Sister Thea Bowman (a super awesome African American figure). 

And here is a website with a whole list of Black/African Saints. And here’s a webpage with just fifteen if you want to start out with a less overwhelming number. This site (which I also link below) has a good number of the most well-known early African Saints. 

I think people often don’t realize that certain Saints are Black because they are, alas, whitewashed in most images of them (Augustine being a prime example of that). So when you click the links above, you’ll probably take one look at the images included on webpages and go “lol this guy’s not black!” It can be frustrating, but luckily non-whitewashed art is out there – it’s usually very ancient or very contemporary. I’ll include some here.

Felicity and Perpetua, source, source

Augustine and Monica, source, source, source

Moses the Black (source), Thea Bowman (source), Martin de Porres (source)

Africa played a key role in early Christianity, and it’s a shame that history tends to be ignored by Christians today. As this webpage attests, three of the earliest popes were African! as were many martyrs. One place you can go to look into that is the website of the Center for Early African Christianity. 

If anyone has more resources, please share!