Saints of Colour

When Charles Lwanga was a child, the people of Africa had never heard about Jesus. When Charles was a boy, some priests came to his village to teach the people about the Christian faith. Charles became a Christian.

The king of Uganda did not understand what Christianity was all about. He became afraid his people would start to worship Jesus instead of him. The king also became very angry because a Christian told him that he was not living his life as Jesus would want him to. This king was very greedy, selfish, and evil.

Charles went to work for the king. He was considered the strongest athlete and the most handsome man in the kingdom. He was placed in charge of the young men who also served the king. Charles was a wonderful leader. He taught these young men about the Christian faith. Each day he encouraged and inspired these boys and even protected them from the evil acts of the king.

The king became very angry when he discovered that Charles and his friends were studying about Jesus and demanded that they stop. When they refused, the king had them put to death. Charles and 22 young men from Uganda were all killed because they would not give up their faith in Jesus.

Julia Greeley is a role model for all women and an inspiration for anyone facing poverty or hardship. 

Born in slavery in the 1840’s, Julia was brutally mistreated, leaving her disabled and half-blind. 

Determined to live as a free woman after the Civil War, Julia found work in Denver as a housekeeper. 

One hundred years later, Julia is still remembered for her great love of neighbor. Despite constant pain, she walked through the city bringing food, clothing, and the love of Jesus Christ to people even less fortunate than she. 

As it turned out, Julia’s quiet courage and hidden life did not go unnoticed. When she died on June 7, 1918, an estimated 1,000 mourners gathered spontaneously at her funeral, to pay their respects to a woman many called Denver’s “Angel of Mercy.” 

Saint Josephine Bakhita was born in Sudan, Africa around 1869.  Her early childhood was a happy one.  However, when she was seven, she was kidnapped by slave traders!  From then on she was called Bakhita, meaning “lucky.”  She was sold many times during the next twelve years.  Some of her masters were nice but some were very cruel.

One of her mistresses had to travel to Sudan but she decided not to take Bakhita with her, leaving her with the Canossian Sisters in Venice.  During this time, the sisters taught her about God and decided she wanted to enter the Church.  When her mistress came back, Bakhita did not want to leave the sisters.  Eventually, the case was taken to the Italian court and it was discovered that the slave traders that had captured Bakhita were outlaws.  Slavery had been outlawed in Sudan before Bakhita was born.  Because of this, she was freed and was no longer a slave!

Bakhita decided to remain with the sisters and she was baptized on January 9, 1890, taking the name Josephine Margaret Fortunata (the Latin equivalent of Bakhita).  The Archbishop who baptized her, gave her First Communion, and confirmed her, was Cardinal Giusseppe Sarto, who eventually became Pope Pius X.

Benedict the Moor, also known as Benedict the Black, was born near Messina, Italy in 1526. He was the son of Christopher and Diana Manasseri, Africans who were taken to Italy as slaves and later became Christians. Benedict worked as a field hand until he reached the age of 18, when he was given his liberty. For the next 10 years, he earned his living as a day laborer, sharing his meager wages with poor and devoting much of his leisure time to the care of the sick. 

Benedict was very interested in life of St. Francis of Assisi and eventually he disposed of his few possessions and joined the Franciscan Order of Hermits.  Benedict became the group’s superior, and the community prospered under his leadership. As a Franciscan lay brother, he worked for a number of years as a cook at the Friary of St. Mary of Jesus in Palermo, and it is said that food multiplied miraculously in his hands. 

Benedict’s reputation for sanctity spread throughout the country, and wherever he went, large groups of lay people and members of the clergy met him, kissed his hand, and obtained pieces of his habit. To avoid such attention, Benedict traveled at night whenever he could. When daytime journeys were unavoidable, he covered his face with his hood. 

Benedict was said to have the power to read the mind of others, and because of his extraordinary compassion, people from every part of Italy sought his counsel.

Toward the end of his life Benedict asked to be relieved of all his offices and was permitted to return to his work in the kitchen. He resumed his duties as cook, but his days were punctuated by audiences with poor men and women seeking alms, distinguished people seeking advice and prayers, and the sick who sought cures for their illness. At the age of 63, Benedict contracted a severe illness. He died at Palermo, at the very hour he had predicted, on April 4, 1589. Benedict was beatified by Pope Benedict XIV in 1743 and canonized by Pope Pius VII in 1807. He is the heavenly protector of the city of Palermo and the patron saint of blacks in North America. His feast is celebrated on April 4th.

Perpetua lived in Carthage, Africa, in the year 202, when the Emperor Severus issued an anti-Christian law forbidding anyone to be baptized and become a Christian. At that time twenty-two-year-old Perpetua was a catechumen, studying to become a Christian. She was also the mother of an infant son. Perpetua was arrested along with four other catechumens, including Felicity, her slave woman, who was about to give birth to a child. All were tried and sentenced to be thrown to the wild beasts in the amphitheater during a national holiday. Their deaths would be scheduled along with sports events and various games.

During the days before their execution, their teacher Saturus voluntarily joined the catechumens so that he might die for Christ with them. Perpetua’s father, a wealthy pagan, pleaded with her to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods so she could be free, but she refused. She said, “Father do you see this water jar, or whatever it is, standing here? Could one call it by any other name than what it is? Well, in the same way I cannot be called by any other name than what I am—a Christian.”

While they were awaiting death, Perpetua and her companions were baptized. Shortly before the scheduled execution, Felicity gave birth to a baby girl. During childbirth, she had cried out in pain. Someone hearing her asked her how she would ever endure the suffering of martyrdom. She replied, “Now it is I who suffer what I am suffering; then, there will be another in me who will suffer for me, because I will be suffering for him.”

On the day of their execution, the martyrs left their prison “joyfully as though they were on their way to heaven” and entered the arena, where they were killed before the cheering crowd. Perpetua and Felicity were beheaded; the others were killed by wild beasts. 

Born in Africa, Victor was the son of a man named Felix and an unnamed mother. He continued to use his given name after becoming the pope and inspired two other men to also use the name, Victor. Before becoming the pope, Victor was a bishop. He likely worked in Leptis Magna, which was an ancient city in the Carthage region. He may have spent some time in Tripolitania too. The Church does not know much else about his early life. One of the main acts associated with Pope Victor is the work he did to free the persecuted. The emperor at the time was against Christians and sent them to work in the mines in Sardinia. Victor believed that those men deserved the right to their freedom and demanded their release. He then welcomed them back into the Church.

During the second century, many people in the West celebrated Easter on Sunday. In the East, they chose different days to celebrate this holiday. Victor unified all the churches when he declared that they should celebrate Easter on Sunday, which is a practice that the Church still uses. The pope initially attempted to excommunicate those who celebrated Easter on different days or prevent them from attending Church. It was only after a bishop from Gaul encouraged him to think about his followers that Victor set the new day for Easter. 

Early Church records indicate that Pope Victor I was a martyr, which is one of the reasons why he is recognized as a saint. Each of the 13 popes who came before him were martyrs, and several later popes were also martyred. It makes sense that Victor was also martyred as he was the leader of the Christians who faced opposition from many. No records exist to show where he was buried or what happened to his relics.

Teresa Chikaba was born in the La Mina Baja del Oro, the part of West Africa that extends through present-day eastern Ghana, Toga, Benin, and western Nigeria. She was named Chicaba. The names of her parents suggest that her people were Ewe.

Chicaba was kidnapped by Spanish sailors and sold into slavery. She was sent to the island of Sao Tome, where she was baptized and given the name Teresa. During her childhood she was exported to Spain. Perhaps her youth, her illness during the arduous first leg of the Middle Passage, or maybe her enslavers’ belief that the gold bangles (manacles) she wore were signs of her exalted social status convinced the traders that she might bring a special profit in the Spanish market.

Juliana Teresa Portocarrero y Meneses, the Duchess of Arcos, purchased Teresa.As a member of the retinue of this religious aristocratic household, the young slave habituated herself to the piousness of her mistress and developed an intense spiritual life that in time became her key to freedom.

In accordance with the behest of her owner, who died in 1703, Teresa was free to enter the Dominican convent of La Penitencia of the Third Order of Saint Mary Magdalene in Salamanca. She traveled to this convent, the only one to accept the black woman after several attempts on her behalf by the members of the household where she had been a slave.

Over time, Teresa gained recognition as a healer and a sister with prodigious religious gifts. The annuity bequeathed her in the marchioness’ will as well as donations from people who sought her prayers allowed her to gain ascendancy in the monastery among nuns who were only able to make their professions thanks to her financial help with their dowries.

Teresa died on December 6, 1748. She was known for the care she gave to the poor, sick and down-hearted. Her acts of charity, her mystical experiences, and her fame as a healer or miracle worker moved her order soon after her death to commission two portraits of her for purposes of local veneration.

St. Martin de Porres was born in Lima, Peru on December 9, 1579. Martin was the illegitimate son to a Spanish gentlemen and a freed slave from Panama, of African or possibly Native American descent.

As Martin grew older, he experienced a great deal of ridicule for being of mixed-race. In Peru, by law, all descendants of African or Indians were not allowed to become full members of religious orders. Martin, who spent long hours in prayer, found his only way into the community he longed for was to ask the Dominicans of Holy Rosary Priory in Lima to accept him as a volunteer who performed the most menial tasks in the monastery.

During his time in the Convent, Martin worked in the kitchen, did laundry and cleaned. After eight more years with the Holy Rosary, Martin was granted the privilege to take his vows as a member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic by the prior Juan de Lorenzana who decided to disregard the law restricting Martin based on race.

Martin grew to become a Dominican lay brother in 1603 at the age of 24. Ten years later, after he had been presented with the religious habit of a lay brother, Martin was assigned to the infirmary where he would remain in charge until his death. He became known for encompassing the virtues need to carefully and patiently care for the sick, even in the most difficult situations.

Martin was praised for his unconditional care of all people, regardless of race or wealth. He took care of everyone from the Spanish nobles to the African slaves. Martin didn’t care if the person was diseased or dirty, he would welcome them into his own home.

In January of 1639, when Martin was 60-years-old, he became very ill with chills, fevers and tremors causing him agonizing pain. He would experience almost a year full of illness until he passed away on November 3, 1639.

Simon of Cyrene is mentioned in Matthew, Mark, and Luke as the man who carried the cross of Jesus to the location of His death. Since Cyrene was located in modern day Libya, many have suggested that Simon was a dark-skinned African man who had come to Jerusalem to worship during the Passover. However, since only his hometown was specified and many Jews lived in Cyrene during this time, his ethnicity is unknown for certain.

Simon of Cyrene was the man pulled from the crowd who was commanded to carry the cross of Jesus. He likely felt the blood of Jesus and even touched the broken body of Christ on the day Jesus died. His unique experience likely led to him coming to faith in Jesus himself. This may have even taken place only a few weeks later at the Day of Pentecost. If so, it would explain why Matthew, Mark, and Luke mention his name, and why his two sons were mentioned. Further, if the connection in Romans 16:13 is correct, his wife also became a Christian. Further, this would show that all four family members were Christians and well known to the Roman Christians within 25 years of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. To accomplish this feat would have required a strong faith and missionary component in lives of Simon and his family members, one we can likewise follow in our lives today.