Thousands of Black Saints, Martyrs Rediscovered in Early African Church

Christianity also sprang from Africa. The Bible says so.

'Out of Egypt I called My Son' Hosea 11:1, Matthew 2:13-15

MEDIA ADVISORY, October 23 /Christian Newswire/ -- The results of Jesus being raised in Egypt until 7 years old is re-examined in a new reference book, "Black Saints, Mystics, Holy Folk" (The Ancient African Liturgical Church, Vol. I).

At least five Apostles/ disciples evangelized Africa. Before Antioch, Peter set a church in Babylon, Kemet (Egypt). Matthew, Apostle to the Ethiopians, Nathaniel Bartholomew Levi, Jude Thaddeus Lebbeus (Jesus' cousin), Phillip, and the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:27-39), all ministered there. Mark (Gospel of Mark), secretary to both Peter and Paul was African.

"We've been involved in Christianity from before day one--since Pharaoh Akhenaton pronounced 'There is one God,'" says attorney/author James Wesly Smith of his 30-year effort.

"St.Clement finds Ethiopians present in the Upper Room at Pentecost. The word Ethiopians meant Blacks, Africans or dark- skinned in the ancient world."

The Bible shows the Eunuch Finance Minister of Queen Candace of Abyssinia among the first Christian converts, "Smith says."Coptic Ethiopian and Orthodox Church branches still point to where Baby Jesus lived near Heliopolis, Old Cairo."

Smith gleaned thousands of examples of how to live our lives—saints-- from all branches of the early African Church: Coptic, Ethiopian Abyssinian, Orthodox, and Latin rites. He included the Desert Fathers and Mothers like St. Mary of Egypt, powerful martyrs and bishops such as Augustine, Cyril, Athanasius, miracle workers Macarius the Elder and son, and St. Anthony of The Desert.

Also listed are theologians Tertullian and Origen, Cyril, Cyprian, and other friends of God such as Catherine of Alexandria, Apa Noub, Amoun, Herais, Thecla, and canonized soldiers like St. James, the African General, St. Maurice, and Caesar's martyred Christian Theban Legion.

Black Christians can now answer Al Islam's query to us, "Why follow alien faith traditions?"

"Our own African Christian martyrs nourished our roots in the early African branch of the Oriental Church," Smith said.

"Black Saints Mystics, Holy Folk" (The Ancient African Liturgical Church), 456 pages, provides an excellent resource, such as for Black Catholic Month.

Apostle Dos Rosas Press slates a Volume II of "Black Saints" (600 A.D. to present) for Christmastide release.

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