There have been...3 African Popes?

mbewane

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AFRICAN POPES

Pope Victor's ten years as pope left a great legacy to the papacy and the church can be summed up in three practices that touch our lives today. First, he set the date for the celebration of Easter on the liturgical calendar that combined the Egypt-Judeo heritage with the Christian heritage. Secondly, he promoted in the case of death and persecution a baptism with water from a spring, river or sea when a pagan wanted to accept Christ. And he was the first pope to use Latin as the official language of the Church in his writings, before the language was Greek. He died a martyr for the faith and was buried close to St. Peter in the Vatican. For more information on the popes see the references listed below.


Pope Victor I, the African, 186 or 189 to 197 or 201; the 13th Pope (Martyr)

Pope Melchiades or Miltiades, the African, July 2, 311 to January 10, 314; the 32nd Pope (Martyr)
Pope Melchiades (Miltidades) was pope for a brief 5 years. However, his importance to the history of the papacy is enormous. He became pope when the Emperor Galerius was ill and one of his doctors attributed the incurable disease to a curse from the Christian God for his persecution of the group. The emperor's hope was to restore the religion and revive his health. This was after tens of thousands of Christians were killed for their faith. With this relaxation of persecution the nextemperor, Constantine, continued the favor of the emperor towards the church. The Lateran Palace was given to the church. Melchiades began the construction of the Lateran Basilica in which the first African American priest, Fr. Augustus Tolton, would be ordained 1600 years later. Melchiades died on January 11, 314.

Pope Gelesius was pope for five years. The lasting contributions of Pope Gelesius are found in the worship of the church to this day. He is the organizer and writer of the Roman Sacramentary which hold the prayers and prefaces for the sacraments. He promoted the reception of Eucharist in the form of bread and wine, which was the tradition until the 15th century, and was restored with Vatican II. He was a writer of music, and his prolific works in the form of books have been preserved to this day.

Pope Gelasius I, the African, March 1, 492 to November 21, 490; the 49th Pope
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Had no idea...anyone know more about this, like where exactly in Africa they were from, how tehy were perceived etc. Anyone with more knowledge care to share about this?
 
thekingsmen

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3 African Popes and an African Emperorz of Rome Caracalla, Maximinus Daia, Marcus Aemilius Aemilianus, Marcus Opellius Macrinus, Marcus Julius Philippus, Diadumenian
 
mbewane

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Sounds like all three were originally from Northern Africa, seemingly of Berber descent.

African Popes: Black Catholics : NBCC

The African popes in question are said to have come from the North African area that is present-day Algeria, Mauretania, Numidia, and Tunisia.
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There seems to be some confusion between "African" and "Black", I think that in that time everything south of the Med was called "Africa", even though now many make a difference between Northern Africa (Maghbreb/Machrek) and Sub-Saharean Africa. Of course there are black people there too, but not the majority. I've had a look at a couple other links but they all say they were "African", not necessarily "Black" :yeshrug:
 
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mbewane said:
Sounds like all three were originally from Northern Africa, seemingly of Berber descent.

African Popes: Black Catholics : NBCC



There seems to be some confusion between "African" and "Black", I think that in that time everything south of the Med was called "Africa", even though now many make a difference between Northern Africa (Maghbreb/Machrek) and Sub-Saharean Africa. Of course there are black people there too, but not the majority. I've had a look at a couple other links but they all say they were "African", not necessarily "Black" :yeshrug:
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I would assume they were berber from North Africa too given that is where most of Rome's territory in Africa touched down.

meh

Either way the catholic church and shyt to be proud of... I say this as a person that was raised catholic.
 
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The term African does not denote "black" or a phenotype. Therefore, them being called African is no indication of their physical appearance. To my knowledge African was used to refer to the northern region of the continent and the so called black Africans were denoted Aethiopians and the land was called Aethiopia by the Greeks-not to be confused with Abyssinia now called Aethiopia. Also, one may find India called Aethiopia as well.

I wonder if a researcher can produce a manuscript or document that states that either of these gentlemen as Aethiopians and not simply as Africans.

We call white Deutsch and British (anglish, Scottish welsh and some irish) people who colonized South Africa Africans, but they are not "black"or and have no ties to the continent. So if a "white" south African bishop is elected pope today , he'd be an African pope but that would not mean he is "black."
 
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