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Christianity's First Centuries in Africa |
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| The Arrival of Christianity in Africa By Thelma K. Thomas |
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 figure 9  figure 10  figure 11 |
The map at the left shows Abu
Mena, the modern name for the pilgrimage city of Saint Menas, and,
to the east, Kellia, another “city,” a
city of only Christian monks, indicated by a partial map and
view of the site. [figure
9]
Hundreds of early Christian monastic dwellings were scattered
across this site. There were more early Christian
monastic establishments in Nitria and Scetis. I want to back up a bit to return to core beliefs. Complementing the universal, cosmic aspects of Christianity are its roots in the personal. Christianity, like Judaism, to which it owes much, is an ethical religion. Believers forge a personal relationship with their God through their behavior (and core rules for behavior may be found in the Ten Commandments) and through their prayer. Christian monasticism, an intensification of this focus on the personal relationship to God through behavior and prayer, really began to flourish in the fourth century. And, monastic experiments in Egypt quickly achieved great, even legendary, acclaim. Accounts of Egyptian monasticism were read eagerly in Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, and Italy. (Reading the life story of the Egyptian monk, Antony was a catalyst for Augustine’s moment of conversion in Rome, and, ultimately, Augustine returned to his home in North Africa, where his monastic experiments became extremely influential.) Egyptian monastic literature remained inspirational throughout the Middle Ages and even today. As early as the fourth century, monks moved away from the cities into uninhabited areas. They did so in such numbers at places like Kellia in the Delta, where hundreds of small monastic dwellings were grouped together, that, to quote a famous saying, “the desert became a city.” Here was an alternative to secular government, to the valorization of personal wealth and status, and to the worldly seductions of cities like Rome, Alexandria, and even Jerusalem. In popular literature about monks, the city was cast in the role of the harlot (certainly prostitutes were found in cities), opposite the role of the monastery as heavenly Jerusalem. Monks were described as angelic, as leading the life of angels, and as like Christ. In early icons—this probably dates to the sixth or seventh century—monks are represented visually as Christ-like as well. [figure 10] This icon depicts Christ embracing and presenting an abbott named Menas, who was the prior of the monastery at Bawit I mentioned earlier. I show a view and the plan of the sixth-century monastery built by Justinian, later dedicated to Saint Catherine. Sinai was visited from at least the fourth century by pilgrims who went to see the site of the Burning Bush and other places associated with Exodus, and who went to see and worship with the monks who cared for the site. [figure 11] We’ll hear more about this monastery from Brandie Ratliff, and Professor Bolman will speak on her work at the early Christian monastery known as the Red Monastery in the south, in Upper Egypt. Sinai was a link between Egypt and Palestine. Africa was not separate from the Near East or the Mediterranean. And some connections across the Mediterranean were stronger than those within Africa. The Latin-speaking West, including Latin-speaking North Africa, was more closely aligned with Rome than its eastern neighbor in Africa, Egypt. The transformation of the Roman Empire into a Christian state, the Byzantine Empire, and the transfer of the capital from Latin-speaking Rome to the Greek-speaking East, to Constantinople, previously called Byzantium, ultimately led to the separate developments of the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches. The early spread of Christianity in antiquity did not end with the conversion of Rome or the extent of Byzantium. It spread to the east and the south; and Christianity was shared by a complex of cultures spread over vast territories, far beyond the borders of the Roman Empire, east beyond Armenia and the Parthian Persian Empire, and south beyond Egypt to Ethiopia. Now, I want to turn to think, as this map encourages us to do, about monasticism as an early Christian movement binding together various cultural regions of the early Christian world. In the fourth century, Constantine became the first Christian emperor of the Roman Empire. At about the same time, Ezana became the first Christian emperor of the powerful and wealthy kingdom of Abbyssinia that held sway over the horn of Africa and the Red Sea region, an extremely important region for long-range trade. Ezana’s capital at Axum was the first Christian center in Ethiopia. |
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