In practice. (spirituality cafe)."Three black men have been pope, and all are saints. The first was Pope Saint Victor I, who reigned from 189 to 199 A.D. He decreed the celebration of Easter on Sunday, and convinced Emperor Commodus to stop persecuting Christians. Victor died a martyr martyr Person who voluntarily suffers death rather than deny his or her religion. Readiness for martyrdom was a collective ideal in ancient Judaism, notably in the era of the Maccabees, and its importance has continued into modern times. , and was buried on Vatican Hill Vatican Hill (in Latin, Vaticanus Mons) is the name given, long before the founding of Christianity, to one of the hills on the side of the Tiber opposite the traditional seven hills of Rome. It may have been the site of an Etruscan town called Vaticum. near the tomb of Saint Peter. "The next was Saint Miltiades, who reigned from 311 to 314 during the time Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity. Miltiades presided over the Lateran Council Lateran Council Any of five ecumenical councils of the Roman Catholic church held in the Lateran Palace in Rome. The First Lateran Council (1123), held during the papacy of Calixtus II, reiterated decrees of earlier ecumenical councils (condemning simony, forbidding that condemned a group of African schismatics, later known as the Donatists. He was the last pope buried in a catacomb catacomb Subterranean cemetery of galleries with recesses for tombs. The term was probably first applied to the cemetery under St. Sebastian's Basilica that was a temporary resting place for the bodies of Sts. . "The last was Pope Saint Gelasius I, who reigned from 492 to 496. He decreed the canon of Scripture, meaning he affirmed which books belonged in the Bible and which did not. Scholars still refer to Gelasius' writings on the relation between church and state. He rid Rome of the last vestiges of paganism and was known as a great holiness." These are but a sampling of the treasures available at the Black Catholic Information Mall (www.bcimall.org). Among the many black saints honored there is Saint Moses the Ethiopian--shown in the icon above--whose feast day is August 28th. You can find his icon and biography, both by Robert Lentz--along with those of other black spiritual heroes, from Saint Martin Saint Martin (săN märtăN`), Du. Sint Maarten, island, 37 sq mi (96 sq km), West Indies, one of the Leeward Islands. Since its occupation in 1648 by the Dutch and the French, it has been divided; the northern part (1999 pop. de Porres to Martin Luther King Jr.--by visiting Trinity Stores at www.trinitystores.com. |
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