"And how should I presume?"

alasmypetticoats:

deadlydinos:

“Hey, you’re Catholic and socialjusticey so I thought you might help with this. Basically nearly all the saints I know about are white. I guess the original apostles were probably brown but they’re nearly always shown white in paintings. Who are some more recent saints who weren’t white?”

Here is Jenna’s list of seriously awesome Catholic saints who are people of colour!

Black and African Saints

Perhaps the most famous saint who is a person of colour is Saint Augustine. He was a Christian convert who was from what is now Algeria and the Catholic church would likely not exist, and certainly not in its modern form, if it weren’t for his prolific writing and leadership as an Archbishop. He is consistently portrayed as white in 17th-century and onward European art, for NO FUCKING REASON. His parents were both African - his father was of North African origin, and his mother Sub-Saharan. His mother, Saint Monica, was a single parent who raised her son, paid for his education, and prayed daily for his conversion for more than twenty years.

Saint Martin de Porres, a biracial Peruvian who lived in the 16th and 17th century (his father was Spanish and his mother was an African woman of unknown origin freed from slavery), revolutionized the Dominican religious tradition and is well-known for the many healings associated with him. 

Saint Charles Lwanga and his 21 companions stopped white men from preaching in their native Uganda and instead spread the gospel in their own language and traditions. They were martyred near the end of the 19th century.

A more modern African saint is Saint Josephine Bakhita, a Sudanese woman who was abducted into slavery and freed in Italy. She fought against the institutions of slavery and helped prepare missionaries going to work in African regions. She died in 1948.

Saint Katharine Drexel was an African-American saint born in 1858. She combined contemplative religious life with active work in the NAACP and funded several high schools and colleges for African-American students.

Asian Saints

One of the most well-known Asian saints is St Paolo Miki and his 25 companions. He was a Japanese man from a military family and converted to Christianity. He was martyred during  his studies for the priesthood in 1862. 

Saint Alphonsa of Bharananganam lived in South India in the early 20th century and dedicated her life to prayer. She had several medical conditions which left her in a significant amount of pain and suffering; but she was known as a cheerful, helpful, and lovely person. After her death, many children began to visit her grave and remember her for the love she showed then. 

Saint Andrew Kim Taegon was the first Korean priest. He was martyred in 1846 at the age of 25. 

Our Lady of Akita is a Japanese apparition of Mary which began in 1973. 

Aboriginal Saints

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha is North America’s only Aboriginal saint. She was a Mohawk convert who helped bridge relationships between white Catholic Jesuits and her own people. She participated fully in her culture and helped adapt Catholicism to suit Mohawk beliefs and lifestyle.

Saint Juan Diego was an Indigenous Mexican man who experienced the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe, arguably the most well-known apparition of Mary, in 1531. Much of Mexico’s Catholic traditions can be traced back to the popularity of this man and his vision of Mary as a woman of colour in traditional Mexican dress.

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So there are just a few! There are so many more. People of colour, in the past AND today, make up a significant majority of Catholics and play a crucial role in our Church. It’s too bad these saints aren’t more well-known!

It’s really astonishing, how white-washed European Christian (& Catholic) artwork is - I hadn’t known St. Augustine was African until a year or so ago and was completely blown away because this was never mentioned. If the apostles + several of the early major saints were portrayed more accurately (i.e. not as white people)… the artwork would look so different.