It’s surprising how the term “conventional wisdom” eventually turns out to be an oxymoron. For example, it’s conventional wisdom that blacks from Africa who had been enslaved and shipped to America became Catholics only after arriving.
Wrong. Many had been Catholics in Africa long before they were shackled in chains.
It’s one of the many fascinating elements rooted in “Our Lady of Stono,” a spectacular 30-foot-wide mural created for the National Black Catholic Congress. It beautifully depicts the Black Madonna and Child, surrounded by black individuals who played a prominent role in black Catholic history.
The idea for the mural came from Fr. Claude Williams, parochial vicar of St. John the Baptist Church in Costa Mesa, and a member of the Norbertine Order at St. Michael’s Abbey, in Silverado. He served as Liturgy Chairperson for last year’s Congress XII, the 12th in a series of key meetings attended by NBCC members, and he oversaw the project as the mural was being created.
“The idea of representing Mary as the Virgin of Stono River came after I learned about Cato’s Uprising by Dr. Diana Hayes, one of the influential scholars who argue that many of the blacks were Catholic in Africa, long before they were enslaved.”
One of the people depicted in the mural (pictured to the left of Mary and holding a rosary), Cato was the leader of the largest slave uprising in the British mainland colonies. It took place in September 1739 and began with an armed march south from the Stono River – hence the mural’s name. Like many of the enslaved people, Cato was originally from the Kingdom of Kongo, in West Central Africa. The leaders of Kongo had converted to Catholicism in 1491, followed by their people. Those who partook in the uprising were described as Catholic. Some scholars contend that taking action on the day after the Feast of Mary connected the Catholic past of those revolting with their present desires, that their Catholic faith had a significant impact on their decision to rebel.
Cato and the others in the mural form a diverse group of people – some blessed, some canonized, others neither. “We wanted to include black people from different parts of the world, people who spoke different languages and came from different states of life,” says Fr. Claude. “This was a very important element.”
“The twenty-one holy witnesses depicted along with the Virgin and Child are, except for Sts. Peter Claver and Katherine Drexel, black Catholics either from an African nation or somewhere in the Americas,” Fr. Claude says. “This sacred artwork communicates to the viewer a proud history of black intelligence, black artistry, and black Catholic faith across a broad continuum of millennia, continents and languages.”
One of the challenges in creating “Our Lady of Stono” was that it had to be mobile, since many NBCC events, like Congress XII, take place in such locales as hotels.
“We wanted to provide [the attendees] with a sacred space,” Fr. Claude says. “We needed something to create the right atmosphere, more than just curtains and a cross.”
“The piece can be rolled up and transported, very much like we would’ve transported tapestries four hundred years ago,” says Enzo Selvaggi, lead designer of Heritage Liturgical (heritageliturgical.com) and the project’s lead artist.
Selvaggi’s calling to his profession comes from more than an artistic eye and a steady hand. “I believe that confecting sacred art is to prepare an opportunity for the viewer to encounter God,” he says. “And that’s always your hope as a designer and an artist. So the challenge is always this: How as a designer can I do everything in my power to collaborate with the powerful reality of God’s ineffable and indescribable beauty, while at the same time avoid putting myself in the way? The artist must disappear as much as possible, if he really wants to create sacred art.”
Full story at OC Catholic.
No greater sacrifice can be found in Black Catholic History than the Martyrs of Uganda:
St. Charles Lwanga and Companions
https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=35
The martyrs of Uganda are a reminder that persecution of Christians continues in modern times, even to the present day.
King Mwanga was a violent ruler and pedophile who forced himself on the young boys and men who served him as pages and attendants. The Christians at Mwanga’s court who tried to protect the pages from King Mwanga…
The original caravan…
I don’t think the author understands what an oxymoron is. The term is wrongly used to describe the phrase “conventional wisdom”. Just because conventional wisdom turns out to be incorrect in one case doesn’t make the expression an oxymoron. A real oxymoron has contradictory terms, such as “sweet sorrow”. There is nothing contradictory about the expression “conventional wisdom”.
I further dispute that it is/was conventional wisdom that slaves became Catholic in America. I don’t think enough people ever thought about it to make it common knowledge, much less conventional wisdom.
I don’t think “people” ever thought about it…..this is the problem with the “white ‘Catholic’ ” mentality. I can assure you, lot’s of black people have thought about it.
So ready to take offense. Geeze. The poster said not “enough people” thought about it for it to qualify as common knowledge. For something to be common knowledge or wisdom it has to be thought by a sizable majority. The issue was with the appropriateness of the terms, but you have taken that reasonable observation and misconstrued it as a triggering moment that gives you an opportunity to virtue signal to others how woke you are about white oppression, and in the Church no less. Find your safe space, which isn’t this message board.
Beautiful! Where can I find out more about Black Catholic history?
I recommend Saints of Africa by Vincent J. O’Malley, C.M. by Our Sunday Visitor press. It refers to three popes, three doctors of the Church, eight Fathers of the Church, thousands of martyrs, hundreds of monks, plus countless religious and lay leaders. “It gives stories of a cross section of these remarkable men and women,”” from back cover. Includes Sts. Macarius the Younger, Isidore of pelusium, Alexander of Alexandria, Benedict the Moor, Pambo, Augustine, Moses the Black and many, many more.
Thanks for the book recommendation, Anne TE.
Oh, and women, too, St’s. Julia of Carthage and Corsica, Monica, Crispina and Catherine of Alexandria among other women.