Last year, I challenged myself to look up and post articles listing Orthodox Christian saints from the African continent.  I did this each week in my “Dispatch from the Desert” post.  Some were native Africans and had varied amounts of melanin in their skin.  Some were from the Middle East and Eastern Europe who spent years that were critical in their spiritual growth.  My main source of information was the Prologue of Ohrid by St. Nikolai Velimirovich. 

Christianity is a universal faith. Holy men and women of brown complexions were a part of that universe. This fact has been ignored in our modern times of denominations, mega-churches, and being “spiritual but not religious.” There is an African proverb; “If you don’t know your past, you don’t know your future.” It is helpful, therefore, that we African-American Christians know who these ancestors of the faith are and learn what they taught…