Our Lady of Africa

By Fr. Conor Donnelly

(Proofread)

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior” (Luke 1:46-47).

Today is the feast of Our Lady of Africa.

The story goes that the first Bishop of Algiers, after the conquest of that country by the French at the beginning of the 1800s, was without a church or a residence. He was also without any funds and was surrounded by Muslims, whose hostility was quite evident and whose friendship had to be won.

He returned to his native Lyon in France and went to the Convent of the Sacred Heart that was there and asked them if they might help him to get a statue of Our Lady to place in his diocese there in Algiers. They were able to acquire for him a bronze statue of the Immaculate Conception.

When he returned to Algiers, he gave the statue to the custody of the Trappist Fathers, who were just beginning their mission there. That particular Bishop passed away, and his successor laid the cornerstone for the present Basilica in 1858.

It was on a hill overlooking the Bay of Algiers, overlooking the Mediterranean. It was consecrated in 1872 by Cardinal Lavigerie, famous for his activities to spread the Catholic faith in Africa.

The Trappist Fathers were reluctant to give up their statue, but eventually they did, because they knew it was going to be placed in this magnificent church, one of the gates to the African continent.

Shortly after, that image of Our Lady came to be known as Our Lady of Africa, Consolation of the Afflicted. Very soon, devotion to her began to spread.

The poor, the blind, the crippled, particularly sailors and soldiers came from all over the place to implore her help. The walls of the Basilica were soon covered in huge numbers of offerings which attested to miraculous cures.

A lady from France donated a very special robe to be placed around Our Lady. Pope Pius IX gave a golden crown with precious stones to adorn the image of Our Lady.

That same Cardinal founded a congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Africa and placed them under her protection. And so, the story of Our Lady of Africa began to grow.

That image of Our Lady, although in a Catholic church, is venerated by many Muslims. Every day many of them come to ask whom they call Lala Meriem as they call the Blessed Virgin, for special favors.

They're very aware of the presence of Our Lady who is referred to in the Quran. So they come to ask her for things. Her fame spread all over that part of northern Africa. They're aware of the unique position of Our Lady among Catholics and come to be very devoted to her.

Over the centuries they have grown in devotion. St. Louis of France talked about how he was a prisoner of the Muslims in the Holy Land.

He received a gift very generously from them of an image of Our Lady, from the hands of the Sultan. Lala Meriem is kept in great esteem.

There's great veneration because so many Muslims frequent that particular Catholic church. One chaplain of the Basilica approached two Muslims who had been praying there and asked them why they had come.

They said they'd come to ask Lala Meriem to obtain the cessation of the famine in their village. Another woman said, “I'm sick and I suffer so much. You must cure me, Meriem.” Another lady said, “I asked her that she might send me a good husband.”

Some people go to the chaplains and say, “I was asking Meriem for her haraka, her blessing.” Many people come to place a candle before the shrine of Lala Meriem.

It's a very beautiful place. It stands on a cliff overlooking that bay.

Women, young girls, grandmothers can often be seen praying in front of the beautiful bronze statue. They often spend time looking at the decoration of the church, the Stations of the Cross, the frescoes of the life of St. Augustine, the fourth-century Bishop of Hippo, born in Tagaste. Augustine is Christianity’s first and foremost, most famous Algerian.

Underneath the frescoes, there are phrases of St. Augustine in Arabic, and also in French and Kabyle, which say, “Brotherly love comes from God and is God”—strong words in a very difficult context of the country where many kill in the name of Allah.

Algeria was Christian and Marian from the second century. In 200 BC, the kingdom passed on to the dominion of the Roman Empire, and for nine centuries it was Christian, until the Arab invasion and its Islamization.

But that Arab Islamic conquest was slow and arduous because that part of northern Africa had a flourishing Christian community.

The conversion to Christianity of the Roman Emperor Constantine in the third century increased the Church's influence in northern Africa.

Carthage became important as the city of St. Augustine, a Berber Christian and one of the most universally known Doctors of the Catholic Church. Pope Benedict quotes him frequently.

Algeria has many Christian basilicas and shrines. But with that Arab invasion, the Church of Africa was decimated and only reestablished in 1830 with the arrival of the French.

Our Lady of Africa is there to protect all of this. We can ask her for special graces, for the fruit, and for the future of the evangelization of Africa, a land of special martyrs.

In the latter part of the 20th century, in 1995, Pope John Paul II convened in Rome a Synod on Africa. The findings of that Synod are reflected in a document called Ecclesia in Africa, or ‘The Church in Africa.”

It is worthwhile reading some time. It’s like the ideas of the Catholic Church wants to shape Africa within the 21st century.

In that document, Pope John Paul says, “It seems that the ‘hour of Africa’ has come, a favorable time which urgently invites Christ's messengers to launch out into the deep and to cast their nets for the catch (cf. Luke 5:4).”

On this Feast of Our Lady of Africa, each one of us who are recipients of this great legacy, the Christian history of Africa, have to try and renew our desires to be true apostles.

Pope Paul VI says “a new homeland for Christ”, “a land loved by the Eternal Father”—this is what Africa has become.

“That is why,” he says, “I greeted that moment of grace in the words of the Psalmist: ‘This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it’” (Ps. 118:24).

Pope John Paul liked to “recall the different phases of missionary commitment” and to “examine the various aspects of the evangelizing mission which the Church must take into account at this present time: evangelization, inculturation, dialogue, justice and peace, and the means of social communication.”

He said when we look at these areas, then we can come to see “the responsibilities of the Church in Africa as a missionary church: a Church of mission which itself becomes missionary.”

We’re told in the Acts of the Apostles: “You will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). And so, in the 21st century, the Church looks to a whole new flourishing of Christianity on this continent.

“Lord, to whom shall we go?” said St. Peter. “You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:68-69).

The Pope continues: “African Catholics are assuming ever greater responsibility in their local Churches and are seeking a deeper understanding of what it means to be both Catholic and African.

“The Church has the duty to affirm vigorously that these difficulties can be overcome. She must strengthen in all Africans the hope of genuine liberation. … The Holy Spirit is the principal agent of evangelization. He's the one who impels each individual to proclaim the Gospel” with our words and with our deeds.

“He's the one with the depths of conscience, causing the words of salvation to be accepted and understood.”

The Pope says, “Our cooperation is necessary” in this great evangelizing task “through fervent prayer, serious reflection, suitable planning, and the mobilization of resources.”

As ordinary lay people in the middle of the world, charged in this period of history with this great apostolic enterprise, the Pope is saying to each one of us that we need to be people of “fervent prayer” —daily prayer—“serious reflection”—monthly recollection, yearly retreat—“suitable planning, and the mobilization of resources.”

What can I do? How can I influence my environment? How can I build up a Christian culture in society?

Pope Paul VI says, “It's often said nowadays that the present century thirsts for authenticity. Especially in regard to young people, it is said that they have a horror of the artificial or the false and that they are searching above all for truth and honesty.”

They have to try and see, in our lives, authentic Christian virtue. He says, “The witness of life has become more than ever an essential condition for real effectiveness” (Pope Paul VI, Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Nuntiandi (Evangelization in the Modern World), December 8, 1975.

Pope Paul VI in the same document said that while teaching is important and teachers are important, what's even more important in modern culture are witnesses, people who witness to their teaching, who live what they say, who are followers of Christ 24/7.

“We are very much responsible for the progress of the Gospel that we proclaim,” says Pope John Paul II. “Today more than ever, the Church is aware that her social doctrine will gain credibility more immediately from witness of actions than as a result of its internal logic and consistency.”

We have to try and give witness to an exemplary life in the family, in the workplace, in our club, in our sports arena, in all the places where human persons come together.

The Holy Father talks about “a dynamic laity, with deeply believing parents, educators conscious of their responsibility, and political leaders animated by a profound sense of morality.”

Pope John Paul the Great liked to say that he paid a total of ten pastoral visits to Africa and Madagascar during his Pontificate, going to thirty-six countries.

He reminds us that “the Apostle of the Gentiles, St. Paul, tells us that God ‘desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4).”

He says, “The first missionaries who reached the heart of Africa must have felt an astonishment very similar to that experienced by the Christians of the apostolic age at the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.”

They could see that God was at work. “God's salvific plan for Africa is at the origin of the growth of the Church on the whole of the African continent.”

It's a very appropriate day on this Feast of Our Lady of Africa that we turn to her and entrust to her all our apostolic endeavors, asking her to continue to build up the African Church.

John Paul liked to say that the 20th century had seen the miracle of Africa, a complete explosion of Christianity all over the continent.

He said, “The Church in Africa is a missionary Church and a mission Church. … ‘Go therefore and make disciples of all nations’” (Matt. 28:19).

He liked to recall “the marvels wrought by God in the course of Africa's evangelization.”

He said, “It's a history that goes back to the period of the Church's very birth. The spread of the Gospel happened in different phases. The first centuries of Christianity saw the evangelization of Egypt and North Africa. A second phase, involving the parts of the Continent south of the Sahara, took place in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries” to a large extent with Portuguese missionaries.

“A third phase, marked by an extraordinary missionary effort, began in the nineteenth century” after Pope Leo gave a big push to the missionary Church.

Missionaries came, men and women, setting up schools, and hospitals, changing culture.

“We think of the Christian Churches of Africa,” said Paul VI, “whose origins go back to the times of the Apostles and are traditionally associated with the name and teaching of Mark the Evangelist. We think of their countless saints, martyrs, confessors, and virgins, and recall the fact that from the second to the fourth centuries, Christian life in the North of Africa was most vigorous and had a leading place in theological study and literary production.”

We think back to those eras and we can see how the torch has now passed to us to bring about a whole new flourishing in the east and the west, in the north and the south.

He continues, “The names of the great doctors and writers come to mind, men like Origen, St. Athanasius, St. Cyril, leaders of the Alexandrian school, and at the other end of the North African coastline, Tertullian, St. Cyprian, and above all, St. Augustine, one of the most brilliant lights of the Christian world.

“There are the great saints of the desert, Paul, Anthony, Pachomius, the first founders of monastic life, which later spread through their example in both East and West. And among many others, we could also mention St. Frumentius, known by the name of Abba Salama, who was consecrated Bishop by St. Athanasius and became the first Apostle of Ethiopia.

“During those first centuries of the Church in Africa, certain women also brought special witness to Christ: Saints Perpetua and Felicity, St. Monica and St. Thecla.

“These noble examples, as also the saintly African Popes, Victor I, Melchiades, and Gelasius I, belong to the common heritage of the Church, and the Christian writers of Africa remain today a basic source for deepening our knowledge of the history of salvation in the light of the Word of God.”

When we look back and see how much has been accomplished, we can entrust the future to Our Lady of Africa, asking her for special miracles.

On the 7th of June 1992, Pope John Paul was in Angola, celebrating the 500th anniversary of the evangelization of Angola.

He said, “The Acts of the Apostles indicate by name the inhabitants of the places who participated directly in the birth of the Church and the work of the breath of the Holy Spirit. They all said: ‘We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God’ (Acts 2:11). Five hundred years ago the people of Angola were added to this chorus of languages. At that moment, in your African homeland, the Pentecost of Jerusalem was renewed.

“Your ancestors heard the message of the good news which is the language of the Spirit. Their hearts accepted this message for the first time, and they bowed their heads to the waters of the baptismal font in which, by the power of the Holy Spirit, a person dies with Christ and is born again to new life in his Resurrection.

“It was certainly the same Spirit that moved those men of faith, the first missionaries, who in 1491 sailed into the mouth of the Zaire River, at Pinda, beginning a genuine missionary saga.

“It was the Holy Spirit who sustained the life of those first Angolan Christians who returned from Europe testifying to the Christian faith.

“The third phase of Africa’s systemic evangelization began in the nineteenth century…organized by the great apostles and promoters of the African mission. It was a period of rapid growth.”

That history demonstrates how Africa “responded with great generosity to Christ's call. In recent decades many African countries have celebrated the first centenary of the beginning of their evangelization.”

This year, we celebrate 100 years of the arrival of the Loreto Sisters in Kenya, who were to bring about such an enormous transformation in education in this country, particularly in the education of women. They started the first school for African girls in the whole of East Africa in 1936, a glorious moment with enormous consequences.

Pope John Paul says, “The glory and splendor of the present period of Africa's evangelization are illustrated in a truly admirable way by the saints whom modern Africa has given to the Church. Paul VI specifically talked about the Uganda martyrs. He said: ‘They add a new page to that list of victorious men and women that we call the martyrology, in which we find the most magnificent as well as the most tragic stories.”

It’s good that we come to know the stories of the African martyrs or other African saints, St. Bakhita, and the ones that are ongoing, that are coming up.

He said, “The page that they add is worthy to take its place alongside those wonderful stories of ancient Africa. … For from the Africa that was sprinkled with the blood of these martyrs, the first of this new age (and, God willing, the last, so sublime, so precious was their sacrifice), there is emerging a free and redeemed Africa.”

“Faced with the tremendous growth of the Church in Africa over the last hundred years and the fruits of holiness it has borne, there is only one possible explanation: all this is a gift of God. No human effort alone could have performed this work in the course of such a relatively short period of time.”

We can look back and thank Our Lady for everything that has been achieved, and also entrust the future to her. Ask her that we might “not squander this period of the world's history, and of the Church's history, that God has entrusted to each one of us” (cf. Josemaría Escrivá, Friends of God, Point 39).

We show that debt of gratitude by taking care of our families, the domestic Church, making them seedbeds of vocations for the missionary Church that Africa has now become. It was to send missionaries all over the world, to China, to Japan, so many places that need them.

We have to think with a great universal spirit. Catholic means universal. Our Lady will place in our hearts that great spirit if we ask her for it.

The Holy Father says that there is a great culture and tradition in the role of the family in Africa. We have to help that, look after it, defend it, rejoice in that great grace.

“Respecting the life which is conceived and born, rejecting ideas that are hostile to life which are imposed on them by means of economic systems that serve the selfishness of the rich. Africans show their respect for human life until its natural end, and keep elderly parents and relatives within the family.”

But the Holy Father says, “The ‘winds of change’ are blowing strongly in many parts of Africa.”

The Church has to play a leading role in everything that “touches upon integral human development.” There is a need for “a more profound evangelization.”

For that to happen, we first of all must deepen our faith and take very good care of our formation. “We cannot give what we do not have.”

We have to try and work to know the teaching of the Church a little better, and the practice of virtue.

The Church has often said that “the future of the world and of the Church passes through the family.” We have to “oversee the quality of the formation that is offered.”

The means of social communication also need to be evangelized. The task belongs to ordinary Christians in the middle of the world, so that we “bring to bear upon the social fabric an influence aimed at changing not only ways of thinking, but also the very structures of society, so that they will better reflect God’s plan for the human family.

This demands “the thorough formation of the lay faithful, a formation that will help them to lead a fully integrated life. The virtues of faith, of hope, of charity have to influence the actions of the true follower of Christ in every activity, situation, and responsibility.”

We look forward to “a continuing Pentecost” asking the Holy Spirit to come, “where Mary, as at the first Pentecost, will have her place.”

Our Lady of Africa, help us to dream and to use all the means that you have given to us.

“Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it brings forth much fruit” (John 12:24).

The pathway of holiness in the middle of the world, the pathway that has been shown to us by Our Mother, is the way to go.

“Every culture,” says John Paul, “needs to be transformed by Gospel values in the light of the Paschal Mystery.”

With the apostles, during this Paschal time, we’re beginning again, helping to build up the dignity of the human person in all possible ways.

Pope Paul VI likes to say, “The new name for peace is development” (Paul VI, Encyclical, Populorum Progressio, On the Development of Peoples, March 26, 1967).

As Christians in the middle of the world, we have to try and foster that development, and ask Our Lady, that she might help us to see the openings, the opportunities, the potential, to think out of the box, to use all the means to bring about this new evangelization which is urgent.

Pope John Paul says, “The urgency of missionary activity derives from the radical newness of life brought by Christ and his followers.”

Our Lady of Africa, who is the Star, the bright Star of the new Evangelization, will help us in all these endeavors.

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations that you have communicated to me during this meditation. I ask your help to put them into practice. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

JSD