He is my second patron and I have never seen him portrayed as you describe. .
Interesting, as I've seen it often.
Some pictures that immediately come to mind:
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The era of the Renaissance may've changed many things when it came to depicting him as white. Of course, some of the descriptions are perhaps no more different than how it was in many places when Jesus was portrayed as European (i.e. blond hair and blue eyes) due to ethocentric views and interpretation. It the same thing I've often seen in History books when it came to historical figures. I'm reminded of what happened once when I and my friend went to the store of an Ethopian Orthodox brother...as he had a picture showing the accomplishments of Blacks in History. At one point, I noticed a picture of Hannibal with dark coloration...and it tripped me out since in the history books our school used, he was always seen as being
Caucasian.
Going back/studying, however, I did find out that it was indeed the case that Hannibal (being from the African nation of Carthage) could've been of dark coloration....and that but for luck/fate, it would've possibly been descriptions of great figures as solely being of Dark Coloration if Carthage had won instead of Rome. I was also shocled to witness others saying how much of the Early Church Fathers were black (Augustine of Hippo, in example). I was shocked when seeing some of the pictures of him---as I always assumed he was white..but then again, when considering the reality/pictures, its not surprising:
The same thing goes for others such
Simon of Cyrene (
Luke 23:25-27 ), Solomon and a host of others.
Different cultures will "culturalize" historical figures. They even do this with the Lord Jesus, as the west makes Him white whereas African Sahara show him black. Is this bad? Not necessarily, though its not always fact. But imagine, say, a white plantation owner in 1820 being presented the Gospel of Christ with pictures of a black Jesus. He probably wouldn't accept the gift
If your sister used him as a saint for her paper there would be a wealth of information about him from both his life and his many works.
CHURCH FATHERS: Home
I suppose she could include St. Monica - his mother, as well.
Even wiki has detailed info on his life right down to his sons name.
He is an amazing saint. His "Confessions" has never been out of print
I'm aware of the works of him and have read many, especially the one he did on the subject of Genesis...for the man had a brilliant mind when it came to the sciences and Biblical interpretation. But on the issue of his portrayal, it used to throw me off since in the schools I grew up in, he was never portrayed as African....specifically, with dark coloration. And
I know there are other Catholics who've raised similar concerns
For a good read:
And of course, apart from that, there's also the female side of things that could be beneficial if they allow her to go there. I'm still tripped out seeing
the Black Madonna of Częstochowa :
That said, although ancient history does show many instances of it not being problematic to depict the Lord or the Hebrews as being of darker complexion, to argue that ALL of the Hebrew people had to black is overstating a case...and ignoring the ways there was much diversity in the Jewish world. If it's about accuracy on facts/presentation, that's one thing. However, it can come off differently when avoiding dealing with the ways Jewish people have always been of differing backgrounds for a long time.
