Exploring the Rich Roots of Early African Christianity w/ Hieromonk Fr.Alexii Altschul

[@kimberlyhudson8077]

This was a blessing to come across. It is because of Fr. Altschul's ministry that I've been able to access Eastern Orthodoxy. Glory to God! I pray that he will finish the book about Matushka Michaela of blessed memory and that my path on this journey will be made clear.🙏🏾

[@JacquelineRPrice]

St. Athanasius of Alexandria is one of my all-time favorite saints for standing against the Arian heresy to the point of being against the world.

[@TheTransfiguredLife]

Yes!! I love that Orthodox saint too! 🔥

[@St.JohntheTheologianOrthodox]

Beautiful video and a wonderful story. A very inspiring discussion on the deep Christian roots in Africa. We hope that the book becomes available soon.

[@Irenereneee]

This was so good!

[@TheTransfiguredLife]

☦️🔥🔥

[@heatherlong1235]

What a wonderful interview! Thank you all! Praying for you, Fr. Alexii, and the book!

[@TheTransfiguredLife]

Our pleasure Heather! ☦️💙 When will you and your husband be received into the Church?

[@heatherlong1235]

@@TheTransfiguredLife we were received into the Church this last September!

[@TheTransfiguredLife]

@@heatherlong1235 oh my that's amazing. I had a hunch it may have happened already! Many years!! 😊☦️

[@heatherlong1235]

@@TheTransfiguredLife thank you so much!

[@senayghirmay8172]

I'm east African orthodox...and the title says it all.

[@TheTransfiguredLife]

Where are you from?

[@senayghirmay8172]

@@TheTransfiguredLife I'm from Eritrea, The first monastery every built in east Africa was The Bizen Monastery..its is found few kilometers away from the capital city...And we have the First church ever built in East Africa again in Decemhare. When I say east africa I mean the area that combines Sudan Somalia Djibouti Ethiopia kenya and Eritrea..I know that Ethiopians claim orthodoxy began on thier land but it's a lie. I know this because the people who bought christianity Freminatos and adesiuos landed in Eritrea. Back then every buisness transactions where held around The Red Sea. And the rest is history...its been almost more than one thousand years. It's still in its original form..The dress code, The 81 chapters bible, The doctrine you name it.

[@TheTransfiguredLife]

What Early African Fathers (or Mothers) have impacted you? Let us know ⬇️

[@aliyamathiesen7290]

St Monica of Hippo is my patron st! I love her!

[@TheTransfiguredLife]

@@aliyamathiesen7290 Oh yes Monique!! Love her! 💙☦️💯💯

[@vsevolodtokarev]

Was good to see fr. Alexii.

[@TheTransfiguredLife]

He's a wealth of knowledge! I look forward to reading the book on his wife ☦️

[@Shaleqa_Adenan]

Wonderful work 😮

[@TheRadChadDad]

☦️☦️☦️

[@antonioj.castaneda7377]

Christ bless Fr. Alexii and his monastery! @55:55 🤣😂. God bless this channel, Fr. Jonathan and Luther, thank you for this wonderful content. IC XC NIKA ☦☦☦

[@TheTransfiguredLife]

Our pleasure brother! ☦️ Also, because Fr.Alexii is a serious man I didn't see that one coming either. Too funny! 😂😂

[@jacob6088]

Fr Moses pray for us!

[@TheTransfiguredLife]

☦️

[@scottwatson8659]

I would be useful to reference the works of Prof Vince Bantu of Fuller Seminary, an African American linguistic and historian of Egyptian and Ethiopic Languages, who hold a PhD in these languages from Catholic University of America. Although a Protestant, he is an expert on this history, which would sdd much to this conversation.

[@micahbre12]

Not to drive the exception being spoken of here further but it begs the point that even felicity of perpetua and felicity of Carthage whom we just celebrated, one of them was still a cetechumen and yet a saint. I know that case is a little different but there are things in our tradition that much like your story of the 40 martyrs give room for those not baptized by water or in a litrugical service but who were recognized in our church. Not the same case of course but should be considered

[@TheTransfiguredLife]

Yes, great point Father! ☦️🙏🏾

[@TheTransfiguredLife]

What an incredible story. I need to read perpetua's diary! ☦️

[@nunkatherineweston]

The baptism of blood, Father, is a complete baptism.

[@micahbre12]

@nunkatherineweston I just changed it for more precise language. My point was to drive home the "Unconventional" nature in the sense she was a catechumen and didn't have the baptism of water so not to denigrate her but to uplift those being spoken about in the video.

[@giovannidelpiero6631]

This looks interesting! It would be helpful to cover how African Christianity has changed, especially with the division between the Eastern Orthodox and the non Chalcedonians in Africa like the Ethiopian church.

[@DoIoannToKnow]

its unfortunate that one of the hearts of Christianity had its Church fall for major heresies after being the very ones to fight against them in the early days. Hopefully that can be hammered out, their history is amazing and extremely deep and complex

[@Ethnarches]

Please note, I'm not accusing anyone of anything and I appreciated listening to this. The only caution I would like to add is that a lot of this kind of rhetoric is used to justify ecumenism, moral relativism and destroying culture or ethnicity. To be extra clear, I'm not accusing Father Alexii or anyone else of that! I suspect my reaction is mostly due to an allergic reaction seeing ecumenism pushed strongly in the Church and seeing the destruction of our culture due to unmitigated immigration and acceptance... The US is a special case due to their history, my comment is not about them, I'm talking about Finland. Anyway, thank you for another great video. Christ is risen!

[@jonboatwright7777]

The third High Priest of Israel was a Black man from Punt Africa-Fr. Stephen DeYoung

[@Orthodoge]

Jesus, Mary and Joseph went to Africa(Egypt) so that makes the Continent Holy Land, Does that make the Asian Continent Holy Land then?

[@DoIoannToKnow]

I think we should be careful about claiming holy lands for Christianity. I would say "hearts" is a better way to put it. The idea of Christianity is that there is no holy land. The holy land is the Church - which is everywhere, everywhere the people are. That starts to make sense when we look at Constantinople, it would be an obvious choice as holy land but the problem comes when we know that Constantinople fell to imperial Muhammadan forces... whereas in Christian theology we recognize that the fall of holy land (the temple in jerusalem) is a signal of the end of a covenant (the covenant between the јеws and God)

[@Fr.JonathanIvanoff]

The concept of a "holy land" was not something that was known in the early Church. By the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the entire world was now sanctified and considered "holy". It was only later, probably beginning with Constantine (or rather, with the building program under his mother, St. Helena), that people desired to see those places where Jesus lived and walked, and the concept grew from there.

[@davidshoesmith3780]

Egypt is barely Africa. It’s much more of a middle eastern country than an African one. Nigeria is an African country, Ethiopia is an African country. And when I think about Egypt at the time of St. Athanasius it’s a place that’s very much influenced by Hellenism and and middle eastern culture. Egypt shares more in common with the Middle East then it does Africa but I guess it still counts as an African country.

[@TheTransfiguredLife]

"The Middle East" is a modern eurocentric term coined a little over a 100 years ago for the convenience of westerners. (I'm sure there are a lot more reasons) Egypt is a part of what we call today Africa. St.Athanasius was known by some in appearance as the "black dwarf" for his short dark stature. This bishop and defender of Holy Orthodoxy is an example to us all. ☦️

[@jasonaziz691]

@@TheTransfiguredLife with all due respect, but the cops are representation of how those people look at that time and unfortunately they were not black. This video barely said much about Ethiopia. Unfortunate.

[@TheTransfiguredLife]

@@jasonaziz691 Appreciate the respect. All good. So this interview is not exhaustive. Fr.Alexiis book "Wade in the River" will have more as it pertains to saints in Ethiopia, Nubia and other parts of Africa if that's of interest to you. As for my comments about Athanasius. That wasn't to imply all Egyptians are considered black. Many today would have a mulatto-like complexion. But there are some dark-skinned Egyptians. In the case of St.Athanasius, he was recognized by his adversaries to have dark skin. They would refer to him as the "black dwarf". But the comments about this amazing saint doesn't mean all Egyptians were seen this way. The complexions. Hopefully that was clarifying.

[@jasonaziz691]

@@TheTransfiguredLife Unfortunately too much emphasis is given to north African countries because a lot of them spoke Latin and Greek so a lot of their writings were understood however countries like Ethiopia and Nubia don't get that same recognition. probably because of language barriers, but they contributed equally as much if not more to the spread of Christianity.

[@jasonaziz691]

@@TheTransfiguredLife as a person who studies ancient DNA, I was just pointing out that the Coptic people of Egypt are the best representation of Egyptians pre-Islamic and Arab conquest. I say this because as Christians it's important for us to recognise the intense persecution that those people have gone through to preserve their religion, identity and language.