On the vigil of Pentecost, St. Joseph Catholic Church in Largo, Maryland celebrated African saints through music, dance, and prayer, as well as the different cultures that comprise the local Catholic African communities. Celebrations began with a praying of the rosary, followed by worship music and then Mass.

Washington Auxiliary Bishop Roy E. Campbell Jr., the pastor of St. Joseph’s, was the principal celebrant of the Mass and Father Abayneh Gebremichael, pastor of Kidane-Mehret Ge'ez Rite Ethiopian Catholic Church, was the homilist. 

During his homily, Father Gebremichael referred to the Feast of the Pentecost which is celebrated to commemorate when the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples of Jesus – appearing as “tongues” of fire – and allowed them to speak in different languages to evangelize. 

Father Gebremichael likened the story of Pentecost, with all of its different languages, to the multilingual and multicultural Mass experience being celebrated.

Despite not knowing all of the languages spoken and sung at that Mass  – such as French, Swahili, Igbo, and Yoruba – Father Gebremichael stated that people can understand one other through love, which he said is what established the Church.

“Starting from that day (the first Pentecost), the Church has grown, I don’t know how many billion, Father Gebremichael said. “The community grew fast. After the Feast of Pentecost, the disciples go out every place to preach and baptize in the name of the Holy Trinity – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is filioque, the love between God the Father and the Son.” 

Filioque is Latin for “and from the Son” and refers to the Holy Spirit not only coming from God the Father, but from His Son as well. 

Much of the day's festivities were centered on music. According to Damian Uzoukwu, the African and French Choir director of St. Joseph’s Church, it took about a month to prepare the songs for that celebration. 

“It makes people feel at home again, as if they are worshipping back home again because most of the Masses are said in native languages, and when people hear those songs they feel in touch again and want to come to Church,” he said. 

Uzoukwu, who is Nigerian, said that individuals from many African nations come to teach the choir the various languages in the songs. However, he said this is not as hard as it seems. “Most times the Holy Spirit takes control,” Uzoukwu added.

Ike Agbim, the communications director for the St. Joseph Community of Africans and Friends, said that planning the event started in October 2021. 

Planning an event that brings together various individuals from different backgrounds might have been difficult, Agbim said, but one must “keep an open mind, be very receptive, be very accepting because you’ll always run into people that have some differences with you, we take that as a strength.” 

Agbim also noted that organizers sought to highlight the identities of various African groups in order to avoid the idea that Africa is a monolith.

“You just have to be open to accepting that there are differences, regional differences and cultural differences, from different parts of the continent, and also mixing here with people who are indigenous of the United States of America, so those are the things that make a difference in our community,” he said. 

Attendees were given booklets during the event titled “30+ Saints and Holy People of African Descent.” Agbim co-wrote the booklet, which includes biographies and images of Africans who hold holy titles or are in the process of being canonized. He said researching the saints and holy people of Africa for the event turned into an educational experience.

“Frankly, before I started this planning, I did not know that there were so many saints from Africa,” Agbim said. “We were able to dig up so many, this is all from the first century, second century, after the death of Christ. Right from the beginning, people of African descent were involved in propagating our faith.”

Blessed Cyprian Iwene Tansi, one of the many individuals featured in the booklet, stood out to Agbim because of his feminism. 

“At a time when it was not even something anyone could even dream of or think of in the African continent, he was really pro-women, pro-equal life, pro-freedom for women, empowerment for women in African society,” Agbim said.

Tansi, who was born in 1903 in Aguleri (in present-day Anambra State in southern Nigeria), witnessed tragedy at an early age when his mother was killed for supposed witchcraft. Although his parents were not Christian, he was baptized in 1913. Tansi eventually became a priest after enrolling at Igbariam's St. Paul Seminary, and he spent his life helping establish schools and churches, as well as caring for orphans and women in the parish.

“It takes a lot of courage to actually stand up and say, ‘This is the right thing, it’s true that our culture says it should be this way, but this is what I think is really right because we’re equal under God,’” Agbim said. “That’s very, very powerful.”

Father Tansi worked as a novice priest director until his death in 1964, and was beatified after a young woman reported that touching his tomb miraculously healed her of incurable tumors.

John Adeleye serves as the president of the St. Joseph Community of Africans and Friends, and has been a member of St. Joseph’s parish since 1991. He said it was a blessing that the celebration overlapped the same weekend as Pentecost.

“You have the homily, the readings and the Gospels, they’re all about the Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and so I think that kind of gave it a different dimension because whatever we do, especially in terms of becoming a saint, all of our actions are driven by the Holy Spirit,” Adeleye said. 

He reflected on the importance of the event – everyone may be from a distinct, different country in Africa with diverse traditions and different dialects, but they come together through their shared faith. “God’s hand was in all of the planning and execution in this celebration,” he said. 

Much like Uzoukwu, Adeleye said worship music brings people together.

“At the end of the day, it’s one God,” Adeleye said. “We worship Him in different forms, different cultures, different languages, if you follow the path of the Mass, the singing was in different dialects, for a lot of people who are not used to it, they may get lost, but it is translated, the one they are used to, the English version, into the different African languages, I think that is very enriching.” 

Looking to the future of St. Joseph’s, Adeleye hopes that events like this that gather the community will encourage more in-person participation in the Church following the height of the pandemic.

Following the Mass, the parish hosted a a reception that included foods from around Africa, including Jollof rice, a smoky and spicy West African dish comprised of rice cooked with tomatoes, hot peppers, and curry powder, and sweet and spongy deep-fried dough balls called puff-puffs. 

At the end of the dinner, students in St. Joseph’s Youth Ministry gave presentations on African saints.