#black saint

[helloparkerrose]

[portraitsofsaints]

Saint Moses the Black (The Ethiopian)

Desert Father

330-405

Feast Day: August 28

Patronage: Africa, forgiveness, nonviolence

Saint Moses the Black was an Ethiopian with great physical strength, who traveled to Egypt for adventure but got a lowly servant job. Dissatisfied with this, he turned to robbery and terrorizing the villages on the Nile. Before authorities could arrest him, he fled to a Coptic Orthodox Monastery and eventually had a conversion and became a monk. When thieves attacked the monastery, he captured them, showing pity. The thieves then too became monks. After years of humbly preaching forgiveness, he was killed trying to protect the monastery, but not before he saved 70 brother monks.

Prints, plaques & holy cards available for purchase here: (website)

[maximilianmetal]

The most epic battle of the world, a fight between dragons!

[jt1674]

Visit Original Link

[kosmik-signals]

Lester Bowie, The 5the Power

(via Lester Bowie - The 5th Power - Raw Music Store)

[southernmermaidsgrotto]

Let's talk about San Baltasar, the Wise King, Saint of Afroargentines.

I think it's extremely interesting how one of the biggest afrodiasporic cults native to Argentina is that of El Santo Negro (the Black Saint) St. Balthazar, the Wise King. Other syncretic saint cults make mention to african deities or saints with titles such as "The Queen of Rivers" or "The Queen of the Sea", making the deities involved easily identifiable, but this cult in particular is one of the most widespread across the black population of Argentina and yet the most elusive in regards to who may be behind the mask. At least, until you pay attention to the details.

The Church first introduced the cult of Catholic Figures and Saints such as San Baltasar (King Balthazar) or San Benito de Palermo (St. Benedict of Palermo, the Moor) as a way to control the enslaved population politically and culturally. Although their goal was to dissipate african religions and install catholicism among them instead, they underestimated black argentines: after much effort, the church allowed the enslaved faithful to organize socially and politically and perform dances, drumming and singing for the saints of their formed Cofradía (similar to a congregation, but including social and political structures within it, naming a king and queen or a president and other culturally and politically significant roles). Thanks to the passing down of african culture and customs through these organized societies and the syncretism within them, we can proudly say the church failed in their attempts. The african spirits are very much still an integral part of afroargentines' lives. Today, although it has spread across the country and beyond, the center of this cult is in it's origin, the capital city of Corrientes, Argentina, in a neighborhood called Cambá Cuá.

The cult to San Baltasar is clearly african in origin, although with indigenous (guaraní) influences, such as calling the saint Santo Cambá/Kambá (Black in guaraní language), calling his statues Cambára'angá (guaraní for Black Figure), and some dancers dressing up as indigenous figures like el pombero, among other things. Thus, it is an afroindigenous cult, developing amongst mixed descendants of african enslaved peoples and guaraní natives. The cult is also a local expression of the most african of customs: ancestral veneration. The festivities honor not only the Saint himself, but all the black ancestors before us who are present in pictures at the altar, and answer to the call of the drums. The color red, that covers the saint and adorns his followers, is the color of warriors and protection in African Traditional Religions. He's offered food and drink (such as wine and traditionally made sangría), and most importantly dance and drums. He is invoked and honored, along with the ancestors, through drumming and dancing, through La llamada a San Baltasar and Saludos de Tambores a los Santos Cambá (Calling Saint Balthazar and Drum Salutations to the Black Saints).

His festivities, held in Corrientes around Epiphany, from January 1st to the 6th, include dancing afroargentinean rhythms such as diverse forms of candombe and samba. Particularly, he was traditionally honored with a dance called bambula, a form of ring dance where women move in short and slow steps, barely lifting their feet, while men jump in the air, and where one singer sings a phrase that is then repeated or answered by the others present. This kind of dance is native to Congo and Angola, and widely practiced by enslaved people and their descendants in the Southern United States, the Caribbean, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. The music used to this day to petition favors, to invoke his spirit into his image and even dispel or call thunderstorms or other natural phenomena, is called charanda and includes drums, guitars and triangles. Just like in other afrodiasporic devotional and resistance dances, these dances involve Kings and Queens of the dance, a hierarchy of drummers including those called Master drummers, and a hierarchy of the drums themselves as Chico, Repique and Piano.

If you compare him to Xangó...

He carries a double-headed axe. He's often depicted wearing a crown. His colors are, surprisingly, also white and red, with gold accents. Also a King and a warrior, also associated with thunderstorms and fire, drums and dance. His followers also wear white and red beaded collares. Ringing any bells...?

Now, I am not saying they are the same Spirit, but there is an undeniable resemblance. You come to your own conclusions. It's kind of obvious that this afrodiasporic cult stems from either (a) a hidden, veiled cult to the orisha(s) or (b) a syncretic cult to african deities (not only orishas but maybe other african spirits too). There is, after all, strong ties not only to Yorubaland but also to Dahomey, Kongo, etc. Just in this instance, the spirit may resemble an orisha but the rhythms and dance are from kongo, so there is much more to it than just one or the other. There is a culture of resistance born from the union of Nations through music, faith and tradition.

Sources:

None of the images here belong to me: San Baltazar and festivities [1,2,3,4-6] and Xangó [1]

Festividad de San Baltasar : performances artístico-religiosas de la cofradía de la ciudad de Corrientes, by Cavalieri, Ana Belén, Universidad Nacional del Nordeste. Facultad de Artes, Diseño y Ciencias de la Cultura, 2018. Available for download at [Link]

San Baltazar, Historias de Corrientes at [Link]

The bamboula Lineage at [Link]

The Orishas, Indiana University at [Link]

[luv-wildd]

[bobrosenbaum]

Billy Harper, The Jazz Center, New York, 1982.

Billy Harper has the only tenor voice that, for me, attains the intensity of John Coltrane while retaining complete independence of thought and execution.

His appearance on the New York scene from the early 1970s felt like a natural extension of Coltrane's own musical statements, as well as those of McCoy Tyner's groups around that time. Billy was also boosted by memorable early partnerships with Gil Evans, Art Blakey, Max Roach and Randy Weston, to name just a few.

A seminal composer as well as a virtuoso saxophonist, Billy's music is infused with a powerful rhythmic swing, bone-level energy, and an ability to draw from the ancient sources for Black American music.

The first time I heard Billy, I was devastated, uplifted, astonished, unhinged, overjoyed, destroyed, recreated. His playing still reminds me today that even as a committed and devoted listener of this music and a veteran wordsmith, I'm incapable of composing words that describe it.

What Billy plays is so far beyond words, and all that. It's prayer.

In performance, one senses that his bands are pushing the edge of this art form right alongside him. To really hear where Billy is coming from, you need to experience one of his early milestones, Call of the Wild and Peaceful Heart from Black Saint, his 1975 breakthrough album. Together with pianist Joe Bonner, trumpeter Virgil Jones, bassist David Friesen on drummer Malcolm Pinson, he created a sound that merged all of the Black musical streams that were happening into a rich, pulsing wonder.

And there's Priestess, from Love on the Sudan in 1977, which has since become a classic tenor showpiece.

With time of course, Billy's playing has mellowed. But his projects remain huge -- like this full orchestra and choir performance of The Light Within, shot in a church in from Poland in 2004.

In strong contrast with the fierceness of his playing, Billy possesses a quiet cordiality on stage, and in person, that perhaps is the real reason he succeeds time and again in bringing all sorts of players together, spiritually as well as artistically.

We're fortunate that Billy is as hard working as he is gifted, and that he remains an influential, innovative leader and teacher. In recent years, Billy has been a key partner in The Cookers, a supergroup of jazz veterans that is constantly traveling, recording, and bringing this music to a broader listening.

And Billy was born on this day in 1943!