Black Saints
This page is
compiled primarily to expose the contributions of African peoples to the
development of orthodox Christianity. Instead of merely reciting the Litany of
African American notables, so familiar in February I have compiled a list of
some African Saints, Blesseds, and
Venerables, holy men and women of African ancestry. This list is by no means
complete. Anyone with Icons, Portraits or futher information about the Saints listed please contact Forrest Drennen,
There were three African Popes who came
from a region of North Africa where the people were predominately Black.
Although there are no authentic portraits of these popes, there are drawings and
references in the Catholic Encyclopedia as to their being of African background.
The names of the three African Popes are Victor (189-203 AD), Gelasius (492-496 AD), and Melchiades or Miltiades (311-314
AD). All are saints.
Pope
St. Victor
African
by birth, He condemned and excommunicated Theodore of Byzantium who denied the
divinity of Jesus Christ. In a council held in Rome in 196, he fixed the Feast
of Easter for the Sunday after the 14th day of the moon of March. He suffered
martyrdom under Servus. He was the Church's 14th Pope.
Pope St. Gelasius
St. Gelasius
was born in Africa and reigned as Pope from 492 to 496. He decreed the Canon of
Scripture with which the Tridentine Canon agrees. His theory on the relations
between the Church and the state are explained in the Gelasian Letter to the
Byzantine Emperor Anastasius. Gelasius was active in rooting out the last
vestiges of paganism in Rome.
Pope St. Miltiades or Pope St.
Melchiades
St.
Miltiades was one of the Church's Black Popes. He was born in Africa, but died
in Rome in January, 314. Little is known of Miltiades except that during his
reign as pope, the Emperor Constant decreed toleration for
Christianity. The
classical era of persecution came to an end and the Church had to meet more
subtle trails. St. Augustine praised St. Miltiades as a man of moderation and
peace. His feast day is December 10th.
St.
Fulgentius,.jpg)
533
Bishop of Ruspe, Tunisia, January
1st
St.
Paul
342
Egyptian Hermit and founder of
Monastic life in Thebes, January 15
St.
Anthony
356
Founder of monastic life in the
desert of Egypt, Feast January 17
St. John the
Alms Giver
619
Patriarch of Alexandria, January
23
258
St.
Josephine Bakhita
1947
Sudanese slave girl born in
1869. She was later sold to an Italian Consul who took her to Italy where she
eventually became free. She was baptized and later joined the Canossian Sisters
in Vincenza, Italy, lived a holy life, and beatified May 17, 1992. She was
canonized on October 1st 2000.
Her feast is 8 February.
Blessed
Absolom Jones,
(1746-1818)
Priest, Jones
(ordained deacon and priest in 1795 and 1802) was the first black American to
receive formal ordination in any denomination. 'On a Sunday morning in November 1787, Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, with other non-white worshipers, united their affiliation with St. George's Methodist Episcopal Church on 4th Street in Philadelphia. They were asked to stand along walls as white membership increased and give up seats they normally occupied - which they did. On the above morning the sexton was standing at the door and directed them to the gallery (they were told they could see and hear just as well). Absalom Jones, Richard Allen and William White arrived late together and were not directed to the gallery. The meeting had begun with singing. Just as they got to seats the elder said, "Let us pray". They knelt. One of the white trustees told them they "must not kneel here". Mr. Jones said "wait until prayer is over and we will get up and not bother you any more". This added insult to injury and upon completing their prayer, All left the church and were no longer “plagued with the church.” They decided they should have their own place of worship. Dr. Benjamin Rush helped them launch a building drive.'(From "Trails of Faith" by Robert Crist, 1976 and notes from Julius Reeves, a former Pastor of Zion Primitive Baptist Church). With the financial help of friends (Quaker Philanthropists), St. Thomas African Episcopal Church was built in Philadelphia and from this Church there emerged two groups: The Episcopalians, led by Absalom Jones and the Methodists Led by Richard Allen. In "The Causes and Motives for Establishing St. Thomas's African Church of Philadelphia," the Founders and Trustees of the church stated their intent "to arise out of the dust and shake ourselves, and throw off that servile fear, that the habit of oppression and bondage trained us up in." Feb. 13
Saint Thomas African Episcopal Church built in 1794
JANANI
LUWUM,
1977
, ARCHBISHOP OF
UGANDA, MARTYR (16 FEB 1977) Feb. 17
ANNA JULIA HAYWARD COOPER
EDUCATOR
(28 February 1964)
Anna Julia Haywood Cooper (August 10, c1859- February 27, 1964). Educator, advocate and scholar. Born in Raleigh, North Carolina to an enslaved woman and a white man, presumably her mother’s master, Anna Julia was an academically gifted child and received a scholarship to attend St. Augustine Normal School and Collegiate Institute, a school founded by the Episcopal Church to educate African-American teachers and clergy. There she began her membership in the Episcopal Church. After forcing her way into a Greek class designed for male theology students, Anna Julia later married the instructor, George A.C. Cooper, the second African-American ordained to the Episcopal priesthood in North Carolina. After her husband’s death in 1879, Cooper received degrees in mathematics from Oberlin College, and was made principal of the only African American high school in Washington D.C.. She was denied reappointment in 1906 because she refused to lower her educational standards. Throughout her career, Cooper emphasized the importance of education to the future of African Americans, and was critical of the lack of support they received from the church. An advocate for African-American women, Cooper assisted in organizing the Colored Women’s League and the first Colored Settlement House in Washington, D.C. She wrote and spoke widely on issues of race and gender, and took an active role in national and international organizations founded to advance African Americans. At the age of fifty-five she adopted the five children of her nephew. In 1925, Cooper became the fourth African –American woman to complete a Ph.D degree, granted from the Sorbonne when she was sixty-five years old. From 1930-1942, Cooper served as president of Frelinghuysen University. 28 February
St. Gelasius
496
Bishop of Rome and third African
Pope (492-496), March 1
SS. Perpetua and
Felicity
202
Martyred in Carthage along with 6
others companions," March 7
St. Maximilian
(Marmilian)
295
Martyred at Theveste, Numidia
after refusing to serve in the Roman army, March 12
JAMES THEODORE HOLLY 
BISHOP OF HAITI AND DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
(13 March 1911)
The First African American Bishop in the Episcopal Church & Bishop of Haiti. He was an African-American minister and abolitionist.
Born in 1824 in Washington, DC, James Theodore Holly was the descendent of freed slaves. He was active in anti-slavery conventions in the free states in the United States participating in abolitionist activities. His father James Overton Holly was a Scottish man from Detroit, Michigan, and records show that his mothers name was Jane. Holly was baptized and raised a Catholic yet gradually he moved away from the Catholic Church. He spent his early years in Washington, D. C. and Brooklyn, NY where he connected with Frederick Douglass and other Black abolitionist.
In 1852 he converted to the Episcopal Church and went to Haiti in 1855. There in 1874 he became the first Negro Episcopal Bishop and the second bishop of any major white Christian church. During this time Haiti was split with the Vatican and most men of Haiti supported their religious sentiment through the symbolism and observance of the Masonic Lodge. As an experienced Masonic leader and scholar, Holly visited the Masonic temples and made friends among their exclusive members. He was also willing to perform Masonic burial services.
In 1856 the Protestant Episcopal Society for Promoting the Extension of the Church Among Colored People was founded by James Theodore Holly of St. Luke's, New Haven. Its membership included four Black clergy and seven congregations. This organization fought the exclusion of Blacks from Episcopal seminaries and diocesan conventions, as well as the refusal of the Episcopal Church to take a stand against slavery.
In July 1863 Holly organized the Holy Trinity Church. He later spent 15 years in Washington D. C. and moved to Brooklyn where he became friends with Frederick Douglass. From 1889 to 1891, Holly aided Douglass in a number of his programs.
Bishop Holly left the Roman Catholic Church over a dispute about ordaining local black clergy and joined the Episcopal Church. He was a shoemaker, then a teacher and school principal before his own ordination at the age of 27. He served as rector at St Luke’s Church in New Haven, Connecticut and was one of the founders of the Protestant Episcopal Society for Promoting the Extension of the Church Among Colored People (a forerunner of UBE) in 1856. This group challenged the Church to take a position against slavery at General Convention.
In 1861 he left the United States with his family and a group of African Americans to settle in Haiti---the world’s first black republic. He lost his family and other settlers to disease and poor living conditions but was successful in establishing schools and building the Church. He trained young priests and started congregations and medical programs in the countryside.
In 1874 he was ordained bishop at Grace Church, New York City, not by the mainstream Episcopal Church, who refused to ordain a black missionary bishop, but by the American Church Missionary Society, an Evangelical Episcopal branch of the Church. He was named Bishop of the Anglican Orthodox Episcopal Church of Haiti. He attended the Lambeth Convention as a bishop of the Church. He died in Haiti in on March 13,1911
Venerable Richard Allen (1760-1831)
1831
When black folk sought to have
a place of worship of their own, with the financial help of friends (Quakers), the Saint
Thomas African Episcopal Church was built. In 1794 Richard Allen rejected an offer to become the pastor of the church the Free African Society had built, a position ultimately accepted by Absalom Jones. To reconcile his (Methodist) faith and his African-American identity, Richard Allen formed "The Mother
Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church". Latter Became Bishop of the
denomination,and published it's first hymnal (the sourcebook for "Negro
Spirituals") The preface to the AMEC 1984 hymnal says it was the first book of songs published by
the Children of Oppression, and the very first to give expression in their own selected language telling of the Christian hope of the race.MARCH 26 or Feb 13th
St. Benedict the
Black
1585
Sicilian, son of African
parents; the first African to be canonized through the regular canonical
process, April 4
Martin Luther King,
Jr.
1968
Civil Rights Leader, April 4 or January
15th
Had Dr. King lived, he would be turning 75 on January 15.
Martin died at the hands of an assassin on April 4, 1968, a few months short of
his fortieth birthday. Human history has forever been changed by the movement he
headed. Our current level of sensitivity to human rights issues and
inclusiveness can be traced to the strides gained by the Civil Rights Movements
of the 1950's and 1960's. Martin Luther King, Jr., was a rare human being who
sacrificed his life for a vision of equality for every person — not just African
Americans. On November 2, 1983, both the Senate and the House of Representatives
agreed that we should never forget Dr. King's contributions to the world: the
third Monday in January was declared a national holiday.
Copyright ©
2002-2003 The General Board of Discipleship. Used with permission.
St.
Zeno
380
Born at Cherchell, Algeria
missionary in Verona, Italy, where he become Bishop of Verona (c. 362), April
12
St. Marcellinus
4th Cent.
He was an African missionary to
France, April 20
St.
Athanasius
373
Bishop of Alexandria, May 2
SS. Timothy and
Maura
298
Husband and wife martyred in
Southern Egypt, May 3
St. Isdore of
Chios
251
Alexandrian army officer beheaded
for his faith, May 15
Simon of Cyrene, The Bearer of the Lord's Cross to Calvary.
?
All three synoptic gospels mention Simon from Cyrene (an old Greek settlement on the coast of North Africa). Roman guards pressed Simon into service and forced him to carry Jesus’ cross (Matthew 27:32; Luke 23:30). Some have thought Simon was a Gentile, but his name suggests he may have been a Jew (Shimean is a Hebrew name), who had returned to Jerusalem for the Passover festival.
There is substantial evidence that Simon of Cyrene was the same individual referred to in Acts 13:1 as bearing the name “Simon called Niger - or Black Simon.”
Mark adds an interesting detail and tells us that Simon was the father of Alexander and Rufus (Mark 15:21). It has been suggested that Alexander and Rufus were known in the early church, and probably Christians. May 21
Martyrs of Sudan
The Christian bishops, chiefs, commanders, clergy and people of Sudan declared, on May 16, 1983, that they would not abandon God as God had revealed himself to them under threat of Shariah Law imposed by the fundamentalist Islamic government in Khartoum. Until a peace treaty was signed on January 9, 2005, the Episcopal Church of the Province of the Sudan suffered from persecution and devastation through twenty-two years of civil war. Two and a half million people were killed, half of whom were members of this church. Many clergy and lay leaders were singled out because of their religious leadership in their communities. No buildings, including churches and schools, are left standing in an area the size of Alaska. Four million people are internally displaced, and a million are scattered around Africa and beyond in the Sudanese Diaspora. Twenty-two of the twenty-four dioceses exist in exile in Uganda or Kenya, and the majority of the clergy are unpaid. Only 5% of the population of Southern Sudan was Christian in 1983. Today over 85% of that region of six million is now mostly Episcopalian or Roman Catholic. A faith rooted deeply in the mercy of God has renewed their spirits through out the years of strife and sorrow.
From the proposal provisionally approved at the 2006 General convention.
St. Julia of
Tunisia
?
Slave girl crucified for her faith,
May 22
St. Charles Lwanga and The martyrs of Uganda
1886
Martyrs canonized by Pope Paul
VI in 1964. The 22 young court servants were martyred for their faith by the
Buganda King Mwanga in 1886. Along with them were 80 young Anglicans. June 3
St.
Onuphrius
4th Cent.
Egyptian hermit, June 12
St.
Orsiesius
c.380
Abbot of Tabennisi Monastery,
Egypt, June 15
St. Cyril of
Alexandria
444
Patriarch of Alexandria (412-444),
June 27
Venerable
Pierre Toussaint (June 27, 1766 – June 30, 1853)
—Apostle of New York>
Born in Haiti, died in
New York City. Toussaint's elevation to sainthood is now under study
in Rome.
Toussaint attended daily
Mass, and was known for his piety, honesty, charity and integrity.
People said he radiated a serene and joyful faith. After his owner
died, Toussaint earned enough money to provide the widow, Marie
Bérard with the New York socialite's lifestyle to which she
had become accustomed. Toussaint paid the bills and issued the
invitations to her parties. Freed when Mrs. Bérard died,
Toussaint became a wealthy benefactor to Catholic charities in New
York. He and Juliette Noel, the woman he married when he was 45, took
in homeless immigrants and other unfortunate people to live with
them.
Toussaint paid for the
reconstruction of St. Peter's church after it burned and helped raise
money for the construction of the old St. Patrick's Cathedral in
lower Manhattan. None of this protected him from being turned away
from the cathedral one day in 1836 by an usher who didn't like the
color of his face. A scandalized trustee of the church heard about
the insult, rebuked the usher and apologized to Toussaint. When
Toussaint died on June 30, 1853, the New York press devoted numerous
respectful obituaries to him.
St.
Shenute
c.450
Founder of monastic life in Egypt,
July 1
St.
Anatolius
c. 282
Philosopher and scientist of
Alexandria, July 3
St. Pantaenus
190
Head of Alexandrian Catechetical
School and missionary to Persia (Iran), July 9
St. Eugenius
5th Cent.
Archbishop of Carthage, July 13
St.
John Coltrane
1967
American musician who played Jazz music. After being fired
from the Miles Davis quintet in 1957 for His drug and alcohol abuse underwent a
spiritual awakening, and received from God a body of spiritual music. "As Coltrane's relationship with God strengthened, he had dreams in which God revealed various ideas and musical works to him. Eventually, in the winter of 1964, Coltrane said that God revealed the entire work of "A Love Supreme" to him, just as He had revealed the various texts of the Bible to his believers. Coltrane was now ordained as a minister, and he received the command to go out and preach God's word as a mature musician both musically and spiritually committed to God. From this point on until Coltrane's death in 1967, he claimed that 90 percent of his playing was prayer."
(http://www-mcnair.berkeley.edu/95journal/EmmetPrice.html) Coltrane beatified the late jazz saxophonist John Coltrane as a saint in 1982 by Archbishop G.D. Hinkson of the African Orthodox
Church, which owes its Episcopate and Apostolic Authority to the Syrian Church of Antioch where the disciples were first called Christians, and of which the Chair (See) of St. Peter the Apostle was the first Bishop. July 17.
St. Speratus and
companions
180
The 12 martyrs of Scillum,
Carthage, T
St. Aurelius
5th Cent.
Archbishop of Carthage, Tunisia,
July 20
SOJOURNER TRUTH (26 NOV 1883)
Sojourner Truth, originally known as Isabella, was born a slave in New
York in about 1798. In 1826 she escaped with the aid of Quaker abolitionists, and became a street-corner evangelist and the founder of a shelter for homeless women. When she was travelling, and someone asked her name, she said "Sojourner," meaning that she was a citizen of heaven, and
a wanderer on earth. She then gave her surname as "Truth," on the grounds that God was her Father, and His name was Truth. She spoke at numerous
church gatherings, both black and white, quoting the Bible extensively from memory, and speaking against slavery and for an improved legal status
for women. The speech for which she is best known is called, "Ain't I a Woman?" It was delivered in response to a male speaker who had been
arguing that the refusal of votes for women was grounded in a wish to shelter women from the harsh realities of political life. She replied,
with great effect, that she was a woman, and that society had not sheltered her. She became known as "the Miriam of the Latter Exodus." July 20
HARRIET ROSS TUBMAN (10 MAR 1913)
Harriet Ross was born in 1820 in Maryland. She was deeply impressed by the
Bible narrative of God's deliverance of the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, and it became the basis of her belief that it was God's will to
deliver slaves in America out of their bondage, and that it was her duty to help accomplish this. In 1844, she escaped to Canada, but returned to
help others escape. Working with other Abolitionists, chiefly white Quakers, she made at least nineteen excursions into Maryland in the
1850's, leading more than 300 slaves to freedom. During the War of 1861-5,she joined the Northern Army as a cook and a nurse and a spy, and on one
occasion led a raid that freed over 750 slaves. After the war, she worked to shelter orphans and elderly poor persons, and to advance the status of
women and blacks. She became known as "the Moses of her People." July 20
St. Victor I
199
Bishop of Rome and first African
Pope (189-199), July 23 or July 28
St. Rutilius
250
North African martyr, August 2
Blessed Isidore
Bakanja
1909
A Congolese laborer and catechist
martyred for his faith, August, 15th
Blessed Victoire
Rasoamanarivo
1894
Foundress of the Catholic Action in
Madagascar, beatified in 1989, August 21
153 martyrs of
Utica
c. 260
Thrown into a pit of quicklime in
Utica, Tunisia, August 24
St. Monica
387
Mother of St Augustine of Hippo,
widowed at age 40, August 27 or May 4
St. Poemen
c. 400
A desert monk known for his
holiness, and who encouraged frequent Communion, August
27
St. Augustine of
Hippo
354-430
Bishop of Hippo Regius (modern
Annaba) on coast of Algeria, Doctor of the Church, August 28
St. Moses the
Black (Ethiopian)
395
A slave, gang leader, who after
conversion died a martyr of non-violence on August 28, his feast day. That date
providentially coincides with the march to Washington by 500,000 African
Americans in 1963, August 28
Blessed Ghebre
Mikha’el
1855
Ethiopian priest and martyr,
September 2
St. Donatian and
Companions
484
Martyrs, six Bishops of the
ecclesiastical province of Byzaccne (present day Tunisia and Algeria); killed
for their faith by the Arian Vandals, September 6
St. Nemesia and
Companions
257
9 Bishops, several deacons and
lay persons who died in a marble quarry in North Africa, September 10
Saint Cyprian of Carthage 
Saint
Cyprian (born around 200; died September 14, 258) was bishop of Carthage and
one of the major theologians of the early African church. He was the son of
wealthy parents and became a teacher of rhetoric and literature. He converted to
Christianity in 246. He had astonished the Christians of Carthage by pledging a
vow of perpetual chastity right before his baptism. Shortly thereafter he was
ordained a priest and elected bishop of Carthage in 248. in the persecution
under the Emperor Decius, Cyprian went into hiding. In another persecution,
under the Emperor Valerian, Cyprian was placed under house arrest in Carthage,
and, on September 14, 258, he was beheaded.
Feast Day: September 13
St. Maurice and his
Theban Legion (from Egypt)
287
Martyrs, who were killed at
Agauno, Switzerland for refusing to sacrifice to pagan divinities, September
22
St.
Matthew
1st Cent
Apostle and Evangelist.
According to one ancient tradition, he was the first evangelizer of Nubia
(modern Sudan), September 21
St. Raissa
c. 300
Virgin and martyr from Alexandria,
September 22
SS. Aizan and
Sazan
360
Twin Brothers; Aizan was the
first Christian Emperor of the Kingdom of Axum, Ethiopia, October 1
St. Thais
c. 350
Egyptian penitent, converted after
many years as a prostitute, October 8
St. Cerbonius
573
African missionary Bishop in Italy,
October 10
St. Michael
Aragave
4th Cent.
One of the first Ethiopian Monks,
October 11
St. Sarmata
357
A disciple of St. Anthony of
Egypt, martyred by Saracens in the Egyptian desert, October 11
5000 African martyrs and confessors of
the faith
483
African martyrs deported and
killed for their faith by the Vandal King Huneric, October 12
Commemoration of the Saints of the
Ethiopian Church: St. Frumentius (Abba Salama)(Nov 30th OCA)
380
Syriac monks and founders of the
Church in Ethiopia, October 27
St. Elesbaan
555
An Ethiopia King who died as a monk
in Jerusalem, October 27
St. Lalibala (Ghebre
Mesqel)
1255
An Ethiopian Emperor revered for
his faith, October 27
St. Tekla Hymanot
1313
A great Ethiopian reformer of
monasticism, October 27
St. Martin de
Porres
1639
Born in Peru, son of a Spanish
father and an African slave mother, who became a pharmacist at an early age and
later joined the Dominican Order, where he continued to dispense medicine to the
poor, while living a humble and austere life, with great devotion to the
Eucharist, November 3
St. Pierius
4th Cent.
Head of the Catechetical School in
Alexandria, November 4
St. Achilias
312
Head of religious instruction in
Alexandria, November 7
St Nennas
c.300
An Egyptian soldier in Phygia,
who fled from persecution and became a hermit, November 11
St. Arcadius and
companions
437
Martyrs, victims of the Arian Kind
of the Vandals, Genseric, November 13
St.
Gelasius
496
Bishop of Rome and third
African Pope (492-496), liturgical reformer, who ordered the reception of
Communion under both species, November 21
St. Rufus of Rome
Rufus was one of the first church workers. He was the son of Simon of Cyrene, the man who carried Jesus' cross, and is mentioned in Mark 15:21, and again by Paul in his Letter to the Romans 16:13: “Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.” Both apostles refer to him quite casually, and one can infer that Rufus was very well known to the first Christians. Feastday: November 21
St Cathrine of
Alexandria
4th Cent.
Virgin and martyr who suffered
martyrdom in Alexandria. Her relics are said to be kept in the monastery of St.
Catherine on Sinai, November 25
Blessed Anuarite
Nengapeta
1964
Virgin and martyr, a member of
the Holy Family Sister in Congo Kinshasa, martyred by the Simba rebels, December
1
St. Peter Martyr of
Alexandria
311
Patriarch of Alexandria during the
Roman persecution, December?
St. Cassian of
Tangiers
298
A lawyer who resigned and became
Christian and died as a martyr, December 3
St.
Melchiades
314
Bishop of Rome and second African
Pope (311-314), December 10
FRANCES JOSEPH-GAUDET
EDUCATOR AND PRISON REFORMER
(30 December 1934)
Frances Joseph-Gaudet (1861- December 1934), prison reform worker and educator, was born in a log cabin in Holmesville, Mississippi of African American and Native American descent. She was raised by her grandparents. Later she went to live with a brother in New Orleans where she attended school and Straight College. Widowed early, she dedicated her life to prison reform. Beginning in 1894 she held prayer meetings, wrote letters, delivered messages, and secured clothing for black prisoners, and later for white prisoners as well. Her dedication to prisoners and prison reform won her the respect of prison officials, city authorities, the governor, and the Prison Reform Association. A delegate to the Women’s Christian Temperance Union international convention in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1900, she worked for the reform of young blacks arrested for misdemeanor or vagrancy. Joseph-Gaudet was the first woman to support juvenile offenders in Louisiana, and her efforts helped found the juvenile court. She eventually purchased a farm and founded the Gaudet Normal and Industrial School. The school, which eventually expanded to 105 acres and numerous buildings, also served as a boarding school for children with working mothers. Joseph-Gaudet served as principal of the school until 1921 when she donated the school to the Episcopal Church of Lousiana. Though the school closed in 1950, the Gaudet Episcopal Home opened in the same location four years later to serve African American children ages four to sixteen. The endowment fund currently supports St. Luke’s Community Center on North Dorgenois Street, where a hall honors Frances Joseph-Gaudet.
playing in background
We'll Understand it Better Bye and Bye
C. A. Tindley
We are often tossed and driv’n on
the restless sea of time,
Sombre skies and howling tempest oft
succeed a bright sunshine,
In the land of perfect day, when the
mists have rolled away,
We will understand it better by and by.
Chorus:
Well bye and bye
when the morning comes
All the Saints of God are gathered home
We
will tell the story how we overcome
And we'll understand and it
better bye and bye.
Chorus:
Trials dark on
every hand and we cannot understand
All the ways that God would
lead us to that happy promised land
But we're trusting in His love
and We'll follow til we die
For we'll understand it better bye and
bye.
Often times we
wonder why we must sit all alone and cry
With our heads in sorrow
bowed cast outside the happy crowd
But we'll keep our head up high
brush back the teardrops from out eyes
For we'll understand it
better bye and bye.
Chorus:
