Christian Carthage

Chapel of St Perpetua

Rotonde Carthage

No trip to Tunis, however brief, should exclude a visit to Carthage. Once the greatest rival to Rome, and later a Roman province in its own right, the collection of ruins, museums and artifacts is difficult to surpass. Often glossed-over in tours and guidebooks, however, is the rich early-Christian heritage that can be found in and around Carthage. This heritage tells its own story about the life and politics of one of the cradles of civilization in the Mediterranean.
Carthage played an important role in the development of Christianity in antiquity. The new religion gained a foothold in the Jewish communities that had settled in the big cities of the diaspora and developed amongst the Roman colony. Relatively little is known about the early days of the Christian community in Carthage but it is clear that the first Christians were oppressed and many of them were killed in the city’s amphitheater.
Tertulian, the first Christian apologist, who translated the holy scripture from Greek into Latin, gives an account of the Scilitain, who were amongst the first martyrs to be executed for their faith. Twelve Numidians, seven men and five women were beheaded in the amphitheater of Carthage in the year 180. Other Christians were persecuted in the amphitheater, among them Saint Perpetua and Felicity who were killed on the 8th of March 203.
After several centuries of oppression, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire when Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in 313. The Roman province of Africa (current-day Tunisia) was profoundly affected by this new faith, but followers quickly split into two churches: Catholics and Donatists. The Donatistic sect emerged in the fourth century when the Numidian bishops accused the bishop of Carthage of being a traitor and rejected his consecration. For more than a century the church was divided, until 411 when Saint Augustine organized a council in Carthage, ending the division.

The Vandal invasion of 533 caused new waves of persecution and oppression to Catholics in Carthage. The Vandals were a Germanic people that followed the Aryan Church and forced the captured North Africans to follow it as well. The Vandal occupation ended in 533 when the Byzantine empire conquered the territory and established the Catholic church again. It remained until the fall of Carthage in 698 and the beginning of Arab control of Africa.
The role of Carthage as an important site of Christian culture has been appreciated by the European Catholics since the middle ages. The expedition of Louis IX in 1270, known as the Eighth Crusade, is classified among the most important expeditions with a specific mission: to convert the Tunisians to Christianity and make Carthage its new capital. However Louis IX died on the beach at Carthage and the expedition was a failure.
French missionaries did not return for six centuries and it was not until the late 19th century that France again sent missionaries. An organization known as the White Fathers was founded by the archbishop of Alger, Charles Lavigerie, in order to spread Christianity in North Africa. The missionary group started excavations on the site of Carthage to find items that belong to the Christian era. They also built a cathedral at the top of Byrsa hill where Louis IX died during his expedition. This cathedral, known as Saint Louis cathedral, is no longer used for worship but is a cultural center. Nevertheless, the layout of the building is a reminder of the sacred mission of the White Fathers.
 Visiting the Early Christian Sites of Tunis
To visit the ruins of Carthage in general, and Christian Carthage in particular, it is possible to visit the major sites on foot. However in warm weather or for those with reduced mobility, it is best to hire a car or taxi. The main Christian sites are scattered throughout the historical site of Carthage, as well as in unprotected residential areas of the northern suburb of Tunis. A ticket to visit the historical sites costs 9 dinars per person for a day-pass to all sites.
Inside the amphitheater in Carthage, you can visit a chapel the White Fathers built in honor of Saint Perpetua and Felicity. Recognizing their strong will and faith, Pope John Paul II spent around two hours on his knees in .
The Early-Christian museum lies on the edge of the main street that crosses the north suburbs of Tunis, running from La Goulette to Sidi Bou Said. It is close to the TGM station Carthage Dermech and the supermarket Monoprix. The museum was built on the ruins of a major building raised in the sixth century when Carthage was recaptured by Byzantine troops. The museum was built with the collaboration of UNESCO to protect the site of Carthage. It exhibits oil lamps, mosaics depicting birds, chalices and pottery.

The basilica of Damous Karita “domus caritas” or the house of charity, is a church built in the third or fourth century. It has been described by some scholars the cradle of the division between the Christians; the Donatism that deeply divided the African Christians. The basilica follows the classic layout of the Christian churches with nine naves and a semi-circular atrium. The most significant part is the underground rotunda with its 9m diameter. The rotunda is topped by a dome and reached by two symmetric staircases. The Damous Karita is near the large mosque in Carthage on La Goulette Road.

The original function of the building with columns that can be found at the back of Byrsa hill, also on La Goulette road, is unclear. Some say it was the gymnasium of baths. It is believed to be the place where the conference was organized by Saint Augustine to unify the African church after the division between the Donatist and Catholic churches in the 5th century.

Saint Augustine; The Tunisian Father Of The Catholic Church

It is a little known fact that Saint Augustine, the great Christian reformist of antiquity, is Tunisian. He was raised in the city of Carthage where he taught before being named the Bishop of Hippo.

Sandro Botticelli Saint Augustine

Born in 354 from a pagan father and a Christian mother, Augustine is a native of Thagaste, which today is Souk Ahras on the Tunisian Algerian border. It was here that he studied Latin grammar before moving to Carthage in 370. There he became a Manichean and founded a school of rhetoric. His next move took him to Italy where he was again converted, this time to skepticism and installed a school of rhetoric in Rome and Milan similar to the Carthage school.
His mother  Monica was a Christian, and for many years prayed to see him converted to Christianity. In 387 her prayers were answered, and Augustine was baptized at Easter. They decided to travel back home to Africa, but on the way his mother died at the port of Ostia. Augustin recorded his conversations with his mother before her death in a book called Confessions.
After his return to Tagaste, Augustine decided to live a monastic life, selling everything he had and giving it to the poor, only keeping what was necessary to live on. Augustine at the time had no intention of becoming a priest or a bishop. But in 395 the he was asked to be the Bishop of Hippo. He accepted, and began trying to unify the African Church, that was at the time deeply divided between the Donatist and Catholic sects. In 411 he condemned the division and succeeded in bringing the African Church together.

Like the rest of the Roman Empire, North Africa was assaulted by the Vandals in 430.  Hippo became isolated and Saint Augustin died at the age of 76.
In modern theology, Saint Augustin is considered the father of the Catholic Church, his writings having influenced the society of much of the  Western World. The theories of Saint Augustine were shaped by a marriage between Greek philosophy and his religious beliefs. The blend of these two influences can be seen in his notion of the Soul, the relationship between God and man and even the Trinity.
Saint Augustine often traveled from Tagaste to Carthage, on a specific route which he described in his writings. Nowadays, this path through Tunisia can be followed on organized tours, called On the Path of Saint Augustine. Lotfi Rahmouni, a Tunisian professor of in archaeology, said that the Vatican is among the organizers of this trip in collaboration with Tunisian travel agencies. He said also that the trip is most popular with Catholics, many of whom consider it a pilgrimage.

Chemtou Bridge; Saint Augustine used to cross on route to Carthage

The trip starts from Tagaste, at the Souk Ahras in Augustine’s hometown, and finishes in Carthage where he established a school and unified the Christians of Africa in 411. They also pass through Chemtou and Bulla Reggia and sometimes Haidra, where the Bishop spent time with his father.

The Martyrdom of St Perpetua and Felicity

Historical approach:

Coming from the East, Christianity spread among the Jewish community that had settled in the coast since the diaspora especially in Carthage and Djerba. This new faith found in Africa a propitious land. In fact the conception of a unique and transcendent God was the result of the cult of Baal Hammoun in the pre-Roman era.

First the Roman authorities tolerated the new faith but the new Christian showed that they threat the unity of Rome after denying the official cult of the triad, the official cult of the empire.

The Scillitans(twelve in all—seven men and five women. Their names are Speratus, Nartzalus, Cintinus (Cittinus), Veturius, Felix, Aquilinus, Laetantius, Januaria, Generosa, Vestia, Donata, and Secunda) were the first martyrs executed in the amphitheatre of Carthage in 180. Tertullain had written that they were the first martyr in Africa pro-consularis.

The execution of the 12 Scillitans

The martyrdom of  Saint Peroetua and Felicitas:

(died 7 March 203) are Christian martyrs of the 3rd century. Perpetua (born in 181) was a 22-year old married noble, and a nursing mother. Her co-martyr Felicity, an expectant mother, was her slave. They suffered together at Carthage in the Roman province of Africa.

The Passion of St. Perpetua, St. Felicitas, and their Companions is said to preserve the actual words of the martyrs and their friends. According to this Passion, in the year 203, during the persecutions of the emperor Septimius Severus, five catechumens, among whom Perpetua and Felicity, were arrested for their faith and executed

The chapel of St  Perpetua Carthage 1903

The Mosaic of Daniel in Bardo Museum

Octagon once at the center of a pavement in the mausoleum of a roman family. The scene is treated in schematic style, borrowed from the old testament figuring Daniel in the lion's den. Tunisia 5th C AD

Daniel is usually considered by Muslims to have been a prophet. Although he is not mentioned in the Qur'an, there are a few Hadith and Muslim records which bear his name and which refer to his time spent in the den of the lions. There are debates, however, that go on about Daniel's time of preaching and some Muslims believe that he was not a prophet but a saintly man. Some Muslim records suggest that a book regarding apocalyptic revelations was found in a coffin, which is supposed to have contained the remains of Daniel, which was brought to light at the time of the Muslim conquest of Tustar, and buried again at the request of Umar.