What do Shakespeare, Henry VIII, Black Lives Matter (BLM), the Paris-Dakar Rally, an 'Islamic' raid on an obscure Irish fishing village, and the less known St Benedict the Black have in common? Answer: slavery. The forced migrations that threw up American and African saints whose families toiled silently to build European and American economies, while our ancestors looked the other way.
As well as digging out the true story of Benedict Manasseri this easy-to-read book walks us past real episodes of human trafficking, the Church's role in Irish, American, Arab and African slavery, continuing racism, social holiness, genocide in King Leopold's Congo, and the UN interest in the main character, the saintly eccentric, Brother Benedict himself.
