Christianity didn\u2019t arrive until 1818\u201d\u201da bicentennial is imminent\u201d\u201dbut the first be\u00c2\u00adlievers were very determined, and took seriously their pledge to resist apostasy. Their efforts brought them into sharp conflict with the equally motivated pagan queen Ranavalona I, whom early mission histories recall as a diabolical persecutor, a female combination of Nero and Caligula. Catholics speak of her rule as \u201cthe time when the land was dark.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
You get a sense of the country\u2019s Chris\u00c2\u00adtian origins in the capital city Antananarivo (in popular usage, Tana), where no fewer than four cathedrals commemorate early martyrs. One of these, Andohalo, stands on an intimidating cliff, which in the mid-19th century was the site from which stubborn believers were thrown to their deaths.<\/p>\n
Persecution faded after Ra\u00c2\u00adnavalona\u2019s death in 1861, leaving a small church im\u00c2\u00admensely strengthened by so many re\u00c2\u00adcent stories of martyrdom. Some of Ranava\u00c2\u00adlo\u00c2\u00adna\u2019s successors required Chris\u00c2\u00ad\u00c2\u00adtian participation quite as fiercely as the old queen had prohibited it. Since then, Christianity has grown by means familiar throughout sub-Saharan Africa.<\/p>\n