Just to note: There were plenty of African saints before St Maurice. St Maurice is the first whose skin color is known. Saints from what is now Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, etc., often had some European roots. (Augustine of Hippo, a later saint than St Maurice but just an example of an “African saint”) was from Algeria, but ethnically Italian.
Part of the paucity of black saints before St Morice is our lack of historical record. Most of what we know of the earliest saints comes from places, not writings. The Ethiopian eunuch is presumably black, and presumably a saint. But we don’t know either for sure. He is thought to be Simon Bachos, who was a great preacher both in Antioch and Ethiopia.
By the way, for those who find it incredible that someone from Ethiopia might NOT be black, you’re probably thinking of what the Bible calls, “Abyssinia.” The eunuch was from Cyrene, which is in Libya. But it is very plausible that being an Ethiope was highlighted because most Ethiopes were black.
Acts 13:1
Found the biblical reference to “Simon the black,” who is thought to be the Ethiopian eunuch:
“Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger (Black), Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court of Herod the ruler, and Saul.”