The Shrine of the ARUOSA of OGBELAKA is vastly significant to the Nigerian nation Benin City was the place where Christianity was first preached and accepted in the territorial expanse that is now the Nigerian nation. This was five hundred years ago. Oba Esígie was on the throne of Benin of course Portugal had already spent twenty years interacting with Benin before COLUMBU made his epic voyage across the Atlantic and Europe knew about the existence of the new world of the Americas. The ARUOSA Shrine is one of the many relics stilt possessed by the old City which tells the story of the first arrival of Christianity into Benin halfway into the Second Christian Millennium which is just about to run his full course.

The ARUOSA of OGBELAKA is situated in the Eki-Ogbe section of the Ogbelaka Quarters. The Shrine is housed in a modern brick hut, roofed with corrugated iron sheets, with its walls fluted in the traditional chiefly fashion. The ADA and EBEN emblems of authority in the Shrine are in the shape of those possessed by the priests of the other gods of the land, and are different in some particulars from those possessed by chiefs who are the wielders of temporal power. The handle of the Ada is of hard-wood, rather than of metal, and the Eben is perforated differently from those of the chiefs.

The Shrine had his own hereditary priesthood until the early decades of the Twentieth Century, during the reign of Oba Eweka II when the line died out. The Odionwere of the Eso Quarters of Ogbelaka is at present the custodian of the Shrine. The line of the Priesthood, before it died out, belonged to the Eso guild.

The Keepers of the Ogbelaka Shrine are usually seated in the hut waiting to receive the new Chief in procession. It is at this Shrine that the Pilgrim receives his first “chalk-bath’, denoting his sanctification for service to God to his monarch and to the Benin Kingdom.

During this long period of Orhogbua’s years of the sword Christianity and education looked after themselves in Benin as best as they could, limping along without the royal presence they needed for support and encouragement.
By the time EHENGBUDA, Oba Orhogbua’s son and successor came to the end of his own reign, Christianity had gone “native” in Benin. The Cathedral, and the Chapels attached to the places of learning, both in the City and in the near villages, had become.

“Aro Osa” or Aruosa:
“Shrines to the Supreme God”

The Catechists and the trained “Brothers” who were left in charge of the places of worship when the Vatican and Portugal could no longer sustain the missionary efforts of manning them with ordained Priests became the...

“Ohen Osa “or Ohensa.
“Priests of the Supreme God

The eldest son of the OHENSA took over the guardian - ship of the Shrine at the demise of his father, and the position became hereditary, like the pries-hoods of the other deities of the land.