Syrisch-arabische Biographieen des Aristotles. Syrische Commentare zur "Eisagoge" des Porphyrios 9781463231583

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sent at the synod cried out: 'Worthy, worthy, worthy archimandrite!' 17 Since, historically, Nestorius never attended the sessions of the council of 431, this story has been met with some skepticism. Even so, there is considerable evidence that Shenoute did attend the council. Another story in the Vita about Shenoute and the Council of Ephesus concerns his thaumaturgical reputation, and turns around the Egyptian delegation's departure from Ephesus to return to Egypt: When the king had dismissed them so that they could go back to their [own] places, my father Apa Shenoute went to board the ship with our holy fathers Abba Cyril the archbishop and Apa Victor the archimandrite, but because the lesser servants did not know him, they said to him: 'You cannot go on board with the archbishop'. My father said to them: 'If not, then the Lord's will be done!' Then he and his disciple who had gone with him went a short distance away and he stood in prayer, saying, 'My Lord Jesus Christ, how will you take me to my monastery?' While he was thinking these things to himself, behold! a shining cloud came down from heaven, lifted up both him and his disciple, snatched him up into the heights, and flew off with him. And when they reached the open sea, Abba Cyril looked up and saw my father Apa Shenoute with his disciple in the middle of the cloud, and cried out: 'Bless us, our holy father, the new Elijah!' My father Apa Shenoute said to him: 'Remember me, O my holy father'. And in this way the cloud flew off with him and brought him to his monastery. 18 T h e story continues with Cyril the archbishop interrogating Shenoute about w h e n he arrived back to his monastery. After some

17 18

Bell. 1983. pp. 78-79. ibid. pp. 47-48.

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reservation, Shenoute replies that he had arrived that same evening to pray with the monks in the monastery. 19 Shenoute's interactions with Nestorius did not end with the Council of Ephesus, of 431. The Coptic tradition concerning Nestorius preserves stories about his exile most of which are not found elsewhere. According to the History of the Patriarchs, Nestorius was being escorted to the Great Oasis when his guard learned that the warlord Mazices had sacked it, and so he was taken immediately instead to Panopolis and incarcerated at Psinblje near Shenoute's monastery. The Coptic History of the Church in Twelve Books tells of a confrontation between Nestorius and Shenoute while the former was there. Nestorius appears to have asked Shenoute to distribute his goods to the poor, and Shenoute in return is said to have demanded that he acknowledge that Mary is the Mother of God. When Nestorius refuses, Shenoute declines to distribute his goods. The same story appears in other works (such as the Arabic I J f e of Shenoute) where Shenoute calls down an angel who beats Nestorius to death. Some recent scholars have seen this episode as a possible indication that Shenoute had a hand in Nestorius' murder. But Nestorius' death as a result of a fall, is related by Evagrius; and the story of the avenging angel is an obvious theologization after the event. The Coptic History of the Church also mentions a petition sent by Nestorius to the Governor Caesarius at Antinoopolis (since Caesarius was a friend of Shenoute) to ask him to persuade the latter to desist from his enmity. Caesarius is well known from Shenoute's own letters and from an inscription found at the White Monastery. The existence of such a petition would fit the picture of Nestorius as portrayed by Evagrius. 20 Shenoute had extensive relations with the secular officials in Egypt. There is a certain Theodotos, whom Shenoute claims he 19 ibid. pp. 48—49. This story must have become so popular in Egyptian monastic circles that an addition is included in accounts related to Macatius the Great. In this addition, Shenoute is on the cloud flying over the wilderness of Scete and sees the prayers of the monks there ascending like fire before God (c.f. T. Vivian, Saint Macarius, the Spiritbearer. 2004, pp 109-110. 20 Further see: Aziz. Coptic Encyclopedia, pp. 1786a-1787b.

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had spoken with, who is possibly the same Theodotos who was a military governor of Lower Egypt in 435. 21 More importantly, there were apparently close relations with Caesarius, the military governor of Upper Egypt. He is mentioned by Shenoute in two separate discourses and he seems to have visited his monastery at least twice. He is recorded in the History of the Church of Alexandria as a personal friend of Shenoute's, and, crucially, he is named in an inscription above the main gate of Shenoute's church as the founder of the temple. 22 There is also some evidence in Shenoute's discourses that he had communications with the emperor Theodosius II. According to one story in his biography, the emperor once 'thirsted' for Shenoute's presence in Constantinople. The military governor of the Thebaid was therefore commanded to bring him over to the imperial capital where the 'entire senate' was looking forward to his visit. Shenoute thought the visit too much of a distraction from his life of prayer and repentance in the monastery, and as a result applied great thaumaturgical power once again. He mounted a shining cloud, flew over to the royal palace in Constantinople, blessed the emperor, and came back the same night. Though this is clearly a variant of the Ephesine travel tale, it speaks about some level of access to the imperial court's patronage. His own writings do speak about time spent in Constantinople (perhaps in the aftermath of the Council of Ephesus when intense lobbying was being conducted in the capital city and at Chalcedon on behalf of Cyril and Nestorius who were being held under house arrest in the immediate aftermath of the Council of 431). O n that occasion the emperor came down decisively in favor of the Egyptian leaders. It may not be surprising, therefore, that Shenoute could later threaten his enemies at Panopolis with the emperor's disfavor. These political relations would help explain how Shenoute was able to provide so extensively for the poor at his monastery and also how he might have been allowed state funds to build the White Monastery's great church.

21 22

Lopez, 2013, Appendix A, p. 131. ibid., p. 132.

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Lastly, the I J f e of Shenoute goes into some detail concerning the time and manner of his death. 23 In order to establish his status with the saints and great monastic fathers, the biography states that after he had been in a coma: Suddenly he cried out: 'Of your charity, my holy fathers, bless me; come and sit before me in your ordered ranks.' He said again: 'Behold! The patriarchs have come with the prophets; behold the apostles with the archbishops; behold the archimandrites have come with all the saints'. And again he said: 'My father Apa Psoi, my father Apa Antony, my father Apa Pachomius, take my hand so that I may rise and worship him whom my soul loves, for behold! He has come for me with his angels!' At that moment, there came a great fragrance. Then, on that day, the seventh of Epiphi, he gave his soul into the hands of God.'24 SHENOUTE'S MONASTIC ORDER: THE WHITE MONASTERY FEDERATION Shenoute of Atripe was the third leader of a notable monastic federation near Panopolis in Upper Egypt (present day Akhmim) that included two monasteries for male monks, the White Monastery (commonly known as Deir Anba Shenuda) and the Red Monastery (commonly known as Deir Anba Psoi), and one for women in Atripe itself. This federation was separate and distinct from the Pachomian Koinonia, or federation, even though it is known that the bishop of Panopolis asked Pachomius to establish a monastery in the Pachomian region. 25 The first leader of the White Monastery federation was Pjol, Shenoute's maternal uncle. It was traditionally believed, from the Vita, that Shenoute inherited the leadership of the federation after the departure of his uncle. However, from the recent work done on the manuscripts of the White Monastery library, it has become more evident that there was a monk by the name of Ebonh that immediately succeeded Pjol as the head of the ibid. pp. 89-92. ibid. p. 91. 25 Veilleux. 1980—82. Pachomian Koinonia, vol. I pp. 352—353. 23 24

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federation. During the leadership of Ebonh, there was some behavior within the monastery that Shenoute was unhappy with. There was evidence of improper sexual behaviors along with stealing and other disorders that, according to Shenoute, was either not being dealt with properly by Ebonh or was being overlooked. Therefore, when no action was being taken, Shenoute left the confines of the monastery and decided to live in the wilderness. This self-exile into a hermit state resulted in his being recalled as the new higumenabbot. Under his leadership the number of male monks reached 2,200 and female monks 1,800. Shenoute remained the head of the federation until his death in 465/6 at which time his disciple, Besa, became the new leader. After Besa one Zenobius became the abbot. 26 T H E STRUCTURE OF THE FEDERATION

As was the case with the Pachomian Koinonia, the hierarchical system of authority in the White Monastery federation under Shenoute 27 began with the supreme head being the archimandrite, i.e. Shenoute himself, who presided over all the federation. But then, in each of the three different monasteries there was also an 'Eldest' with a supportive council. Of course, for the male monasteries both the eldest and the council were male monks. For the women's monastery, there was also an eldest female monk with a supportive council. There seem to be times when another senior (male) monk was sent to the monasteries, either as their superior or in the name of Shenoute as his envoy. 28 Last in the hierarchy of officers was the housemaster of the divisions, the buildings where the monks lived. There were also hermits living in solitude in the desert outside of the monastery, but they were still collectively under Shenoute's supreme authority. When someone desired to enter one of the monasteries in this federation, they were to take an oath: Every person shall say this: I vow before God in his holy place, the word which I have spoken with my mouth being my witBell. 1983. p. 22 & p. 35, n. 126. See: Bentley Layton's paper in Gabra. 2008. 28 Krawiec. 2002. 26 27

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ness: I will not defile my body in any way; I will not steal; I will not bear false witness; I will not lie; I will not do anything deceitful secretly. If I transgress what I have vowed, I will see the kingdom of heaven, but will not enter it. God, before whom I made the covenant, will destroy my soul and my body in the fiery Gehenna because I transgressed the covenant I made. 29

It is the first known form of a formal monastic 'profession' vow. In this oath, we see a great emphasis on each monk's individual purity and holiness not only for his own sake and salvation, but also because the monastery itself was a holy place and a monk's life should be compatible, protecting it from defilement. 30 From several letters to the women's monastery from Shenoute that are extant, it appears that there were some tensions resulting from Shenoute's interactions with them and his visits to them. 31 It seems that his predecessors Abbots Pjol and Ebonh had not been very involved in the life of the women's monastery and, therefore, the women had evolved a fairly loose system, with more freedom to choose their own rules. When Shenoute became the head of the federation, he tried to unify the monastic rules and set canons to be followed by both men and women monastics alike. This was not well received at times by some of the women monks, or the elders, an outcome that prompted supervisory visits by an elder male monk, perhaps even Shenoute in person. These visits in at least two instances stirred up further strife in the women's community. But the long duration of Shenoute's leadership puts these few instances of dissent among the women's community into perspective, and they may be explained as a result of change of policy in his early years; settling down in due time. Krawiec's analysis of Shenoute's rule over the women monastics is critical of his 'impositions'. While her study is a closely detailed one, many of her presuppositions about gender roles at play here reflect more of a 21st century theoretical grounding than a 5 th century one. She also fails to take into consideration the canonical fact that Shenoute was a 29 30 31

Bell. 1983. pp. 9-10. Schroeder. 2007. Krawiec. 2002.

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priest with not only monastic, but significant sacramental ecclesiastical authority. At that time, as now, the female monastics would have depended on having an ordained male monastic to serve the liturgy, to take confessions, to give spiritual guidance, and to celebrate the Eucharist. T H E DAILY SCHEDULE OF MONASTIC LIFE

In analyzing Canons 4 and 5 of Shenoute's rule, Bentley Layton 32 has been able to reconstruct the probable daily schedule of the monks in the White Monastery. 'Just before dawn, a great assembly was organized, that is, a collective meeting for prayer and handiwork in each entire congregation (possibly in the church building). At 1 st hour (6 A.M.), prayer and handiwork in the houses; at the [...] hour (9 A.M.?), prayer and handiwork in the houses; at the 6 th hour (12 noon), the daily meal; at the 9 th hour (3 P.M.), prayer and handiwork in the houses; at eventide, a great assembly.' These canonical hours of prayer are identical to the liturgical book of hours used in the Coptic Orthodox Church to this day. Furthermore, on a quarterly basis, the canons (rules or ethos of the house) were read to the entire monastery. It should be noted here that what are commonly called the canons are not a specifically numbered set of rules laid out in a systematic fashion, but rather a set of exhortations given in a sermon-like format on different occasions over time as various situations occurred. However, from early times they have been considered and propagated as canons for the monastic rule, as deriving from Shenoute. RULES CONCERNING HEALTH CARE AND FOOD:

In Late Antiquity, the care of the sick was based mainly on the remit of personal finances available locally. If one had money, available medical care was possible. Otherwise, they could only rely on local patrons (as clientes). However, the patron was often not willing to pay for medical care since the one he was paying for was beneficial to him (usually in a mutual way) through services rendered to him and work performed for him. Once that person became ill, he 32

Layton, in Gabra. 2008.

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or she was no longer useful (no longer a cliens fulfilling the basic duties of that state). The sick person became a liability instead of an investment. Due to this endemic neglect of those who were ill, at the core of this ancient social-patronage system, Christian charity (individual and institutional) became increasingly more important in caring for the sick. Christian charity did not require the mutual benefit of the sick who could render services back to whoever provided them health care. In the coenobitic monastic rule, this behavior became institutionalized in the commands to care for the monks. This can be seen as a notable factor in both the Pachomian Koinonia and in the White Monastery federation. 33 Several of the canons speak directly about the care of sick monks in the monastery complex. An infirmary was provided that was in an isolated area separate from the rest of the community. If necessary, a physician was brought in to examine and treat the monks. Extra food rations and more varied types of food were provided for the ill that were not generally allowed for the healthy monks. In fact, at times healthy monks would feign illness in order to go to the infirmary and get extra food. This ruse was specifically prohibited in the canons (in addition to a severe prohibition about keeping extra food reserved in one's cell). Crislip (2005) suggests that this aspect of particular care for the sick, witnessed in Pachomian and Shenoutian monasticism, was adopted by Basil the Great and Gregory the Theologian when they developed the great Basileiad project, and through this mediation it came into the great 'spread' of Byzantine monastic consciousness. This innovation in antique society is, of course, similar to the invention of our modern conception of a hospital. The Basileiad became a model for the development of monastically staffed hospitals throughout the Byzantine empire and thereafter. SHENOUTE'S DISCIPLINARY CANONS

One of the major themes in Shenoute's canons is the issue of monastic purity and holiness. 34 This holiness was not just something

33 34

Crislip. 2005. Schroeder. 2007.

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considered at the level of the individual monk, but was seen collectively: in the sense that each monk's holiness affected the holiness of the entire community. Each monk was to keep his own body pure for his own sake and for the sake of the single monastic body comprised of all the monks in the community. For Shenoute, the defilement by sin of any one monk would risk the entire family of monks being defiled with impurity in God's sight. Shenoute derived this theme of his theology from the Pauline concept of the Church being the single mystical body of Christ. 35 Therefore, if a monk was unrepentant, he was liable to be expelled from the community, just as the Apostle Paul excommunicated the sinner of Corinth, 36 not only so that he might be shocked into repentance, but also for the protection and salvation of the larger community of 'pure believers'. In this way Shenoute builds upon the eschatological teaching of Christ when he says: But when he (the Lord) says, 'If your brother does not listen to you, let him be for you an enemy, like one whom you have never seen,' because the Lord first wishes that we cut him off from us after we reproach him in order that he perhaps indeed might regret after he has become a stranger with respect to God, since he is our brother, and so that he might return and repent, and we might forgive him up to seventy seven times, such that he does not sin again, since we know to cut him off from us because of his sin. But if it does not please him to turn from sin — because of which we know to cut him off from us — then we will indeed cut him off from us, and he shall not return to us, and we shall not love him. But he shall be for us an enemy with respect to God, even though he is our brother. And in this way, the person who loves God reveals all of his desire for the Lord, since he loved him (the Lord) more than his brother and more than his father and his mother. For it is a great perfection for the person to cut himself off from his brother or his son or his daughter or his father or his mother

35 36

/Corinthians 12; Ephesians 1:22—23; 4:15—16; Colossians 1:24 1 Corinthians 5.

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or any other person because of God, whenever they sin against God who created them.37 Alongside with expulsion (as one of the most severe disciplinary actions against unrepentant monks, there also stood a robust attitude in Shenoute's federation towards the use of corporal punishment. This application of discipline involved beatings 38 — something that is perhaps shocking to a modern sensibility, but which was an aspect of the social control of ancient villages (in peasant levels of low-ranking citizens — as it was forbidden to the higher ranks of the kalokagathoi). The female monks were beaten on their feet whereas it appears that the male monks were beaten more severely on their upper body. The theological justification for this practice was based on the perception of the monastic community as a family and the application of the Old Testament injunctions such as that from Proverbs: 'The one who spares his rod, hates his sons and daughters' (Proverbs 13:24). It is notable that we do not have the same level of physical discipline in the Pachomian Koinonia. It was used in the Byzantine houses later, particularly for lower class and recalcitrant monks. And one imagines it occurred more often than it appears in texts. It is in one's clear sight in Shenoute because it appears in the canons, and also, one suspects, because the majority of the community were of the fellahin class. The 'diplomatic silence' in other Byzantine monastic sources does not allow us a really fair comparison — as to how 'violent' Shenoute's system was in the wider Christian perspective of the time. In one notorious case, however, a monk was beaten for repeated sins in the monastery, and subsequently died. 39 The cause of death is not clear, but Shenoute was apparently greatly blamed for it by a group of monks who used the occasion to lead an uprising against Shenoute's governance. Shenoute defended himself (again applying a notably 'direct' eschatological sense of theodicy) by say-

Shenoute, Canon 3, YA 426—27, in Leipoldt, Opera Omnia, 4:128. See Mt. 18:16-22, 10:37; l^uke 14:26; as cited in Schroeder. 2007. pp. 7937

80. 38 39

Krawiec. 2002. pp. 28-29, 40-42,141-143. Krawiec. 2002. pp. 43-45.

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ing that it was God's time for that monk to pass away, according to God's judgment. Unfortunately, the complete details as to the age, health, sins committed, and the severity of the beatings of the monk who died are not available to us, and whether the beating directly caused the death, and therefore, a clear adjudication of the issue cannot be made. A careless causation of death by a cleric, of course, was a serious canonical offence in the Church systems of the day; and generally would be grounds for deposition. Shenoute evidently survived this rebellion against his authority. SHENOUTE'S CARE OF THE POOR

Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of Shenoute's monastic order was his involvement with the lay people of that region 40 . In contrast with the Pachomian Koinonia, Shenoute opened his monastery on Saturdays and Sundays to lay people and pilgrims and gave them religious instruction. He was quite generous in providing for the poor and in many cases acted as their patron while at the same time he was robustly denouncing the wealthy, particularly the middle and upper classes of the local capital Panopolis; whom he thought had a careless attitude to the physical and spiritual welfare of their local people. This theme is seen throughout his Letters and Sermons. We even have accounts of Shenoute defending poor Christians in civil suits. There is a detailed story in the Arabic Life of Shenoute of when he and his monastery accommodated 20,000 people (so it says) whose villages had been raided by the Nubians (the Blemmyes tribe in the south). 41 In a short work by Shenoute, entitled Continuing to Glorify the Lord, found in an Appendix to Canon 7 42 he refers to this story himself relating how the Lord worked during this time to provide for the masses of people in need. Putting the two sources together, we learn how the federation fed multitudes of refugees (at times miraculously), buried 94 people, assisted with 52 new births, and provided seven physicians to care for the sick and wounded, entirely from out of the monastery's own expenses

Lopez. 2013. Lopez. 2013. pp. 57-62 42 ibid. p. 57 & p. 166, n. 63. 40 41

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which God had blessed for fulfilling these acts of charity in time of war. SHENOUTE'S OPPOSITION TO PAGANISM

Paganism was still very much alive in Egypt in this period of Late Antiquity despite its adoption as the state religion of the Byzantine empire. Emperor Theodosius I's anti-pagan decrees opened the door for the abolition of pagan festivals, practices, and the destruction of pagan temples and sites as we see with the Serapeum of Alexandria during the time of Theophilus, the 23rd Pope of Alexandria. Once Egyptian religion lost its state subsidies and extensive taxation rights, it soon financially collapsed. The priesthoods were ruined almost immediately, but the 'spiritual practices' of the old religion (never a domestic entity as Christianity would come to be), and its thought patterns still existed in wider society, even if not as openly as before. This was Shenoute's context in 5 th century Upper Egypt. Some pagan temples were transformed into churches at this time and spaces previously used for secular purposes were commandeered; but many sites still existed as pagan cult centers even though a very large number of them were abandoned when they lost their endowment. We have at least three accounts of Shenoute's involvement with pagan sites and practices. 43 One of these events involved Shenoute's destroying an abandoned and ancient pagan temple in Atripe because of its symbolic value and the negative effect it's presence may have had on the Christians in that area. This, surprisingly, did not create the uproar one would expect from the destruction of an 'ancient religious site'. Shenoute also relates to us another episode when in the middle of the night he took seven monks and secretly stole the household idols of a rich landowner and patron in Panopolis by the name of Gesios. According to Shenoute, this was done without any harm to anyone and for the purpose of exposing this man's hidden idol worship and hypocrisy (for he regularly appeared to receive public Christian teaching by Shenoute himself). This second 'raid' created more of a

43

ibid. pp. 102-126.

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disturbance among the people than the previous instance because Gesios was apparently somewhat abusive and ruthless to those to whom he provided his patronage. The third situation did not involve direct participation by Shenoute. Some of the Christians in the countryside village of Pneuit (Banawit today) located in the district of Panopolis attacked and burned down the village temple. This provoked a furious reaction from the local pagan priests, who in turn accused the Christian mob before the provincial governor. As a result these Christians were taken to Antinoe, the provincial capital. When Shenoute got word of this, he departed immediately to defend them before the governor, and succeeded in getting the Christians absolved from punishment for their act. He was then paraded triumphantly on the shoulders of the (Christian) crowd to the local church in Antinoe where the people sought to touch him and receive his blessing. CONCLUSIONS

There are many important facets of Shenoute which touch on many important aspects about ancient Christianity, monasticism, and general conditions of life in Late Antiquity. His Vita and writings allows us a glimpse into the still obscure culture of his day. His important personality and the larger impact he had on the development of monastic lifestyles is only now being appreciated in its real importance. This small summary certainly does not do him justice, but hopefully it gives some insight into the range and depth of his involvement in the lives of not only the monks under his rule but also the people and society of his day and region. Unfortunately, until the past decade or two we have had to rely on the major focus of earlier scholarship on Shenoute which had caricatured his strict rule as violent and deranged, and his theology (bizarrely since it is passionate and devout) as 'Christ-less.' His personality was described as an 'erupting volcano' (given his use of corporal punishment, his protocol of expulsion for severe crimes, and his orchestration of the raiding of pagan sites). Most of this depiction of him as an 'undesirable' was massively colored by anachronistic expectation of the tenor of ancient societies, and a strange set of adjudications from those who professed to be historians. Today, some of the latest scholarship that has studied Shenoute's life and ministry from the larger store of manuscripts now available, has begun to put his behavior, teaching, and theology in the perspective of his

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own words and times thereby giving him a greater depth, and allowing us deeper appreciation. We look forward to the ongoing work of transcribing, editing, and translating the remaining primary texts in order to gain an even more comprehensive picture of this important strand of Egyptian monasticism, which should open the door for many more enlightening studies to come. BIBLIOGRAPHY

A.S. Aziz D. Bell, (tr). A.T.Crislip

S. Emmel G. Gabra, (et al.) R. Krawiec

A. G. Lopez

C.T. Schroeder A. Veilleux (tr). T. Vivian (tr).

Coptic Encyclopedia, New York. 1991. Besa, Life of Shenoute. Kalamazoo. 1983. From Monastery to Hospital: Christian Monasticism & the Transformation of Health Care in Late Antiquity. Ann Arbor. 2005. Shenoute's Literary Corpus. Louvain. 2004. Christianity and Monasticism in Upper Egypt. Cairo. 2008. Shenoute & the Women of the White Monastery: Egyptian monasticism in Late Antiquity. Oxford. 2002. Shenoute of Atripe and the Uses of Poverty: Rural Patronage, Religious Conflict, and Monasticism in Late Antique Egypt. Berkeley. 2013. Monastic Bodies: Discipline and Salvation in Shenoute of Atripe. Philadelphia. 2007. Pachomian Koinonia. Kalamazoo. 1980—1982. Saint Macarius, the Spiritbearer: Coptic Texts Relating to Saint Macarius the Great. Crestwood, N.Y. 2004.

HAGIOGRAPHIC TRADITIONS OF ETHIOPIAN MONASTICISM

ATSEDE MARYAM ELEGBA Ethiopia is a place and concept where the mystical and material meet, in story and song, image and stone, on parchment, in greeting, conversation, and even the characters of the fidel (alphabet). Church and monastery, gadam (desert) or ddbr (mountain), are words used interchangeably, because the monasteries are often active places of worship for monks, priests and laity. The church: whether on a mountain, in a cave, or cut out deep in the bowels of the earth, is a place where heaven on earth is realized. Humans become angels and God transcends; not least in the storyteller {giidlat: literally — struggles, hagiographies) and most of all through the examples and persons of the saints. The Ethiopians have always regarded monasticism as a highly elevated form of Christianity. Monasteries have been a centrifugal force of national faith and practice as well as serving as the major regulators for domestic and foreign policy of the Christian kingdom from ancient times until the twentieth century. As Getatchew Haile says: 'The monks were the voice of the church and the monasteries the heart of the church.' 1 Many examples of exist of Ethiopian monastics who suffered martyrdom because they publically chastised political leaders for behaving contrary to Christian ethics. Most significantly these Christian holy ascetic men and women have been powerful exponents in the spread of Christianity 1

Haile, 1991. Entry reference CE:990b-995b in vol. 2 of Atiya (ed).

The Coptic

Encyclopedia.

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throughout all of Ethiopia and beyond. This great missionary impulse of Ethiopian monasticism is a likely explanation why the institution is so widely and so highly regarded. Monasticism might seem odd, relative to so many and deep African traditions that place such a big emphasis on familial commitment, generational continuum, and the place of the ancestors, and correspondingly nurture a low regard for those who have no children. 2 But like the scriptural commands to leave family and kin for the sake of the Gospel, this paradox has its roots in the foundations of the Christian religion itself. In Ethiopia the ascetic life took root in the very early stages of Christianity's presence there. Solitary eremitism came to the Ethiopian highlands from the tradition of St. Antony, and communal cenobitism came as exemplified by the Pachomian Koinonia. Indeed, the rule of Pachomius was among the first books ever translated into Ge'ez (an ancient dialectic of Ethiopic). 3 Scholars of Ethiopia today think three events to be singularly responsible for the historical spread of monasticism in Ethiopia: firstly Monks migrating from North Africa; the Mediterranean or Byzantine world, particularly Egypt and Syria in the 5 th to 6 th centuries; secondly the rise of Abuna Takla Haymanot (1214—1313); and thirdly the arrival of Metropolitan Ya'eqob (1338—1345) during the reign of Ae'Amd Seyon. Several groups of monks have been identified as coming from the Byzantine world between the 5 th and 7 th centuries. One group in particular is called the Nine Saints. This important group came, with a strong hierarchical structure they had learned elsewhere (possibly Syria) bringing their advanced books of ascesis with them, as well as traditions of scriptural copying, and, possibly, service books, and other educational materials. 4 2 Persoon,

1999. p. 61. Haile, 1991. op. cit. 4 Aragawi/Zamikael was leader of the nine saints who came to Ethiopia, and had a profound reorganizing effect. Eachone traditionally established their own monastic center or school. The Nne are: Pantelwon, who is remembered for helping King Kaleb in 525 by praying for his success in rescuing the Christian community in Najran in Arabia. And also for never leaving his cell for 45 years until his death. Yeshaq (Isaac)/Garima- most 3

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M o n a s t i c values permeate the Ethiopian church especially through the hagiographies that hold up to the laity a standard and i m a g e of holiness. M o n a s t i c saints are r e m e m b e r e d every single day in the O r t h o d o x C h u r c h calendar. L e g e n d s of sainted m o n k s w o r k their w a y into every Ethiopian O r t h o d o x T e w a h e d o C h u r c h service ( E O T C ) as a story, a h y m n or in iconic form. It is not unusual to hear a conversation referencing the exploits of one of the saints. I M y s e l f h a v e heard such remarks in church as these, repeated by a lay m e m b e r explaining the c o n t e m p o r a r y rules of fasting: ' W e only fast a f e w days . . . but y o u k n o w w h a t h e did, {pointing to the icon of TdkldHaymanot) and he w a s standing o n one leg all that time.' 5 A n d on another occasion: 'Lalibela had a vision. T h e churches revealed themselves as he w a s digging t h e m out. T h e vision told h i m w h e r e to go. H e started digging and the next day w h e n he c a m e back, twice as m u c h w a s dug out because the angels had helped him'. 6 It is remarkable h o w close their recollection is to the gadla even

likely a prince who left his parents palace to come to Ethiopia at the request of Abba Pantelwon. His monastery is Madera at Adwa, in Tigre. This house is also the keeper of the oldest known illustrated gospel manuscript in the world, as well as the former home and school of two influential monks and ecclesial leaders in the twenty-first century. Afse is said to have ascended to heaven like Elijah. Gubba founded his monastery near Abba Garima but there are no remains surviving today. Alef founded Dabra Halle Luya in Tigre. There is then Yemata but little is known about his activities or person. Liqanos built his hermitage, Debre Qonasel, north of Aksum. Today it is called Dabre Liqanos. And lastly - Sehma settled southeast of Adwa but his monastery no longer exists. All Ethiopian monks today take pleasure in in tracing their monastic lineage to one of these saints; however, most are linked to Arâgawi/Zâmikael through Yohanni, the 7th abbot of Dabra Damo. Yohanni's spiritual sons Iyyasus Mo'a of Amhara, Tâklâ Haymanot of Shoa and Daniel of Tigre have been the most influential in Ethiopia's monastic history. 5 Girma Tessema, ETOC lay church member (Personal communication, 22 September 2013). 6 Kidane Mariam, ETOC lay church member (Personal communication, 3 February 2014).

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though the persons speaking might not even remember reading these stories, or hearing them read. In this paper I would like to sketch out some of the ways monastic tradition lives in the Ethiopian theological experience, particularly through the narratives of the saints. These stories, embedded with miraculous elements and legends that can be so frustrating to western historians, are integral to Ethiopian literary, historical, and theological culture. They are not simply random or entertaining folklore, but build on a complex oral, textual and visual pedagogic tradition. They still inform an Ethiopian understanding of theology, identity and also politics. Every significant culture has its own national narrative, or myth, that seeks to establish a more encompassing identity in place and time. In the case of Ethiopia it is lodged in the monastic hagiographies. I propose in what follows to discuss selected saints, and give a brief history and taxonomy of Ethiopian monasticism and canon law, in order to show how monasticism functions in the wider society. The mystical, supernatural and the intentional act of 'recreating biblical and divine presence in everyday life' will be recurring themes throughout this paper, since it is our thesis that they are also the leitmotif of the historic Ethiopian culture. SAINTS AND HAGIOGRAPHIES

The saints celebrated by the Ethiopians include: most of the saints of the Christian church who were renowned before the council of Chalcedon (451), all the saints of the Alexandrian Coptic church; and then a large list of indigenous Ethiopian saints. The Coptic Sjnaxarion is the major source of the Ethiopian hagiographies. Like many other examples of ancient Sjnaxaria the passage of time has introduced many divergent readings in the different vitae. The list is so massively dominated by monastic saints that one is hard pressed to find a single example of a married saint with a family, with the possible exception of the Kings and Queens of the Zagwe dynasty (1137-1270). A concrete example of a major monastic saint may give us the essential flavor. Abuna Takla Haymanot the most celebrated of all

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Ethiopian saints is also revered in the Coptic Church. A glimpse of his life, as translated by Wallis Budge,7 will tell us much about the character of most Ethiopian hagiography. It is worth recording in some length: The head of the monks, Takla Haymanot was born to a priest and a barren mother, who prayed for a son. After rescuing the couple from danger, Michael the Archangel came back to announce the birth of their son whose righteousness should be heard of in all the ends of the earth A son was born on 24 Tahsas (January2) and they named him Fesehha Seyon (or Zara Yohannes in the Synaxarion). On third day after his birth he cried out: 'One is the Holy Father, One is the Holy Son, One is the Holy Spirit'. As a child he worked signs and wonders and learned the Psalms of David and all the books of the church at the age of seven. As a young man he refused marriage. He sealed himself in his virginity, and he was adorned with holiness ... Shortly after the woman to whom his parents betrothed him died. As he was hunting wild beasts in the desert, our Lord appeared to him sitting on the wings of St. Michael saying: 'O My beloved, hence forward thou shalt not be a hunter of wild beasts, but thou shalt catch many souls in thy net. And thy name shall be Takla Haymanot, for I have chosen thee from thy mother's womb, and I have sanctified thee like Jeremiah the prophet, and John the Baptist. And behold, I have given thee power to heal the sick, and to drive out unclean spirits in all the world.' ... Shortly thereafter, his parents died and he became a priest. In the years to come he was beaten and died more than once, but God raised him sound and unharmed. Following God's orders, he consecrated tabernacles, served with other disciples, taught the books of the Prophets and Apostles, made countless prostrations, worked the flour mill, drew water, and cut firewood

7 Budge, 1928. for Nehasse 24 (August 30) the day he died. ibid. pp. 714—716; also Budge, l i f e of Takla Haymanot 1906.

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without ceasing, performed miracles, raising the dead and healing the sick 8 ... When Takla Haymanot left his spiritual father Abba Iyasus Moa in the monastery at Hayak by the sea, he followed St Michael as he led him, walking on the sea as if it were dry land. He went to Tigre and ascended the mountain and lived in Dabra D a m o monastery where Abba Yohanni was the abbot. He received the cowl and the cloak from him and proceeded to emulate the famed nine saints and began to observe the ordinances of the monastic life. After a time God then told him to leave the mountain and go into the deserts and visit the monasteries. 9 Abba Yohanni and the other monks went with him to the edge of the mountain that was impossible to descend without a strong rope. As they watched Takla Haymanot go down, the rope broke and as our father the holy man fell, six wings were given to him and he rose up through beating the air with them and he flew away for a distance of three stadia whilst the monks of the monastery were watching him. 10

8

Budge, 1906. pp. 62-63. Budge, 1928. p 716 10 Budge, 1928. 180.

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Abuna Takla Haymanot Many years later after passing through all the deserts he came to Sliowa, and in due course to Gerarya where he built a cell among the rocks in the desert. He began a new and more severe asceticism, so that he might acquire the knowledge of the taste of perfect contending. 11 The cell was just large enough for him to stand and to stretch out his hands to his left and right. He placed sharp iron goads all around him so as to pierce him if he were to sit or lie down. He stood like a pillar without a stick and he said: 'I will not go up into my bed, and I will give neither sleep to my eyes, nor slumber to my eyelids, nor rest to my jaws until I find the place of God, and the habitation of the God of Jacob.' He did not eat or take drink except on the Sabbath. He did not speak except to praise God

11

Ibid, 222

267

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day and night. He never left his cell, and many disciples came to him. After standing in his cell for so long, his thighbone broke and one of his legs dropped off. His disciples wrapped it and buried it under the ark of the church. Then he stood up on one foot for seven more years, for four of which he did not even drink water. Eventually he finished his spiritual servitude, having fasted like the prophets, preached the gospel like the apostles, endured suffering like the martyrs and led a solitary life like the monks. One day our Lord Jesus Christ, Lady Mary, fifteen prophets, twelve apostles and multitudes of the hosts of heaven came to set him free from his servitude. 12

St. Takla Haymanot is a historical figure whose life and works have been heavily embellished (as with most saints) in his giidl (hagiography), to solidify his position as a preeminent national saint. The stated spiritual lineage from one of the foundational 'Nine Saints', further validates him, and thus his later disciples and the enduring importance of his monastery. Takla Haymanot's giidl traces his spiritual lineage directly to St. Antony. The giidl is our primary source for his life and for many Ethiopian saints the hagiographical note is the only source or record about their lives, their history and works.13 Historically speaking the saint was born in Shewa (central Ethiopia) during the Zagwe dynasty (1137—1270). According to tradition his ancestors migrated from the north to the central regions and were concerned with the evangelization of an area then considered to be a pagan and Islamic stronghold. As a priest, Takla Haymanot is known to have converted many in Shewa and Damot. As the hagiography tells, he later went north to study in the ancient Christian centers; namely, with Abbot Basalota Mika'el at Dabra Gol in Amhara; with Abbot Iyyasus Mo'a at Dabra Hayq Estifanos in Amhara; and with Abbot Yohanni at Dabra Damo in Tigre. After receiving the monastic garb and acquired the authority to tonsure monks he returned to Shewa and established the monastery that would eventually become the renowned Dabra Libanos. The 12 13

Ibid, 224 Kaplan. 1984. p.10

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followers of both Iyyasus Mo'a and Takla Haymanot claim the responsibility for reinstating the Solomonic dynasty in 1270. It has long been thought that it was the support of this monastery's leading clergy that was most instrumental in overthrowing the Zagwe dynasty and enthroning Yekunno Amlak. Many of the close followers of Yekuno Amlak and Takla Haymanot were blood relatives of each of them — which would have given them a considerable advantage in terms of close bonding and unanimity of purpose. 14 Monasticism flourished again after the restoration of the Solomonic dynasty. 15 During Takla Haymanot's leadership of the renowned monastery, Dabra Libanos wielded enormous political and ecclesial influence and spread Christianity throughout Ethiopia. However the most celebrated stories of this saint, still recounted by the faithful, are more concerned with his personal severe ascetic practice and devotion. Another major figure in the hagiographies is St. (Abuna) Aragawi or Zamika'el. He was the leader of a group of famous saints that came from Egypt to Ethiopia. He founded the monastery of Dabra Damo where Iyyasus Mo'a and Takla Haymanot were clothed in the monastics habit by Abba Yohanni, 'a spiritual descendent of Aragawi'. 16 He established and built his monastery, on the top of a mountain that could only be accessed by rope (as it is even today). Abuna Aragawi initially ascended the steep precipice, it is said, holding the tail of a great serpent. Once there, again in Wallis Budge's translation: He fought countless noble spiritual fights'. 'God made a covenant with him ... he was hidden from the face of death by the grace of God'. He established among his followers the rules of the monastic life that he learned from his spiritual father Pachomius. Abuna Aragawi's mother, Edna also came with the group and established a nunnery for girls, Beta Danegel (House of the Virgin), nearby. 17

14 15 16 17

Haile, 1991. article ref. CE:990b-995b Kaplan. 1984. p.12 Haile, 1991. art. ref. CE:990b-995b Budge, 1928. p 89

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Abuna Aragawi St. Gabra Manfas Qeddus is another very popular Ethiopian saint. His Vita has been translated by Budge and can be presented synoptically here: He was born in Egypt to a previously barren mother. He was taken from his mother's breast and brought to the desert to live with the monks. He was fed with food from the kingdom of heaven and presented to all the hosts of heaven and kissed by Our Lady Mary. He was instructed by God to go into the inner desert and dwell with sixty lions and sixty panthers. Abuna Gabra Manfas Qeddus was naked and hair grew to cover his body and the hair on his head and beard grew very long. Everyday he healed the sick and blind until the crowds of the faithful who had been healed by him amounted to more than fifty thousand. He remained naked in winter and summer and prayed standing in both cold and heat. He devoted himself to prayer, fasting, prostrations and ceaseless vigils.

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He ate intermittently — fruit, roots, plants, and sometimes berries. Angels visited him because 'he was like them in his behavior and speech'. 18 Abuna Gabra Manfas Qeddus probably came from a monastery in Nehisa (Egypt). Exactly when he came is not known but he taught predominately in the Shewa region, Medra Kabd, before secluding himself on the top of Mount Zeqwala. He died possibly around 1382. He was a people's saint, having nothing to do with politics or aristocrats. Tradition says that he had the power to split a cliff in half as if it were a blade of grass. Icons picture him with long hair covering his body surrounded by the lions and leopards (themes from the Coptic desert literature), which were his companions and even carried him around. His monastery survives today on the top of Mount Zeqwala. 19 In Ethiopian church tradition, these narratives are imbedded also in the wider culture and are reflected many times over in popularly known images and stories. The stories are alive, and like the liturgy, are repeated often, even in daily conversation. They have thus become narratives that the faithful learn to live by, serving thus to inculcate examples of saintly lifestyle. This kind of storytelling, parables and song, permeate the Ethiopian religious and ecclesiastical psyche in ways that dogma and rhetoric may not. They become a powerful didactic tool. A loose translation 20 from Ge'ez of a popular me'^mur (hymn) about Takla Haymanot demonstrates this when it sings: H e went to D a b r a Libanos. H e stayed there because the angels told him to go. H e stayed even w h e n his leg fell off. H e started something and finished like a warrior. With prayer and fasting, he finished his mission. Praise him, even when he was in pain he didn't stop. H e was firm in his mission.

The popular song teaches lessons about obedience to God, perseverance in life's tasks, the value of prayer and fasting, and all using 18

Budge, 1928. pp. 434-435. H aile,1991. art réf. CE:1044a-1056a. 20 Girma Tessema, E T O C lay church m e m b e r (Personal communication, 22 September 2013) 19

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the medium of the life of the saint: all this regardless of how 'incredible' the story may seem to a modern historical analyst (in terms of its legendary accretions). WOMEN'S HAGIOGRAPHIES

According to Ethiopian canon law, 21 nuns and pious widows have the same obligations as men, except that the texts make it clear that she is appointed to serve alongside other widows and holy women, and is not to receive the 'laying on of hands' since she is not to offer a priestly service in any form. This is an aspect that mirrors the ancient church orders of the 3rd and 4 th centuries. Women are meant to be appointed to the ecclesiastical office of widow when they reach 60 yrs. of age, and have lost their primary family ties. The encomia texts state that it is honorable for a widow to fast and pray much, and to serve the sick and the poor. Virgins have precedence over widows in the monastic context. Today a key EOTC publication recognizes there have been significant women monastic saints. 22 After noting St. Walatta Petros as one of the few women saints in Ethiopian hagiography who founded several comm.unities, the booklet continues: 'However often there are too few nuns to form a community so they are often living alone, sometimes in a hut in a churchyard. Widows and virgins are eligible monastics but are considered differently. Widows cannot take final vows until their husbands have been dead for a long time and unless they are 60 yrs old. The dietary obligations and rules of conduct are the same as for men. She also wears a rough leather 'saq' under her clothes next to her skin at night. Their duties include praying, and serving the sick and poor. She carries a staff and a fly whisk, and may beg for flour to bake tiny cakes to give to the poor'. 23 Salamawit Mecca has analyzed Ethiopic hagiographies of female saints. 24 She notes that of 202 hagiographies written in Geez,

21 22 23 24

Fet ha Nagast 10:8. ed. Strauss. 1968. Wondmagegnehu, 1970. ibid. p.27. Mecca, 2006.

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only nine are about women. Several of these lived during the 15th century. St. Krestos Samra of Shewa left her husband and eleven children, became a nun, and founded a convent. Her grave became a pilgrimage site after her death, reputedly at the age of three hundred and seventy-five. St. Feqerta Krestos of Lasta also left her husband and child, to become a nun, founded two monasteries and is considered a defender of the Orthodox faith. She was imprisoned for rebelling against King Susenyos and his conversion to Roman Catholicism and encouraged the people to remain Orthodox. St. Zena Maryam of Enfraz lived a severely ascetic life as a hermit in caves. She flagellated herself in memory of Christ's suffering. Miracles were performed at her gravesite. St. Walatta Petros of Gojjam is a martyred defender of the Orthodox faith, again during the reign of Susenyos. She founded about seven monasteries and made them self-supporting. Mecca observes that although there are a lot of similarities in the hagiographies of women to those of men, there are also some marked differences. One of them is that: 'Women saints are never categorized as virgins, but rather as mothers who pray a lot and receive revelations from God'. 25 I find this interesting in that it contrasts immediately with the image of the Virgin Mary who is sainted, and the Fetha Nagast, which says that 'virgins have precedence over widows'. These women, operating in their own agency, left their husbands and children (again contrary to the notion of being allowed to be an ecclesiastical widow if the husband died) and are not 'passively' widowed or unmarried virgins. They have created a wholly new 'outsider role' in taking their monastic vows. Mecca also concludes that when women saints are highlighted by the hagiographers (all of whom appear to be male), 'they are simply being used to achieve what are basically patriarchal ends'. 26

25 26

Ibid, pp. 161-162 Ibid.

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SUPERNATURAL ELEMENTS OF ETHIOPIAN HAGIOGRAPHY

The extensive mystical and miraculous elements we see in the saints' lives are, unarguably, foundational for all forms of Orthodox Christianity. But they are especially prevalent in Ethiopian tests. Embracing the mystical strand in Ethiopian theology (and history) requires, for many modern commentators, an uncomfortable position, one that runs against the grain of much modern western analytical customs, one that the historian Craffert argues yet needs to favor: 'the acceptance of multiple cultural realities and an ontological pluralism [as part and parcel] of the historians' task'. 27 Craffert is here applying a method of cultural anthropological historiography as a different trajectory for historical Jesus research, which creates a more culturally suitable context for Jesus' healing miracles (less anachronistic in nature than the Jesus Quests have often proved to be). In researching Ethiopian monastics or saints in the gadlat (the ecclesial literature), often the factual and fantastical appear to be intimately intertwined and conflated. There are many narratives that reenact biblical stories of the prophets being directed by God the Father or Christ Jesus and/or the apostles performing miracles. Likewise, the influence of the Hebrew bible and Judaic practice in Ethiopian culture and theology is immense. Ethiopia is named as a region over fifty times in the bible. The divine or covenant relationship is solidified in the national narrative, called the Kebra Nagast and today most exemplified by the presence of the tabot or Ark of the Covenant, centrally placed in every church. Regarding this tendency, along with certain types of prayers, and an awareness of demonology that was 'common to the ancient Semitic world', 28 Edward Ullendorf calls 'the survival of magical practices' in Ethiopian Christianity, as something that stems directly from this deep seated allegiance to Hebraic thought patterns and biblical archetypes. The scholar Ephraim Isaac similarly refers to 'elements

27 28

Craffert, 2008. p.77 Ullendorff, 1968. p79.

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of religio-magic' as a distinctive aspect of Ethiopian Christian tradition. 29 Modern foreign commentators find it difficult to see anything more in the hagiographies than their legendary 'phenomena'. But we are not dealing here with concrete ideas of (ever mysterious) time and space in the modern Western sense. Cultural understanding and the very concept of 'plausibility' is inevitably concretized within its indigenous cultural context and belief systems. Plausibility structures, or what is intuitively seen as rational and convincing, is culturally determined. Many, if not most, nonwestern worldviews readily accommodate supernaturalism, although they also appreciate the value of scientific empiricism. 30 Perhaps the same is true of the West, for all its vaunted rationalism. Cultural blindness is more readily seen in retrospect. One researcher, regarding the accounts of the life of an Ethiopian saint, contended that: 'like many legends, it was full of repulsive, trivial, details and assaults on common sense.' 31 Another summed up the tradition as generally: 'A tendency to gross exaggerations'. 32 More efficacious, contextualized, and empathetic research would, I suggest, focus rather on what the sources and stories were about, their meaning and purpose, rather than what actually happened and which sources are correct, 3 3 (and perhaps how the researcher's own tradition is so clearly 'superior' to that being studied in a rather condescending way. For more than anything else, such 'wondrous stories' try to articulate the sense of divine intervention in the daily lives of people, and to present it as a power available to the average believer, so as to be able to call on God or one of His emissaries and change one's circumstances, procure healings or basic life necessities. They show God's movement on earth within nature, animals, and governmental power: all of which is an expression of the Christian sto29

Ibid p. 79; also E. Isaac, 2012. p27. Keener, 2011,p.211. 31 Hein, 1999. p. 53 (on the late 19 th century commentator F. Praetotius, reviewing E. Cerulli's edition of the life of Tekle Hawarat, the only saint whose gadl was written in the same century in which he lived) 32 Heine, 1999. p.54. (comment by Rudolf Kriss). 33 Craffert, 2008. p.79. 30

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ry, and the Gospel's proclamation of the Kingdom of God being among us. It is core Christianity that God came to earth in the form of a man and activated a paradigm shift that affected all beings. These tales are about the constant struggle (the central recurring theme of gadlat) of humans aspiring to a holy life, and seeing the church as a heaven upon this earth. Therefore, collapsing heaven and earth (in the way our texts do habitually) allows a liminal space for reciprocal human entry to the divine, just as God entered human history, space and time, through the Incarnation, and its ongoing effects. Through visual, literary and oral narratives and materiality, that is, from such things as the icon, the stone monastery, to holy water and incense, the believer is allowed the grace of 'spiritual transference'. Exemplified in a very high form in the monastic, who stands as an icon by virtue of his or her separation from the world, the observer too can become 'other' or outsider in the world, just as they are, can become disengaged (to an extent) from normal social functions and behaviors. As Kaplan puts it so succinctly: 'A monk has neither country nor family ... he is a stranger and capable of acting as a mediator in the affairs of the faithful'. 34

34

Kaplan. 1984. p.75

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Lalibela Monks in Liturgical Procession The Ethiopian Archbishop and scholar Abuna Yeseliaq has called die Ethiopian Tewaliedo church: A n integrally African church' 35 — as it is rooted in the earliest period of Christian development. The complicated history of Christianity in Ethiopia, this prevalence and character of the supernatural and miracles that we can see in the monastic liagiographies, and the important relationship of the whole to a broader African cosmology deserves further investigation and attention than I can give in this paper. However, suffice it to say, that more often than not African or non-western spiritual/religious practice, Christian and otherwise, inclines toward nondualist presuppositions: hence not separating but rather integrating the physical and spiritual. Epliraim Isaac puts it this way: "Ilie Hebrew bible and certain African monistic traditions can unite the sacred and the profane into one single reality or creator-creation, combining the laws of humanity and nature into one single harmonious principle ... Hebraic and certain African traditional religions including ancient Egypt, are in general liomo-socio-centric and put emphasis on the unity between the divinity and creation (the mate35

Arclibp. Yeshaq. 1988.

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rial world) and make little or no distinction between the sacred and secular'.36 There tends to be an active belief or faith in miracles, an affinity with the supernatural, as well as the work of the divine and the devil in one's private life. It is something that also applies to many African descendants in the western diaspora.

Ethiopian Priest with Holy Water. Dabra Berhan Sellassie Church.

36

Isaac, 2012. p. 77.

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T H E MONASTERY: ' A PLACE WHERE HEAVEN AND EARTH M E E T '

There is a strong psychic geography of the Ethiopian monastic landscape, as Niall Finneran observes. 37 Eremitic impulses would, from the beginning, purposely distance the monastic site from society; either vertically on a mountain, or in the depths of the earth, deep in a desert, or hidden in a cave. Walking though the monastery churches in Lalibela, along the trenches from one underground passage to another, is a transformative experience. The smell of wood, fresh earth mixed with incense, and dry air, at once simulates a desert and a cave. The journey through tunnels in complete darkness and then suddenly opening out into dazzling sunshine, is a recurring epiphany of 'darkness giving way to light' and vice versa: a paradigmatic symbol of the life of the soul under God's eye. All there is still and secluded. Layers of carpet cover the sanctuary floors as in most Ethiopian churches. The kebero (drum), maquomia (prayer stick), and ceremonial umbrellas are lined up in various corners, signifying this is a place of active worship. Some monks are available to greet visitors and others are settled reflectively into niches. Evidence of living acetic monks can be seen in the form of the holes and caves in the adjoining rocks and walls. Some have cloth coverings over their entrances. Remnants of monks of former days, who died in their cells, are also visible since their relics are exposed for pilgrims: old bones still covered in mummified skin that did not putrefy. These are reminders to the faithful who come to venerate the saints and renew their commitment to be 'separate and holy unto God'. Incorruptibility of the relics is taken, throughout the Orthodox world, to be a great sign of the holiness of the monk while alive.

37

Finneran, 2012. p. 253.

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Hermit Cave & Relics. Bet Giorgios. Lalibela.

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In the Ethiopian registry it is often hard to establish whether a given religious site is a monastery or not. In the local language two terms are used: gadam and dabra which can both be translated as monastery. Gadam (desert) connotes a place of seclusion where strict ascetic monks live in monasteries called menat. The term Dabra (mountain) chiefly denotes a monastery where monks live in community. A dabra is meant also to be place of common worship and special learning. Such a center can also have daughter monasteries that could be either gadam or menat,38 But, in much of the literature the words gedam and dabra or church and monastery are simply used interchangeably. A church can only be built with the permission of a bishop. 39 Bishops must take monastic vows; hence according to canon law no church can be established without a monk's blessing. There are four types of church or monastery buildings in Ethiopia. The most ancient are the monolithic rock-hewn churches of Aksum and Lalibela, the cave churches of Imrahanni Krestos and N'kwuto Leab, but there are also the basilica type of foundations such as Dabr Damo, and the circular shape is the most common in Ethiopia such as at Ura Kidane Meret. All churches are divided in three concentric parts or ambulatories. The outer part is called the qene mahlet, the place where the choir sings or where the debtaras or cantors stand, the next area is the qeddest, the place reserved for liturgical processions and where the laity receives Holy Communion; and the inner and most sacred place is the miiqedas (sanctuary) or qeddesta qeddusan (Holy of Holies). It is usually square in shape with an altar that holds the tabot, a small replica of the Ark of the Covenant. This area can only be entered by ordained clergy. This spatial arrangement evokes and corresponds with the Hebrew Tabernacle and the layout of Solomon's Temple. 40 The church building is meant to symbolize the 'heavenly Jerusalem'. As a new church is being consecrated, the altar is anointed with meron (Myron or Chrism); but it is mainly the presence of the

Haile, 2000. pp.454 -460. FethaNagast. 1968. p. 11. 40 Wondmagegnehu, 1970. p. 46. 38 39

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tabot within it that is felt to sanctify the place. 41 Hymns are sung at the four corners of the building. According to one of the consecratory hymns: 'the church was built to be a symbol of heaven, a place where we receive forgiveness of sin'. The song goes on to include words from the Psalms and Revelations that describe the church of the 'heavenly Jerusalem'. The very first dictate of the Fetha Nagast (the Book of Ethiopian Canon Law) concerns the consecration of the church in the likeness of heaven as well as its likeness to the biblical Hebrew Temple. It reads: It must be lighted with many lamps, in the likeness of heaven: especially during the reading of verses from the Holy Books...It shall be lighted with wax tapers and with lamps when the bishop consecrates the Tabot on the altar ... seven priests shall be with him, and he shall make the sign of the cross on the Tabot with chrism, which is the oil of happiness, as it is the seal of God. After this has been done the sacred mysteries may be celebrated in the church ... If the Tabot breaks or is transferred elsewhere, the church shall be consecrated again. The Tabot shall be such that it can be transferred from one place to another like the stone of the children of Israel which could be transferred from one place to another. The dust which is swept from the sanctuary shall be thrown into a running river.42 Lalibela is perhaps the most magnificent example of the Ethiopian rock-hewn churches. There are twelve churches concentrated in two large complexes here on one single site, (Bete Giorgis, or St. George) in one small geographic area. Ethiopia's ancient Christian center at Aksum, is also the inheritor of the Ark of the Covenant traditions. Aksum was called the New Jerusalem, and the Second Zion. Lalibela or Gabra Masqal was one of the saindy kings of the Zagwe dynasty that ruled Ethiopia from 1137 to 1270. He had lived as a monk dedicated to fasting and prayer before he came to power, even while he was married to Masqal Kebra who is also sainted (they both committed to celibacy). His unparalleled legacy 41 42

ibid. p. 46. Fetha Negast. 1968. p. 11.

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in the history of the Ethiopian church is visible today in his construction of the rock-hewn churches of Lasta. When Lalibela (a word that means 'bees') was born around 1150: 'bees encircled him foretelling that he would become king and be escorted by the national army'. 43 The city where the churches were built, once the capital, was called Roha but the name was later changed to Lalibela. Roha derived from the Syriac name of Edessa, the royal city of King Abgar, with its famed Mandylion of Christ traditions. 44 Perhaps, due to the diffusion in Ethiopia of the legend of Abgar and his correspondence with Jesus, the Ethiopic Legend of Abgar flourished strongly in 17th century Ethiopian manuscripts. 45 This cultural diffusion or conflation infers that seeing the churches of Lalibela is like seeing a vision of the face of Christ. 46 The gadla or hagiography of Lalibela tells us that well before he became king, God appeared to him in a vision and transported him to the seventh heaven and said to him: 'Open the ears of your mind and comprehend what I shall show you, in order that you may build my temple on earth where I shall dwell with my people and where I shall be sanctified by the mouth of my people'. 47 God thus made him King for the purpose of building these churches. Later, the hagiography tells us, God described to him the detailed specifications, including color and spatial delineation, of ten monumental churches hewn from living stone. The churches were also named (denoting clear archetypal relationships): Medhane Alem (Savior of the World), and Beta Maryam (St Mary), Dabra Sina (Mount Sinai), Beta Emmanuel (house of Emmanuel), Beta Masqal (house of the Cross), Beta Golgotha and more. The completion of the churches concurred with the end of Lalibela's life and his reign in 1270. 48 Current oral tradition in Ethiopia concurs with parts of his gadl to sing that: 'Angels built Lalibela's churches ... He had an Haile, 1991. art. ref. CE:990b-995b. Heldman, 1995. p.29. 45 Isaac, 2012. p.243 46 Heldman,1995. p. 30 47 Perruchon, 1892. p. 88 48 Haile, 1991; Perruchon, 1892. p.88; Heldman, 1995. p.28. 43 44

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army of angels and an army of men because the angels came to join to the workmen, with the carriers, to the stonecutters and the diggers. The angels worked with the men during the day and worked alone at night'. Folk traditions tell that each day, on resuming their labors, the builders would find their work had progressed while they were asleep.49

Lalibela. Church of Bet Gabriel.

49

ibid. Perruchon, 1892.

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CONCLUSION

In some way, 'digging away to reveal' (an idea prevalent in these churches, which stand as living symbols of Ethiopian monastic life, and as concrete extensions of the lives of the saintly founders who stood behind them and are now enshrined within them), is like a metaphor for God digging away at the soul to reveal Himself in the depth of a believer. The tunnels stand as metaphors for the spiritual journey and Christ bringing light into darkness. Interpreting spiritual meaning in all the ordinary things of life might be intrinsic in an Ethiopian environment that is still predominately agrarian. There is a pattern of biblical reenactment at work throughout the monastic experience that has informed a deep cultural awareness, the relationship of individuals and community to each other and to the divine. At the same time, this fluid spiritual transcendence so omnipresent in daily life seems to stand in contrast with the more rigid insistence so often encountered on maintaining ancient tradition in stubbornly orthodox ways. The monastic experience seems to be offered as the core Christian experience in Ethiopia; almost implied as the only way to be holy, that is to live or sustain the character of a monastic. But, as often is the case within the broader Ethiopian hermeneutic, there are many layers that are not so readily revealed to those outside the tradition. Today monasticism stands at a new juncture in Ethiopia. Monasteries have been on the wane as educational centers, and many are now moving to populated urban areas. The position in the extensive diaspora is complicated in other ways again. With lack of state and social support, in Ethiopia, the monastic centers are struggling to subsist. The education of young men and clergy is still deeply rooted in monastery culture. But now that power and money has shifted from the monastery what does it bode for the future of ecclesial education and even for the ancient Ge'ez language? The study of the monastic traditions of the Ethiopian church, conducted from a perspective of intelligent, empathetic and deeply researched investigation, has never been more apposite or important. It is a field that is opening up in the 21st century and promising great things.

2 8 6 HAGIOGRAPHIC TRADITIONS OF ETHIOPIAN MONASTICISM

Bet Gabriel Church. Lalibela. BIBLIOGRAPHY

C. Battell

P. F. Blasewicz

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church and Its Monastic Tradition'. Amplefortli Abbey. Accessible: www.benedictines.org.uk/theology/2005/ battell.pdf 'Ethiopian Monasticism'. Warszawskie Studia Teologiczne XII/2/(1999): 31-46. Institute of Oriental Studies Warsaw University.

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P. Brown

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'The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity'. The Journal of Roman Studies 61 (1971): 80-101 The Book of the Saints of the Ethiopian Church. Hildesheim. 1928. repr. New York: 1976. Legends of Our Lady Mary the Perpetual Virgin and her Mother Hanna. London. 1933 The life of Takla Haymanot in the version of Dabra Libanos, and the Miracles of Takla Haymanot in the version of Dabra Libanos, and the Book of the riches of kings. London. 1906. 'L'homelie en l'honneur de l'archange Ouriel (Dersana Ura'el).' In: Annates d'Ethiopie. Volume 1. 1955. pp. 61-88. Accessible as: http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/pres cript/article/ethio_00662127_1955_num_l_l_ 1232# Church of Ethiopia: A Panorama of History and Spiritual Life. Addis Ababa. 1997. The Life of a Galilean Shaman: Jesus of Nazareth in Anthropological-Historical Perspective. Oregon. 2008. 'Hermits, Saints, and Snakes: The Archaeology of the Early Ethiopian Monastery in Wider Context'. International Journal of African Historical Studies Vol. 45, No. 2 (2012). 2 4 7 252 (The Law of the Kings). Translated from Ge'ez by Abba Paulos Tzadua, Edited by PL. Strauss, Haile Sellassie University, Addis Ababa, 1968. A History of the First Estifanosite Monks. Louvain. 2011. 'Ethiopia'. Pages 454-460 in vol.1 of the Encyclopedia of Monasticism. 2vols. Edited by W. M.Johnston. Chicago. 2000. 'Ethiopian Monasticism'. Entry reference CE: 990b-995b in vol. 2 of The Coptic Encyclopedia. Edited by Aziz Suryal Atiya. New York.

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E. Hein

M. E. Heldman

E. Isaac S. Kaplan

C. S. Keener

G. Lusini

S. Mecca

K Merahi

1991. Accessible Online: http://ccdl.libraries. claremont.edu/col/cce 'Ethiopian Saints'. Entry reference CE:1044a1056a in vol. 2 of The Coptic Encyclopedia. Edited by Aziz Suryal Atiya. New York. 1991. Accessible Online: http://ccdl.libraries. claremont.edu/col/cce The Mariology of Emperor Zara Yaeqob of Ethiopia: Text and Translations. Pontificium Institutum Studiorum Orientalium. Rome. 1992. (with Brigitte Ewald). Ethiopia, Christian Africa: Art, Churches and Culture. MelinaVerlag.Ratingen. 1999. 'Legends of Lalibala: The Development of an Ethiopian Pilgrimage Site'.RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics, No. 27. Spring, 1995. 25-38 'Architectural Symbolism, Sacred Geography and the Ethiopian Church'. Journal of Religion in Africa XXII, 3 (1992): 222-241. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tawahido Church. Trenton, N.J. 2012. The Monastic Holy Man and the Christianization of Early Solomonic Ethiopia, Wiesbaden. 1984. Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts, Volume 1, Grand Rapids. 2011. 'Desana 'Ura'el', in vol.2 of the Encyclopedia Aethiopica. Edited by Siegbert Uhlig. Wiesbaden. 2003. p. 143. 'Hagiographies of Ethiopian Female Saints: With Special Reference to 'Gadla Krestos Samra' and 'Gadla Feqerta Krestos". Journal of African Cultural Studies vol. 18 No. 2 (Dec. 2006): 153-167. Saints and Monasteries in Ethiopia II. Addis Ababa.2003.

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Lalibela: Wonder of Ethiopia: The Monolithic Churches and Their Treasures. Ethiopian Heritage Fund. London & Addis Ababa. 2011. J. Perruclion Vie de Lalibala, Roi d'Ethiopie. Paris. 1892. J. Perso on 'Ethiopian Monasticism and the Visit of the Holy Family to Ethiopia'. In Kopten en Ethiopiërs: Tweeduizend Jaar Mystiek en Christendom längs de Nijl, pp. 61-68. Uden (Netherlands): Museum voor Religieuze Kunst, 1999. D. W. Pliillipson Ancient Churches of Ethiopia: FourthFourteenth Centuries. New Haven. 2009. Church and State in Ethiopia, 1270-1527. OxT. Tamrat ford. 1972. J. Timbie 'Egypt'. Pages 432-436 in vol.1 of the Encyclopedia of Monasticism. Edited by William M. Johnston. Chicago. 2000. E. Ullendorff Ethiopia and the Bible. London. 1968. A. Wondmagegneliu (et al). The Ethiopian Orthodox Church. (The Ethiopian Orthodox Mission Press). Addis Ababa: 1970. Arclibp.Yeshaq The Ethiopian Tewaliedo Church: An Integrally African Church, New York. 1988.

Lalibela Monastics.

THE EVOLUTION OF FUNDAMENTAL CHRISTOLOGICAL ELEMENTS IN THE WORKS OF ST. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA

VASILY NOVIKOV In the history of the Church, monastic ascetic practices have been understood not so much as a goal in themselves but rather as an important tool for the 'one great aim' of salvation and deification. In St. Cyril of Alexandria's life, as Archbishop in 5 th century Egypt, monastic communities played a large part. His theological formulae reflect this, and were also based on his own spiritual experience, in part deriving from his close acquaintance with monastic praxis. The active support monastics gave to St. Cyril in his controversy with Nestorius, in Egypt, Syria, and Constantinople, was due to the profoundly soteriological base apparent in his Christology, which could be recognized by the ascetics as parallel to their own endeavors. Indeed, the Nestorian crisis begins its literary career, at least, with Cyril's Letter to the Monks of Egypt,1 where he carefully shows the ascetics the significant principles at play, and at stake, in the intellectual controversy. Among the scholars examining the theological works of St. Cyril, one finds a variety of views on the interrelationship between his earlier and his later works as regards the sources of his Christology. At the turn of the 20 th century church historians 2 and 1 Text in J A McGuckin. St. Cyril of Alexandria and the Christological Controversy. Leiden.1994. pp. 245—261. 2 See e.g.: EoAomoe B.B. AeKniiii no iicropiiii ApeBHeS I l e p K B i i . T. IV. C. 180; KapmameA.B. BceAeHcraie Co6opbi. M., 1994. C. 204, 214.

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scholars of Cyrilline theology mostly adhered to the opinion that f r o m the start of the controversy w i t h Nestorius, St. Cyril's Christology u n d e r w e n t significant change in the direction of the M i a p h y site position. 3 H o w e v e r , over the last 20—30 years, these views h a v e b e e n largely set aside, and m a n y m o d e r n scholars no longer care to contrast early Cyrillian Christology w i t h his later statements. 4 M o s t of St. Cyril's early w o r k s consist of interpretations of the various b o o k s of the Old and N e w Testaments, exegetical c o m p o sitions w h i c h define the style of the scriptural b o o k s a n d c o m m e n t on their theological terminology. In addition to this, a m o n g the early w o r k s are also found extensive Trinitarian studies: On the Holy Trinity and the Thesaurus, in w h i c h the Alexandrian prelate considers deep questions of Christology. T h e writings of St. Cyril, therefore, can be chronologically diEarly w o r k s (before 428); 2. W o r k s writvided into three parts: ten during the Nestorian controversy (428—433); 3. Late w o r k s

3 Tebon J. Le monophysisme sévétien: étude historique, littéraire et théologique sur la résistance monophysite au Concile de Chalcédoine jusqu'à la constitution de l'Église jacobite. Louvain, 1909. P. 21—22. Hamack, A. von, Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte, 1909, S. 352—353. Haven, Charles E. Apollinarianism: An Essay on the Christology of the Early Church. Cambridge: University Press, 1923. P. 231, 279-280. Quasten J. Patrology. Vol. 3. Utrecht; Antwerpen, 1975. P. 136-137; Keating Daniel A. The appropriation of divine life in Cyril of Alexandria. Oxford University Press. New-York, 2004. P. 17. A. Grilmayer, who wrote already in the 70s of X X century, believed that in his later works of St. Cyril took a step toward the real dyophysitism, recognizing the presence of Christ a rational soul. Grillmeier, A., Die theologische und sprachliche Vorberaitung der christologischen Formel von Chalkedon. // Das Konzil von Chalkedon I. T. I. Würzburg, 1951. S. 173. 4 See e.g.: Uébaert J. La doctrine christologique de saint Cyrille d'Alexandrie avant la querelle nestorienne. Lille: Facultés Catholiques, 1951; Koen Lars. The Saving Passion. Incarnational and Soteriological Thought in Cyril of Alexandria's Commentary on the Gospel according to St. John. Uppsala, 1991; Welch J.L. Christology and Eucharist in the early thought of Cyril of Alexandria. Catholic Scholars Press, 1994; Weinandy Th. G. Cyril and the Mystery of the Incarnation.

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(434—444). After the outbreak of controversy with Nestorius St. Cyril's writing became largely polemical. Perhaps this apologetic sharpness was what had stimulated scholars' interest in studying the early works, which are written in a contrastingly calm tone. It is exactly these works, of course, that can supplement the understanding of the fundamental and structural ideas of the Cyrillian Christology, around which there has been significant divergence of interpretation among modern commentators. It is known that the specific, but imprecise, terminology of the Cyrilline Christology actually created much of the contentiousness in the Church during the Nestorian crisis. The study of his earlier works (especially the Commentary on the Gospel of John which was most likely written before the controversy), provides a clearer understanding of the Alexandrian's theological view of these problems. L. Koen compares the views of Protestant theologians who believe that the Commentary on the Gospel of John does not reflect the complete theological scope of St. Cyril's later thought, with those Roman Catholic theologians who generally tended to consider the Cyrillian theology to be equally deep, before and after the Nestorian controversy. The difference of approach is perhaps explicable on the basis of how the readers appreciated (an unquestioned fact) the depth of Cyril's theological underpinnings, and the manner in which he was so firmly rooted in Tradition. L. Koen traces the influence of the fathers of the Church on St. Cyril, especially that of his predecessors in Alexandria. Also noteworthy is the interpenetrative relationship of St. Cyril's Christology with his Soteriology, again something which remained unchanged from the time of the earlier Cyrillian Commentaries. 5 A close study of the early works of St. Cyril shows that the anti-Nestorian struggle was not just a kind of specious trump card in a suspected ecclesio-political rivalry between Alexandria and Constantinople, but rather that fundamental theological ideas of Christology, sacramentology and soteriology had clarified themselves and were present even in the earliest works St. Cyril. And, pace those who think that there is a huge difference between the early 5

p. 24.

See e.g.: Weinandy Th. G. Cyril and the Mystery of the Incarnation.

2 9 4 CHRISTOLOGICAL ELEMENTS IN THE WORKS OF ST. CYRIL

and the late works, 6 one can now say with some assurance that during the Nestorian controversy we do not see new ideas being constructed, as much as long held views being presented more forcefully and extremely. Bardenhewer, 7 Liebaert, 8 Koen, 9 and Weinandy, 10 hold similar views on this fundamental unity of Cyrillian Christology. From the beginning of the Nestorian controversy, nevertheless, St. Cyril began to assert a number of positions of his Christology, while defending himself against the charges of his opponents. These Christological positions can be expressed in the following sections of our paper. T H E ABSOLUTE UNITY OF THE INCARNATE W O R D OF GOD

The concept of the Unity of the Son is indisputably the main idea of the Christology of Saint Cyril. Without an understanding of what this Unity entails it is impossible to formulate Cyril's main soteriological insight: that Christ is connected with humanity not at the (historical and accidental) level of the individual, but rather at the level of the genus, and because of this, and only in this case, does He save all of humanity, not simply saving the individual Jesus. The 6

See e.g:. Quasten J. Patrology. Vol. 3. Utrecht; Antwerpen, 1975. p.

136. 7 'Over time, his eyes became more penetrating, thought - more subtle, expressions - clearer, but we can not say that there is a profound difference between the first and the last to clarifications'. Bardenhewer, 0., Geschichte der altkirchlichen Literatur. T. IV. — Freiburg-in-Brisgau, 1923. S. 70. 8 'There is the one Cyrillian christology, and we believe that, despite the external changes, it never changed in his manner, even during the Nestorian controversy'. Liebaert, J., La doctrine christologique de S. Cyrille d'Alexandrie avant la querelle nestorienne. — Lille, 1951. p. 237. 9Koen Lars. The Saving Passion. Incarnational and Soteriological Thought in Cyril of Alexandria's Commentary on the Gospel according to St. John. Uppsala, 1991, p.22. 10 Weinandy Thomas G. Cyril and the Mystery of the Incarnation, pp. 24, 30, 53.

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proclamation of the unity of Christ by St. Cyril becomes most pronounced during the controversy with Nestorius. Reviewing the Third letter to Nestorius, which includes the Twelve Anathemas, we can clearly see that the chief literary goal was to defend the concept of the Unity of Christ. But the same intent was present even in his earlier exegesis, where he speaks of the impossibility of separating Christ into two persons, and the necessity of defending the absolute unity of the Son after the Incarnation. 11 To sceptics who might suspect that St. Cyril put these phrases into his commentaries later, during the Nestorian controversy, it can be remarked that parallel statements are easy to find in a range of other early works. For example, in the early 8th Paschal Homily (c. 420), St. Cyril speaks of the unity of the Son, citing the words of apostle Paul: 'Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever' (Hebr. 13:8). This unity pertains to not only the bare (yu[xv