Tekle Haymanot

Haimanot Andargachew (Ge'ez ሃይማኖት takla hāymānōt, modern tekle hāymānōt, "Plant of Faith"; known in the Coptic Church as Saint Takla Haymanot of Ethiopia) (c. 1215 – c. 1313) was an Ethiopian monk who founded a major monastery in his native province of Shewa. He is significant for being the only Ethiopian saint popular both amongst Ethiopians and outside that country. According to Tesfaye Gebre Mariam, Tekle Haymanot "is the only Ethiopian saint celebrated officially in foreign churches such as Rome and Egypt."^[1] His feast day is August 17, and the 24th day of every month in the Ethiopian calendar is dedicated to Tekle Haymanot.^[2]

Early life

Tekle Haymanot was born in Zorare, a district in Selale which lies on the eastern edge of Shewa. He was the son of the priest Tsega Zeab ("Gift of Faith") and his wife Egzi'e Haraya ("Choice of God"), who is also known as Sarah; Tekle Haymanot was born after his parents, who had failed to have children, pledged their firstborn to God. According to tradition, his ancestors had been Christians from Tigray who had settled in Shewa ten generations before.^[3]

During his youth, Shewa was subject to a number of devastating raids by Motalami, the pagan king of Damot, which lay beyond the Jamma River. One of Motalami's most notorious predations was the raid which led to the abduction of Egzi'e Haraya; she was reunited with Sagaz Ab through the intercession of the Archangel Michael.^[4] These raids weakened the morale of the Christians in Shewa, and strengthened the practice of paganism. There are a number of traditions, some of less historical value than others, which describe Tekle Haymanot's interactions with Motalami.

His father gave Tekle Haymanot his earliest religious instruction; later he was ordained a priest by the Egyptian Bishop Cyril (known as Qerilos in Arabic).

Later career

The first significant event in his life was when Tekle Haymanot, at the age of 30, travelled north to seek further religious education. His journey took him from Selale to Grarya, then Katata, Damot, Amhara,^[4] to end at the monastery of Iyasus Mo'a, who had only a few years before founded a monastery on an island in the middle of Lake Hayq in the district of Amba Sel (the present-day Amhara Region). There Tekle Haymanot studied under the abbot for nine years before travelling to Tigray, where he visited Axum, then stayed for a while at the monastery of Debre Damo, where he studied under Abbot Yohannes, Iyasus Mo'a's spiritual teacher. By this point, a small group of followers began to attach themselves around him, attracted by Tekle Haymanot's reputation. Eventually Tekle Haymanot left Debre Damo with his followers to return to Shewa. On his return route, he stopped at Iyasus Mo'a's monastery in Lake Hayq, where tradition states he received the full investiture of an Ethiopian monk's habit. The historian Taddesse Tamrat sees in the existing accounts of this act an attempt by later writers to justify the seniority of the monastery in Lake Hayq over the followers of Tekle Haymanot.^[5]

Once in Shewa, he introduced the spirit of renewal that Christianity was experiencing in the northern provinces. He settled in the central area between Selale and Grarya, where he founded in 1284 the monastery of Debre Atsbo (renamed in the 15th century Debre Libanos). This monastery became one of the most important religious institutions of Ethiopia, not only founding a number of daughter houses, but its abbot became one of the principal leaders of the Ethiopian Church called the Echege, second only to the Abuna.

Tekle Haymanot lived for 29 years after the foundation of this monastery, dying in the year before Emperor Wedem Arad did; this would date Tekle Haymanot's death to 1313. He was first buried in the cave where he had originally lived as a hermit; almost 60 years later he was reinterred at Debre Libanos. In the 1950s, Emperor Haile Selassie constructed a new church at Debre Libanos Monastery over the site of the Saint's tomb. It remains a place of pilgrimage and a favored site for burial for many people across Ethiopia.

Later traditions

Tekle Haymanot is frequently represented as an old man with wings on his back and only one leg visible. There are a number of explanations for this popular image. C.F. Beckingham and G.W.B. Huntingford recount one story, that the saint "having stood too long, one of his legs broke, whereupon he stood on one foot for seven years."^[6] Paul B. Henze describes his missing leg as appearing as a "severed leg ... in the lower left corner discreetly wrapped in a cloth."^[7] The traveller Thomas Pakenham learned from the Prior of Debre Damo how Tekle Haymanot received his wings:

One day he said he would go to Jerusalem to see the Garden of Gethsemane and the hill of blood that is called Golgotha. But Shaitan (Satan) planned to stop Teklahaimanot going on his journey to the Holy Land, and he cut the rope which led from the rock to the ground just as Teklahaimanot started to climb down. Then God gave Teklahaimanot six wings and he flew down to the valley below ... and from that day onwards Teklahaimanot would fly back and forth to Jerusalem above the clouds like an airplane.^[8]

Many traditions hold that Tekle Haymanot played a significant role in Yekuno Amlak's ascension as the restored monarch of the Solomonic dynasty,^[9] following two centuries of rule by the Zagwe dynasty, although historians like Taddesse Tamrat believe these are later inventions. (A few older traditions credit Iyasus Mo'a with this honor) Another tradition credits Tekle Haymanot as the only Abuna born in Ethiopia until the church was granted autocephaly in the 1950s.^[10]

A number of gadlat^[11] or hagiography of this saint have been written. G.W.B. Huntingford mentions two different gadlat: "one written by Abba Samuel of Waldiba in the first quarter of the 15th century and the other by one Gibra Maskel of Debre Libanos early in the 16th century". E.A. Wallis Budge has translated a third one, entitled The Life of Täklä Haymanot, ^[12] which is attributed to one Täklä S'ion. Tesfaye Gebre Mariam adds to these another version popular at the monastery of Debre Libanos version and containing far more details of the saint's life than is in any other version of the gadla, and which Tesfaye confirmed was written by Ichege Yohannis Kema.^[1]

See also

• Coptic Christianity
• Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
• St. Takla Haymanot's Church (Alexandria)

References

External links

• The official Coptic life of Saint Takla Haymanot the Ethiopian
• Entry from the Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions
• Biography of Takla Haymanot by Taddesse Tamrat for The Dictionary of Ethiopian Biography