St Yared
10 June 2020
On 10.6.2020 Sophia Dege (HLCEES and Bochum University) and Bar Kribus (Bochum University) present at the Forschungskolloquium of the AAI on "St. Yared in the Semien Mountains - comparing the Christian and the Beta Esrael veneration"
St. Yared is one of the most renowned local saints of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. He traditionally lived during the reign of the sixth-century Ethiopian monarch Gäbrä Mäsqäl and is credited with the composition of numerous elements of Ethiopian Orthodox liturgical music and hymns. The Betä Ǝsraʾel (Ethiopian Jews) identify this holy man as a member of the Betä Ǝsraʾel community. According to both the Ethiopian Orthodox and the Betä Ǝsraʾel religious tradition, he spent the last years of his life in (or near) the Sǝmen Mountains. These mountains were, between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, partially governed by Betä Ǝsraʾel rulers, and the site of wars waged between the Betä Ǝsraʾel and the Christian Ethiopian Solomonic kingdom. Various sites in these mountains are associated with St. Yared.
This lecture will examine and compare the Ethiopian Orthodox and Betä Ǝsraʾel religious traditions regarding St. Yared. An attempt will be made to identify and pinpoint the various sites in the Sǝmen Mountains dedicated to him, and to determine the role of these sites with regards to both religious communities.