The Encyclopaedia Aethiopica and the “Nine Saints”

A kind colleague sent me the article on Abba Garima from the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica.  This article, by Denis Nosnitsin, was really very good, very detailed, and well referenced.  Perfect for the newcomer interested in the subject.

This led me to search out copies of the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica.  It’s in five volumes, published in Hamburg between 2003 and 2010, although I was only able to locate four of the volumes.  The Wikipedia article for the Encyclopedia describes it as a “basic encyclopedia”, which it is not.  The same article suggests that the transcription system used is different to that generally in use, which, if so, is a curse.

Garima was one of the “Nine Saints”, I knew.  So I thought that I would look up the article on these gentlemen, and see what it said.  Had their hagiographical “Lives” even been printed, I wondered?

The article was duly located, in volume 3, and I began to read.  Again I found a detailed, well-referenced piece of work, which answered my question, and many more.

Everybody knows that Axum was evangelised in the 4th century after a group of Greek sailors were shipwrecked on the coast of Ethiopia.  But the Nine Saints belong to the 5-6th century, and formed a second wave of evangelisation of the country.  They are identified as “Roman”, and they also came from the Byzantine empire, according to Ethiopian hagiography.  They are, with the date of publication of the text:

• Alef – 19-20th c., unpublished at the time.
• Aftse – a early now lost text, edited by Rossini, “La leggenda di Abba Afse in Etiopia”, Melanges syriens offerts à M. R. Dussaud, (1939), p.151-6; and a different modern one, ed. Schneider, “Les Actes d’Abba Afse de Yeha”, AE 13 (1985), 105-18; Sergew Hable Sellasse, “New Historical Elements in the ‘Gadla Afse'”, JSS 9.1 (1964), pp. 200-03.
• Aragawi  – 16th c., edited Guidi, “Il Gadla Aragawi”, RRALm ser. 5a, 2 (1896), 54-96; van den Oudenrijn (ed., tr.), La vie de saint Mikael Aragawi (1939)
• Garima (aka Isaac or Yeshaq) – 15th c., edited Rossini 1897, which we have been looking at in previous posts.
• Guba – 19-20th c., unpublished at the time.
• Liqanos (i.e. Lucianos) – 19-20th c., unpublished at the time.
• Pantalewon (a Greek name) – 14th c., edited Rossini, Acta Yared et Pantalewon (1904), reprinted CSCO 26, 27 (SAe 9, 10), 1961.  Includes Latin translation.
• Tsahma – 19-20th c., unpublished at the time.
• Yemata – 19-20th c., unpublished at the time.

I noted in the bibliography a publication by Bruno Ducati (tr.), La grande impresa di Amda Sion re d’Etiopia…. I miracoli di Abba Garima omelia del XV secolo, Milano (1939), 97-154.  This sounds like it might contain a translation of Rossini’s Homily on Garima.

So their Vitae or gadlat are not ancient, and date to the 14th century onwards.  At the time of printing of the Encyclopedia Aethiopica, the unpublished texts were in preparation, ed. Antonella Brita, who wrote this article in the EA.  I have not looked to see if these have appeared anywhere, but a cursory search suggests not.

That’s a fine haul of information for those of us looking for texts and translations.