|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Within a decade of Christianity’s acceptance
by the Roman Empire, it became Aksum’s state religion (ca. 340 A.D.)
At Aksum stone tablets have survived from that period with inscriptions
recording the king’s
honorary titles, military victories, and conversion to Christianity
in three ancient scripts: Greek, South Arabian or Sabean, and Ge’ez,
the ancient form of Amharic. Attributed to the Aksumite king Ezana,
excerpts of the Greek version of one of these texts reads as follows: “I
Azanas king of the Aksumites … son of Ella Amida servant of Christ
thank the Lord my God, and I am unable to state fully his favours
because my mouth and my mind cannot [embrace] all the favours which
he has given me, for he has given me strength and power and favoured
me with a great name through his son in whom I believed. And he
made me the guide of all my kingdom because of my faith in Christ….” (Munro-Hay,
Ethiopia, 12). Roman
and Byzantine historians relate that a young Christian from Syria,
Frumentius, persuaded Ezana of the desirability of embracing this
faith and was sent as his emissary to the Patriarch in Alexandria
to request that a bishop be nominated for Aksum. The patriarch
appointed Frumentius to the position—who, upon his installation,
baptized Ezana (Phillipson, Monuments, 112). Historian
Stuart Munro-Hay comments on the significance of this development
by noting that after Armenia and Georgia, Aksum was one of the
earliest independent states in the world to adopt Christianity
(Munro-Hay, Ethiopia, 234). In the fifth century Christianity was
disseminated beyond elite circles at the court by “Nine
Saints,” possibly Syrian missionaries from the eastern Roman Empire,
who are credited with founding churches and monasteries throughout
the region as well as translating the Bible. The Ethiopian Orthodox
Church remained Ethiopia’s official state religion until 1974. It
is characterized as monophysite, that is a church believing in
the unity of Christ’s
divine and human natures. While autonomous, from its initial years
until the 1950s it remained headed by an abuna, or metropolitan,
designated by the patriarch of Alexandria. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
