R E U P L O A D
According to an ancient tradition, the first great evangelizer of the Ethiopians was St. Frumentius, a Roman citizen from Tyre who had been shipwrecked along the African coast of the Red Sea. He gained the confidence of the emperor at Aksum and eventually brought about the conversion of his son, who later became Emperor Ezana. Ezana later introduced Christianity as the state religion around the year 330. Frumentius was ordained a bishop by St. Athanasius of Alexandria and returned to Ethiopia to help with the continued evangelization of the country.
Around the year 480 the “Nine Saints” arrived in Ethiopia and began missionary activities. According to tradition they were from Rome, Constantinople and Syria. They had left their countries because of their opposition to Chalcedonian christology and had probably resided for a time at St. Pachomius monastery in Egypt. Their influence, along with its traditional links with the Copts in Egypt, probably explains the origin of the Ethiopian Church’s rejection of Chalcedon. The Nine Saints are credited with largely wiping out the remaining paganism in Ethiopia, with introducing the monastic tradition, and with making a substantial contribution to the development of Ge’ez religious literature by translating the Bible and religious works into that classical Ethiopian language. Monasteries quickly sprang up throughout the country and became important intellectual centers.
The Ethiopian Church reached its zenith in the 15th century when much creative theological and spiritual literature was produced and the church was engaged in extensive missionary activity.
The very negative experience of contact with Portuguese Roman Catholic missionaries in the 16th century [Ethiopian Catholic Church] was followed by centuries of isolation from which the Ethiopian Church has only recently emerged.
This church is unique in retaining several Jewish practices such as circumcision and the observance of dietary laws and Saturday as well as Sunday sabbath. This is probably due to the fact that the earliest presence of Christianity in Ethiopia had come directly from Palestine through southern Arabia. But there is a tradition that Judaism was practiced by some Ethiopians even before the arrival of Christianity. There have also been some unusual christological developments, including a school of thought that holds that the union of Christ’s divine and human natures took place only upon his anointing at Baptism. These teachings were never officially adopted and have mostly died out.
The Ethiopian liturgy is of Alexandrian (Coptic) origin and influenced by the Syriac tradition. The liturgy was always celebrated in the ancient Ge’ez language until very recent times. Today a translation of the liturgy into modern Amharic is being used increasingly in the parishes. A strong monastic tradition continues.
From ancient times, all bishops in Ethiopia were Egyptian Copts appointed by the Coptic Patriarchate. Indeed, for many centuries the only bishop in Ethiopia was the Coptic Metropolitan. In the early 20th century the Ethiopian Church began to press for greater autonomy and the election of native Ethiopian bishops. In 1929 four native Ethiopian bishops were ordained to assist the Coptic Metropolitan. With the support of Emperor Haile Selassie (reigned 1930-1974), an agreement was reached with the Copts in 1948 which provided for the election of an ethnic Ethiopian Metropolitan upon the death of Metropolitan Qerillos. Thus when he died in 1951, an assembly of clergy and laity elected an Ethiopian, Basilios, as Metropolitan, and the autonomy of the Ethiopian Church was established. In 1959 the Coptic Patriarchate confirmed Metropolitan Basilios as the first Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
1. L'Eglise Orthodoxe Ethiopienne de Jérusalem - Du chant d’entrée à la doxologie solennelle (8:39)
2. L'Eglise Orthodoxe Ethiopienne de Jérusalem - S’alwota-’at’ân. Doxologie et adoration, au cours de la "Prière de l’Encens" (5:42)
3. L'Eglise Orthodoxe Ethiopienne de Jérusalem - Hymne à la Mère de Dieu et le Tri sagion (5:36)
4. L'Eglise Orthodoxe Ethiopienne de Jérusalem - "Notre Père" (4:21)
5. L'Eglise Orthodoxe Ethiopienne de Jérusalem - Prière de pénitence et les quarante et une invocations "Seigneur prends pitié de nous, ô Christ" (6:51)
6. L'Eglise Orthodoxe Ethiopienne de Jérusalem - "Seigneur prends pitié de nous, ô Christ" (6:28)
7. L'Eglise Orthodoxe Ethiopienne de Jérusalem - Chant de communion et chant d’actions de grâces (4:39)
8. L'Eglise Orthodoxe Ethiopienne de Jérusalem - Extrait de la 5e grande litanie avec tambour et sistres. Veillée du "Felseta Maryam" (Assomption) (15:17)
9. L'Eglise Orthodoxe Ethiopienne de Jérusalem - La première partie des Vêpres (28:44)
10. L'Eglise Orthodoxe Ethiopienne de Jérusalem - Seconde partie des Vêpres du Temps ordinaire (8:39)
11. L'Eglise Orthodoxe Ethiopienne de Jérusalem - 11e jour du carême de l’Assomption. Les deux premiers choeurs litaniques des Vêpres anticipées (31:20)
Eglise orthodoxe ethiopienne de jerusalem: l'Assomption à Däbrä Gännät, monastère du Paradis - Jérusalem, Israël.
