The Ge’ez Acts of Abba Estifanos of Gwendagwende
T.
By (author) G. Haile
Paperback (Published)
(January 2007)
ISBN: 9789042917408
Price: $82.00
On back order
Abuna Estifanos (Stephen), the edition and translation of whose hagiographical life is presented here, was the leader of a monastic reform movement that shook the foundations of the Ethiopian State and Church in the fifteenth century. Estifanos (Stephen) started his movement at the end of the reign of the king whom Emperor Yeshaq succeeded in 1413 AD. The reform movement of Estifanos and his followers, called Daqiqa Estifanos or Estifanosites or Stephanites, was known to the local clergy from the time of the reign of Emperor Zar’a Ya’eqob (1434-1468). As we know from Zar’a Ya’eqob’s writings, including some miracles of Mary or Ta’ammera Maryam, the Estifanosites were at loggerheads with the monarch. The outside world first became aware of the Daqiqa Estifanos from the narratives of the Portuguese embassy that visited Ethiopia during the years 1520-1527. Since then several travelers and scholars have written about these monks. The basis of the Estifanosites reform movement was that monks should observe a strict monastic life, according to the rules laid down by the fathers of monasticism, and that the teachers of the Church should limit the doctrine of Christianity to what was found in the eighty-one canonical books of the Bible, recognized by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and the observance of God’s Commandments found in them. As they understood it, the main commandment neglected at that time was the order to worship God alone – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. They considered the segdat, “prostration to the ground,” a form of worship that should not be performed in reverence even to the Holy Cross or to the icon of the Madonna and Child, and certainly not out of respect for the king and his name. We hear little about the activities of the Daqiqa Estifanos after Na’od (1494-1508). But their history is a major component of the history of the Church. Although the acts of a few of the followers of Estifanos were published decades ago, the publication of the acts of their leader, the Gadla Abuna Estifanos, has somehow had to await the present day. Coincidentally, there is at present a movement to revive and pursue the reforms of the Estifanosites, which adds importance and urgency to the publication of this Gadla.
- By (author) G. Haile
Other Titles in this Series
Mundus primus
Die Geschichte der Welt und des Menschen von Adam bis Noach im Genesiskommentar Ephräms des Syrers
Volume 641, 128
Catalogue of Coptic and Arabic Manuscripts in Dayr al-Suryan. Volume 4
Arabic Ascetic Discourses
Volume 697, 145
The Scala Magna of Shams al-Ri’asah Abu al-Barakat. Volume I
Introduction, Text, Translation and Notes
Volume 684, 55
The Syriac Versions of the Writings of Cyril of Alexandria. A Study in Translation Technique
Volume 626, 123
Byzantine Iconoclasm during the Reign of Leo III, with Particular Attention to the Oriental Sources
Volume 346, 41
Die Adam- und Seth-Legenden im Syrischen «Buch der Schatzhöhle». Eine quellenkritische Untersuchung
Volume 618, 119
Syriac Sayings of Greek Philosophers
A Study in Syriac Gnomologia with Edition and Translation
Volume 669, 138
Modèles et copies
Étude d'une formule des colophons de manuscrits arméniens (VIIIe-XIXe siècles)
Volume 698, 146
Vie et conduite des Bienheureux Justes-nus et de notre saint Père Zosime: trois traductions géorgiennes
T.
Volume 686, 25
Catalogue of Coptic and Arabic Manuscripts in Dayr al-Suryan. Volume 2
Arabic Commentaries and Canons
Volume 678, 140
Dionigi Areopagita. Nomi divini, teologia mistica, epistole
La versione siriaca di Sergio di Res'ayna (VI secolo). T.
Volume 656, 252
Similar Books
‘For You I Study, For You I Work, For You I Live, For You I Am Ready To Even Give My Life’
Essays in Honour of Francis (Frank) J Moloney, SDB
A Late Antique Harrowing of Hell and Its Medieval Reception
Eusebius of Alexandria's Sermons 15 and 17 (CPG 5524; 5526) and their Latin Rewritings
Volume 99
Ars Prophetica
Theology in the Poetry of Twentieth-Century Hebrew Poets Avraham Halfi, Shin Shalom, Amir Gilboa, and T. Carmi
Drunk the Potion, No Whit Charmed
The Doctrine of Pure and Perfect Souls from Iamblichus to Damascius
Extracanonical Traditions and the Holy Land
Texts, Rituals, and Material Culture in Late Antique Palestine
Fear, Fear of God, God-Fearers
Philological and Historical Perspectives on the World of Ancient Judaism and Christianity
Legal Visuality
Exegesis, Ambiguity, and Dissimulation of the Donation of Constantine in the Early Modern Period
Liturgia semper reformanda
Adaptations and accommodations in the liturgy in light of canon 838 of the Code of Canon Law
Pre-Christian Religions, Rituals, and Beliefs in Central and Northern Europe
Interdisciplinary Investigations
Volume 5
Punning in Odd or Elegant Constructions in Jeremiah
The Convergence of Linguistics, Rhetoric, and Textuality in the Hebrew Text of Jeremiah
