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SAINT EUSTATHIUS (ኤዎስጣቴዎስ)  OFETHIOPIA

By Hadrian Mâr Élijah Bar Israël

Western scholars consistently remark

on the many trappings of "Judaism"which may now be observed in thefaith and practice of the EthiopianOrthodox Tewahedo Church; many believing that they are some kind of

throwback to some earlier custom,which has possibly come from theMiddle East at an earlier time. Such people miss altoge ther the po int thatthe  Nazarani nature of the Ethiopian

Church represents an intentionaldecision by the synod and theemperor at the Council of DebreMitmaq in Tegulet in 1450 A.D. toexpand the faith and to preserve thereal teachings of Jesus and Hisapostles within the context of modernChristianity. This is something few

westerners have either the education,

or the strength of will to do.The story itself begins with Jesus andHis apostles, who like Ethiopians,speak a Semitic language, and have along tradition of taking part in

 pursuing both Semitic life and culture.

The radical monk Eustathius

ኤዎስጣቴዎስ  (+1273 – 1352 A.D.) iswithout question, one of the mostfamous and influential saints of the

Ethiopian Orthodox TewahedoChurch. Born on 15 July 1273,Eustathius (Ge'ez  Ewostatew os  fromthe Greek Εὐστάθιος) was the leader

of what has come to be known as the"Sabbatarian" sect within the

Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo

Church. It is this sect, which althoughseverely persecuted during hislifetime, eventually came to dominatethe entire Ethiopian Orthodox Churchand set the Semitic cultural tone forthe future of Ethiopia.

Although Ethiopia was under the jurisdiction of the Pope in Alexandria,the seat of Christian philosophy, the Nazarani teaching which came fromthe followers of Jesus were preservedin Ethiopia, in part due to their great

distance from that city.

The ideas of the secular world werelikely to creep in however, just as

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they had done in other places. Theworld watched while the SyriacOrthodox Church underwent a periodof mass Hellenisation after it's

creation by Yacoub Bar Adæus in the

6 t h   century A.D.

Saint Eustathius’  parents,  Krist ōs Mōʾā   ክሪስቶስ   ሞአ   and Śina Ḥ iywat   ሥነ  ሕይወት   named him ማዕቃበ  እግዚ  MāʿiqābaʾIgzī , meaning literally"Trust of the Lord " in the Ge'ezlanguage. In the year 1280, whilststill a youth, they sent him to live

with his maternal uncle Zachariaswho was the Abbot of Babra MaryamMonastery on Mount Qorqor inGaralta, where at the age of fifteen,he took his monastic vows, then beingrenamed as Eustathius.

His vitæ, which in Ge'ez is known asa  gâd l , was written by his discipleAbsadi. There are three different

versions of this gâdl known in themodern day Ethiopian Church. Helived seventy-nine years in total,fourteen of which were spent inArmenia.

Around 1300 A.D., Eustathiusfounded his own monastic communityat Sarayi in modern day Eritrea,where the Sabbath was kept according

to biblical custom.

Sometime in 1337 A.D., the Egyptian born metropolitan (i.e. archb ishop)named Jacob arrived at the royal courtdragging Eustathius with him,claiming that on his way through the

Ethiopia, he had found him preachingagainst the establishment of theChurch and wanted him punished.Amda Zion had him flogged, claiming

that he had brought the empire to its

knees through the spreading of heresy.

What Eustathius did preach againstwas the establishment of the Churchwhich at that time, as now, existedtogether with the state. He believed

that the monks and other followers ofJesus were responsible to heavenmore so than to any of the trappingsof imperial and earthly power. Thissame view is shared by modern day Nazarani who together with all of thetrue followers of Jesus, believe thatthe Church should be independent ofthe state, and the people of Godsubject to His Kingdom, rather thanthe kingship of men.

The “Judaic”  doctrines which were being complained about, were the

authentic doctrines of the earlyChurch, including the keeping of theSabbath in accordance with biblicalnorms.

יכל להים ו

  יום הש יעימל כתו שר

 ויש ת

 עשה

 הש יעי

 יום

ו תכ למ

 מכל

עשה

 שר

 And God ended His

work which He had

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made on the seventh

day; and on the

 seven th day He rest ed

 from His work .

(Genesis 2:2)

וי רך להים

 יום

 ת

הש יעי

 ויקדש תו

 ש ת

 כי ו

מכל מל כתו   שר ר

להים

לעשות

 And God blessed the

 seven th day and

consecrated it,

because on it He

rested from all of the

work He made in

Creation. (Genesis 2:3) 

It is because of this consecration that

we honour the Sabbath and keep itholy. Jesus said to His apostles that:

להון

 מר

מטל

 ד ת

  נר

ול

 ת רית

נר וה

  ת

 מטל

הו

 ילמרה כה

  ו ף ד ת נ ד הר

The Sabbath was made

because of man and

not man because of the

Sabbath, therefore the

Son of Man is also the

 Lord of the Sabba th.

(Mark 2:27-28) 

Thus we should

זכור ת יום

 הש ת

לקדשו

 Remem ber the Sabba th

day and keep it holy.

(Exodus 20:8)

After the accusations in Askum, hereturned to Sarayi, and was nearly

stoned to death in his own cell.Within a year he left control of themonastery to Abba Absadi, who had been his faithful disciple, and taking

may of his other disciples with him,left Ethiopia and travelled to Cairo tomeet with Pope Benjamin II (+1327-1339), the 82nd Patriarch ofAlexandria about his views.

He felt very strongly that the Bibleitself was sufficient support for hisviews on the celebration of both theJewish feasts and the Sabbath, the

keeping of the white linen garments,the use of turbans by the clergy, andother aspects of what are now thoughtto be purely Ethiopian religiousculture. Of course the Judaic seemingaspects of the ministry of Eustathius

were not new, nor where they foreign

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to the Coptic Orthodox Church orhierarchy. But they had beensuperseded by more than twocenturies by the adoption of a

 platonic view of the Church’s

tradition, practice and theology.

Pope Benjamin II was very graciousto Eustathius, but explained to himthat regardless of the biblical position,the teaching of the church had long

surpassed the truth of the scripturesand could not be changed.

Eustathius then undertook life as an

eremitical monk at the monastery ofSt. Elijah in the Sketis desert forseveral years before undertaking to

travel to Jerusalem, where he hopedto meet Nazarani who agreed with hisstrong positions. After a pilgrimageto Cyprus he visited Jerusalem, whichhad a flourishing Ethiopian diasporaeven in that period. He also toured Nazareth, Bethlehem, Golgotha, and

 bathed in the Jordan river. Findinghimself satisfied with his work in theHoly Land, he then travelled toArmenia, to Cilicia, where he died on15 September 1352 A.D.

After Eustathius’  death, his disciples

returned to northern Ethiopia, wherethey set up a centre of learning and

 began to grow in numbers, includingmany nobility.

Eventually Eustathius’  views becamethe mainline view of the Ethiopian

Orthodox Tewahedo Church, which

now celebrates both the Friday nightto Saturday sundown Sabbath (the“Lesser Sabbath”) and the Saturdaynight to Sunday evening Sabbath (the

“Greater Sabbath”) representing the

incarnation of YAH (i.e. “Life”) inthe form of Jesus the Messiah.

Emperor Zara Yaqob vindicated AbbaEustathius at the Council of DebreMitmaq in Tegulet (1450 A.D.),

which adopted his views, makingEthiopia the last great bastion of Nazarani belief prior to the 2012foundation of the Nazarani Church,which itself holds apostolicsuccession from the EthiopianOrthodox Church.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Taddesse Tamrat, Church and S tate in Eth iop ia ,

Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1972

Tesfaye Gebre Mariam, A Structural Analysis of

Gädlä Täklä Haymanot, Afr ican Languages and

Cultures, Vol. 10, No. 2 (1997), pp. 181-198,

Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd., retrieved

28 October 2015 from

http://www.jstor.org/stable/1771714

George Wynn Brereton Huntingford, The

Historical Geography of Ethiopia: From the First

Century Ad to 1704, Fontes historiae Africanae:

Series varia , Volume 4 of Series varia , Fontes

historiae Africanae, London, The British

Academy, 1989, ISBN 0197260551

Gianfranco Ficcadori, "Ewos ṭatewos" in

Siegbert Uhlig, Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: D-Ha,

Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005, ISBN

344705238