ETHIOPIA
THE ETHIOPIAN ORTHODOX
CHURCH
Orthodox
Christianity became the established church of the Ethiopian Axumite Kingdom
under king Ezana in the 4th century through the efforts of a Syrian Greek
named Frumentius, known in Ethiopia as Abba Selama, Kesaté Birhan
("Father of Peace, Revealer of Light"). As a youth, Frumentius had
been shipwrecked with his brother Aedesius on the Eritrean coast. The brothers
managed to be brought to the royal court, where they rose to positions of
influence and converted king Ezana to Christianity, causing him to be
baptised in 330 AD. Ezana sent Frumentius to Alexandria to ask the Patriarch,
St. Athanasius, to appoint a bishop for Ethiopia. Athanasius appointed
Frumentius himself, who returned to Ethiopia as Bishop with the name of Abune
Selama. From then on,
until 1959, the Pope of Alexandria, as Patriarch of All Africa, always named
an Egyptian (a Copt) to be Abuna or Archbishop of the Ethiopian
Church. After the
disappearance of the kingdom of Axum in 619 the Abune of Axum became
Metropolitan of Axum and All Ethiopia. In the 14th century, after the muslim
conquest of Nubia and the fall of king
Kudanbes in 1323, he is mentioned as “Patriarch of Nubia and
Ethiopia”. |
|
The legends of Prester
John (also Presbyter John), popular in Europe from the 12th
through the 17th centuries, told of a Christian patriarch and king said to
rule over a Christian nation lost amidst the Muslims and pagans in the
Orient. Written accounts of this kingdom are variegated collections of
medieval popular fantasy. Reportedly a descendant of one of the Three Magi,
Prester John was said to be a generous ruler and a virtuous man, presiding
over a realm full of riches and strange creatures, in which the Patriarch of
the Saint Thomas Christians resided. His kingdom contained such marvels as
the Gates of Alexander and the Fountain of Youth, and even bordered the
Earthly Paradise. Among his treasures was a mirror through which every
province could be seen, the fabled original from which derived the
"speculum literature" of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, in
which the prince's realms were surveyed and his duties laid out. In the fourteenth century the kingdom of
Prester John was imagined in Nubia and Ethiopia. Much confusion arose from
the contardictory ideas that Earthly Paradise was situated in Africa and that
the Euphrates flew though Paradise. The Franciscan monk and world traveller,
author of the Book of Knowledge,
possibly insipred by the work of Ibn Battuta writes: (I) travelled over many lands
and through many cities arriving at the city of Malsa [Melée] where
the Preste Iohan always resides. He
is the Patriarch of Nubia and Ethiopia, and at his coming he always goes along the banks of the
Euphrates. [............]. With this Euphrates he meant the Nile and
he shows, further on, that he was quite aware that this was not the
Mesopotamian Euphrates. Thus we can be sure that, according to the
author of the Book of Knowledge, the empire of Preste John has to be situated
in Africa, and in particular along the Nile. |
|
He also gives the flag of Preste John: “The device of Preste Iohan is a white flag
with a black cross having two crooks one on each side. For in Nubia and
Ethiopia there are two emperors, one being Emperor of Graçiona and the other
Emperor of Magdasor” [1] Three
versions of the arms of Prester John in the Book of Knowledge (fig. 71) In
one of the editions of the Book of Knowledge there is also a triple cross on
a white field. This matches two other devices. The
first is given in the margin of the Secreta Fidelium Crucis of Marino Sanudo,
written 1320-’21. [2] |
|
Egyptian
troops and Nubian crusaders in the manuscript of Marino Sanudo This shows a
group of knights chasing another with the banner of Alexandria. The knights
themselves, of fairly black complexion, have a red triple cross on a yellow
field on their shields and on the horseclothes of their commander. |
|
The second is
given on the portolan of Angelino Dulcerta who depicts red triple crosses in
the territory below the confluence of the White and the Blue Nile. [3] Later 14th and
15 c. Catalan sources also situate banners with the triple cross between the
White and Blue Nile and Mecia de Viladestes even paints a portrait of Preste
John in the same region.[4] |
|
Flag of Nubia in the Atlas Catalan, 1375 ca. This flag
dates from the time of Metropolitan Salama II (1348-1388) |
This
flag is in the portolan of Mecia de Viladestes from 1413 in the region
between the White and the Blue Nile. Below is a picture of Prester John, then
Bartalomewos of Ethiopia (1398-1436), dressed in red and with a mitre on his
head. |
We may be sure
that, according to 14t and 15th c. Catalan sources, the empire of Prester
John has to be situated in the region between the White and the Blue Nile and
that he himself can be identified as the Metropolitan Archbishop of Axum and
Ethiopia. The name of
this prelate, used in the West, may not surprise us too much because of the
Metropolitans of Axum and Ethiopia fifteen of them bore the name of Johannes,
the thirteenth of that name, ruling about 1300 being of particular interest
for us. The banner with
a red triple cross disappeared in the 15th century. Instead a sceptre with a
red recrossed cross was depicted in the hands of Preito Iohan on the
portolan of Gabriel de Vallseca of 1439. [5] Preito
Iohan on the portolan of Gabriel de Vallseca |
|
After the
Council of Konstanz in 1415-’18 the flags and coat of arms with the triple
cross crosslet disappears. Instead a coat of arms appears with a square cross
also ascribed to Preste John until it became clear that the Emperor of
Ethiopia was not a priest but a prince from the House of Solomon. This will
be explained in the section about the arms of the Emperor of
Ethiopia. |
© Hubert de Vries 2009-04-21
Updated 2009-11-04
[1] Book of the Knowledge
of all the kingdoms, lands, and lordships that are in the world. (ca 1350)
Works issued by the Hakluyt Society. 2nd series N° XXIX. 1912. Pp. 35-38.
[2] Sanudo, Marino: Secreta Fidelium Crucis. Venice 1320-’21. Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, Ms. Tanner, 190, fol. 22 r°.
[3] Today in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.
[4] His portolan dated 1413 also in the Bibliotèque National in Paris.
[5] His portolan in the Musee Maritim in Barcelona. A high resolution version on internet.