Debre Abbay is a monastery of the

Ethiopian Orthodox Church The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church ( am, የኢትዮጵያ ኦርቶዶክስ ተዋሕዶ ቤተ ክርስቲያን, ''Yäityop'ya ortodoks täwahedo bétäkrestyan'') is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. One of the few Chris ...

located at the edge of the canyon of the

Tekezé River The Tekezé or Täkkäze River ( amh, ተከዜ, ti, ተከዘ; originally meaning "river" in Ge’ez, ), also spelled Takkaze, is a major river of Ethiopia. For part of its course it forms a section of the westernmost border of Ethiopia and Erit ...

in the

Tigray Region The Tigray Region, officially the Tigray National Regional State, is the northernmost regional state in Ethiopia. The Tigray Region is the homeland of the Tigrayan, Irob, and Kunama people. Its capital and largest city is Mekelle. Tigray is ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

. The monastery dates from the 14th century, and has important connections with Ethiopian history: the

Battle of Debre Abbay The Battle of Debre Abbay, also known as the Battle of Mai Islami, was a conflict between Ras Marye of Yejju, Regent of the Emperor of Ethiopia, and his rival from Tigray, Dejazmach Sabagadis of Agame. Although Ras Marye lost his life in the ba ...

was fought nearby 14 February 1831, and notable Ethiopian scholars, such as Gedamu Woldegiorgis, continued to be educated there well into the early to mid-1900s. When Paul B. Henze visited the monastery in 2001, he described it as flourishing and self-sufficient, inhabited by 80 monks, 12 nuns, and "30-odd" priests. Debre Abbay was the site of a massacre of civilians by the ENDF in January 2021.

History

Alternative BAsic Education Nena Terrell USAID

According to Henze, the ''Memhir'' or abbot told him that Debre Abbay was founded in 1327 EC (or AD 1334/1335) by Saint Samuel of Waldebba; another personage associated with the monastery was Abba Samuel of Qoyasa.

Mansfield Parkyns Mansfield Harry Isham Parkyns (16 February 1823 – 12 January 1894) was an English traveller, known for his travel book ''Life in Abyssinia: being notes collected during three years' residence and travels in that country'' (1853). In this book ...

, traveling between

Adwa Adwa ( ti, ዓድዋ; amh, ዐድዋ; also spelled Aduwa) is a town and separate woreda in Tigray Region, Ethiopia. It is best known as the community closest to the site of the 1896 Battle of Adwa, in which Ethiopian soldiers defeated Italian ...

and Sudan, stopped at Debre Abbay in early July 1845. He found settlement "built in a deep hollow or chasm, and so nearly concealed, that, when approaching it from some directions, you would scarcely imagine yourself to be near habitations, seeing nothing but a wide tract of table-land before you.""Local History in Ethiopia"
The Nordic Africa Institute website (accessed 17 April 2011) The church of the monastery was bombed by the Italians during the

Second Italo-Abyssinian War The Second Italo-Ethiopian War, also referred to as the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, was a war of aggression which was fought between Italy and Ethiopia from October 1935 to February 1937. In Ethiopia it is often referred to simply as the Itali ...

17 December 1935. It was rebuilt in the 1950s with donations from the Emperor

Haile Selassie Haile Selassie I ( gez, ቀዳማዊ ኀይለ ሥላሴ, Qädamawi Häylä Səllasé, ; born Tafari Makonnen; 23 July 189227 August 1975) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as Regent Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia (' ...

References

{{coord, 13, 52, N, 37, 59, E, display=title Christian monasteries established in the 14th century Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo monasteries Oriental Orthodox monasteries in Ethiopia Tigray Region 14th-century Oriental Orthodox church buildings 14th-century churches in Ethiopia