Kristos Samra ( gez, ክርስቶስ ሠምራ, Kristos Šemra, 15th century) was an Ethiopian female

saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...

who founded an eponym

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...

Lake Tana Lake Tana ( am, ጣና ሐይቅ, T’ana ḥāyik’i; previously Tsana) is the largest lake in Ethiopia and the source of the Blue Nile. Located in Amhara Region in the north-western Ethiopian Highlands, the lake is approximately long and wid ...

. She is one of Ethiopians over two-hundred indigenous saints and the earliest of about fourteen Ethiopian female saints. After

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother o ...

, she is considered one of female saints by Ethiopians who conceived as

virgin Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...

and totally sinless. She is venerated by both the

Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church The Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church ( ti, ቤተ ክርስትያን ተዋህዶ ኤርትራ) is one of the Oriental Orthodox Churches with its headquarters in Asmara, Eritrea. Its autocephaly was recognised by Pope Shenouda III of Alexandri ...

, the

Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo 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 ...

, and the

Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria The Coptic Orthodox Church ( cop, Ϯⲉⲕ̀ⲕⲗⲏⲥⲓⲁ ⲛ̀ⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ ⲛ̀ⲟⲣⲑⲟⲇⲟⲝⲟⲥ, translit=Ti.eklyseya en.remenkimi en.orthodoxos, lit=the Egyptian Orthodox Church; ar, الكنيسة القبطي� ...

, with her feast day on 30 August.

Life

Kristos Samra lived in the 15th century (no exact dates of her birth or death appear in her hagiography). The main source on her life is the ''Gadle Kristos Samra'' (The Life of Kristos Samra), a

hagiography A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies migh ...

written in Ethiopic by a scribe named Filippos about her around 1508.Filəṗṗos. ''Atti di Krestos Samra thiopic Original'' Ed. Enrico Cerulli. Corpus scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium. (Leuven, Belgium: Imprimerie orientaliste L. Durbecq, 1956). Before she died, she told Filippos her biography and thirty of her visions. He wrote her hagiography at the monastery of Debre Libanos sometime between 1450 and 1508. A translation of two portions of the hagiography are available in English; a print version translated into Amharic is also available. According to her hagiography, the only contemporaneous source on her life, she was born into a wealthy and pious family from a frontier province in the Christian Ethiopian empire and married to the son of the emperor's own

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

(priests can be married in the

). She gave birth to eight sons and two daughters. When she was around forty years old, one day she became enraged with a badly behaved

maid A maid, or housemaid or maidservant, is a female domestic worker. In the Victorian era domestic service was the second largest category of employment in England and Wales, after agricultural work. In developed Western nations, full-time maids ...

servant and thrust a firebrand down her throat and the maidservant died. Then Kristos Samra felt terrible and guilty and prayed for God to restore the life of the maidservant fortunately her prayer was answered and the maid was alive again. So Kristos Samra was amazed and she felt "if God hears my prayer while I'm in this worldly life how much will he answer my prayer in monastery?" She decided to be a nun and started her journey to a spiritual life. But when she arrived at the monastery with her infant son, they told her that no males were allowed into the nunnery. She was traveling with that maidservant, who was carrying her baby son and insisted on being with Kristos Samra when she headed to the monastery. Then she left the child outside and by God's will another nun came and saved the boy and raised him. Another version has that Saint Michael the Archangel took the child to heaven. Kristos Samra spent two years as a

novice A novice is a person who has entered a religious order and is under probation, before taking vows. A ''novice'' can also refer to a person (or animal e.g. racehorse) who is entering a profession A profession is a field of work that has ...

before becoming a nun. She then left for

, a place known for its many monasteries and

ascetic Asceticism (; from the el, ἄσκησις, áskesis, exercise', 'training) is a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from sensual pleasures, often for the purpose of pursuing spiritual goals. Ascetics may withdraw from the world for their p ...

monks and nuns, to live the life of a

hermit A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions. Description In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Ch ...

. As her first remarkable act, she spent twelve years praying while standing several hours a day in the shallow waters of the lake near the shore, an act common among devout Ethiopians. Living in solitude, she moved around the lake, staying at monasteries, including Narga Sellase and

Tana Qirqos Tana Qirqos (variantly spelled Tana Kirkos; also called Tana Chirqos or Tana Chirkos, etc.; Ge'ez: ጣና ቂርቆስ ''ṭānā qirqos'', ጣና ጪርቆስ ''ṭānā č̣irqos'') is an island in the eastern part of Lake Tana in Ethiopia, near ...

. During this period, she had

visions Vision, Visions, or The Vision may refer to: Perception Optical perception * Visual perception, the sense of sight * Visual system, the physical mechanism of eyesight * Computer vision, a field dealing with how computers can be made to gain un ...

, speaking with

angel In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles include ...

s and saints as well as Christ and his mother the

. In her most well-known vision, she traveled to heaven and hell to plead with Christ and

Satan Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as Devil in Christianity, the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an non-physical entity, entity in the Abrahamic religions ...

to reconcile themselves to each other so that human beings would no longer suffer due to their enmity. Then the biblical Patriarchs came to her in a dream and told her to settle at Gʷangut, located on the southwestern end of

. They told her that the entire world would come there to prostrate themselves at her feet. In response, she gave up the life of a hermit and founded a monastery.R. E. Cheesman, ''Lake Tana and the Blue Nile'' (London: Macmillan, 1936). A monk named Yishaq helped her by building a church, training female novices, and celebrating the liturgy. Eventually, she withdrew once again into solitude, standing in a pit for three years and in the lake for another three years. She was buried at Gʷangʷət, after which her monastery is named at this place.

Popularity

Some scholars, such as

Ephraim Isaac Ephraim Isaac (born 29 May 1936) is an Ethiopian scholar of ancient Ethiopian Semitic languages and of Classical African civilization, African and History of Ethiopia, Ethiopian civilizations. He is the director of the Institute of Semitic Studi ...

, consider her to be the first female philosophers in Ethiopia, and many other countries. Her contemporary, Zara Yacob of 17th century Ethiopia is also seen as the first philosopher of Ethiopia, and Africa. One scholar has stated that her hagiography is one of only "ten known biographies of African women written by Africans before the nineteenth century." Additionally, due to it is an "as-told-to" biography, "it is more of an intellectual autobiography, the narrative of one woman’s philosophy and her belief in the possibilities for healing a broken world". Kristos Samra is such visionary medieval women saints as

Julian of Norwich Julian of Norwich (1343 – after 1416), also known as Juliana of Norwich, Dame Julian or Mother Julian, was an English mystic and anchoress of the Middle Ages. Her writings, now known as ''Revelations of Divine Love'', are the earlies ...

and Margery Kempe, Rabia of Basri and Lalla Aziza, and

Mirabai Meera, better known as Mirabai and venerated as Sant Meerabai, was a 16th-century Hindu mystic poet and devotee of Krishna. She is a celebrated Bhakti saint, particularly in the North Indian Hindu tradition. Mirabai was born into a Rathore ...

. In modern times, Kristos Samra is the most venerated saint in Ethiopia. With feast day of 30 August, her pilgrimage attracts thousand travellers in Lake Tana. She is envisaged by Ethiopians as an innocent sinless woman as Virgin Mary.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kristos Samra 15th-century Christian saints Christian female saints of the Middle Ages Ethiopian women Marian visionaries Angelic visionaries Ethiopian saints Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church 15th-century Ethiopian people