A 15th-century

Geʽez Geez ( or ; , and sometimes referred to in scholarly literature as Classical Ethiopic) is an ancient South Semitic language. The language originates from what is now Ethiopia and Eritrea. Today, Geez is used as the main liturgical langu ...

manuscript containin the

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

compilation known as the '' Gädlä Sämaʿtat'' (meaning "Vitae of the Martyrs") is currently held by the church of ʿUra Qirqos, near Zäla Ambässa,

Tigray Region The Tigray Region (or simply Tigray; officially the Tigray National Regional State) is the northernmost Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in Ethiopia. The Tigray Region is the homeland of the Tigrayan, Irob people, Irob and Kunama people. I ...

, northern Ethiopia.

History

The manuscript was originally held at the monastery (''gädam'' ገዳም) of ʿUra Mäsqäl (now located within the borders of

Eritrea Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...

), but was taken to ʿUra Qirqos at the start of the

Eritrean–Ethiopian War The Eritrean–Ethiopian War, also known as the Badme War, was a major armed conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea that took place from May 6, 1998 to June 18, 2000. After 1993 Eritrean independence referendum, Eritrea gained independence from E ...

in the late 1990s. Currently, ʿUra Mäsqäl is located on a difficult-to-access rocky outcrop, surrounded by valleys littered with landmines from the war. In 2010, the manuscript was digitized by the

Ethio-SPaRe Ethio-SPaRe (acronym for ''Cultural Heritage of Christian Ethiopia: Salvation, Preservation, Research'') was a 2009–2015 research project hosted by the Hiob Ludolf Centre for Ethiopian Studies (HLCEES) of the University of Hamburg. The project do ...

project. In 2012 and 2013, Ethio-SPaRe performed restoration work on the manuscript, which was in poor condition at the time.

The manuscript is a codex made of

parchment Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared Tanning (leather), untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves and goats. It has been used as a writing medium in West Asia and Europe for more than two millennia. By AD 400 ...

. Copied by three different scribes, it is 535 × 380 × 200 mm and contains 281 folia. There are hagiographies of 40 different saints and martyrs from both within and outside Ethiopia. The sequence of hagiographies below, along with the saints'

feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context does n ...

s according to the

Ethiopian calendar The Ethiopian calendar (; ; ), or Geʽez calendar (Geʽez: ; Tigrinya: , ) is the official state civil calendar of Ethiopia and serves as an unofficial customary cultural calendar in Eritrea, and among Ethiopians and Eritreans in the dia ...

, was reconstructed by Antonella Brita, since the folia were all mixed up when they were initially being researched and documented by

. #Yoḥannǝs Mäṭmǝq (1 Mäskäräm) #Mamas, Tewodoṭos, Tewofina (5 Mäskäräm) #Ǝsṭifanos (15 Mäskäräm) #The discovery of St Ǝsṭifanos's relics (1 Ṭǝrr) #

Ewosṭatewos Ewostatewos (, ''ʾEwosṭātewos'', or ዮስጣቴዎስ, ''Yosṭātewos'', a version of ''Eustathios''; 22 July 1273 – 23 September 1352) was an Ethiopian religious leader of the Orthodox Tewahedo during the early period of the Solomonic ...

(23 Mäskäräm) #Kirakos (5 Ṭǝqǝmt) #P̣änṭälewon zäṣomaʿt (6 Ṭǝqǝmt) #P̣änṭälewon the physician (6 Ṭǝqǝmt) # Qoṗryanos and Iyosṭa (7 Ṭǝqǝmt) # Sǝrgis and Bakkos (10 Ṭǝqǝmt) #Filǝyas (17 Ṭǝqǝmt) #Romanos (18 Ṭǝqǝmt) # Yoḥannǝs Däylami (19 Ṭǝqǝmt) # Zinobis and Zänobya (6 Ḫǝdar) #Ṭaṭus (17 Ḫǝdar) #Elewtǝros and Ǝntǝya (18 Ḫǝdar) #Tewoflos, P̣aṭroqya, and Dämalis (19 Ḫǝdar) # Qozmas and Dǝmyanos (22 Ḫǝdar) # Azqir (24 Ḫǝdar) #Märqorewos (25 Ḫǝdar) # Ḫirut and the martyrs of Nagran (26 Ḫǝdar) #Yaʿqob the Intercised (27 Ḫǝdar) #P̣eṭros (26 or 29 Ḫǝdar) #Elyas Näbiy (12 Ṭǝrr) #Arsima (6 Taḫśaś) #Bäʾamin (9 Taḫśaś) #Tälasǝs and Alʿazär (10 Taḫśaś) #Anqitos (12 Taḫśaś) #Märbǝhnam (14 Taḫśaś) #Gorgoryos (15 Taḫśaś) #Absadi and Alaniqos (27 Taḫśaś) #Martyrs of Aḫmim (29 Taḫśaś) #Tewodros Bänadlewos (12 Ṭǝrr) #Säbʿatu däqiq zäʾefeson (13 Ṭǝrr) #Ǝmǝrays (14 Ṭǝrr) # Qirqos and Yäluta (15 or 16 Ṭǝrr) #Äkawǝḥ (28 Ṭǝrr) #Orni (30 Ṭǝrr) #Ṭeqäla (30 Ṭǝrr) #Abuqir and Yoḥannǝs (6 Yäkkatit)

References

{{reflist Texts in Ge'ez 15th-century manuscripts 15th-century Christian texts Christian hagiography Martyrologies

History

Contents

References