Iyasus Mo'a (1214 – 1294) was an Ethiopian
saint
In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...
of the
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church () is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. One of the few Christian churches in Africa originating before European colonization of the continent, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church dates bac ...
; his feast day is 5 December (26 Hedar in 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 ...
). In life he was an Ethiopian
monk
A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...
and abbot of
Istifanos Monastery in
Lake Hayq
Lake Hayq (Amharic: ሐይቅ ሐይቅ, ) is a freshwater lake of Ethiopia. It is located north of Dessie, in the Debub Wollo Zone of the Amhara Region. The town of Hayq is to the west of the lake.
Lake Hayq is 6.7 km long and 6 km w ...
of
Amba Sel.
Life
Iyasus was born in
Dehana, which may have been the
woreda
Districts of Ethiopia, also called woredas (; ''woreda''), are the third level of the administrative divisions of Ethiopia – after ''List of zones of Ethiopia, zones'' and the ''Regions of Ethiopia, regional states''.
These districts are f ...
in the
Wag Hemra Zone
Wag Hemra (Amharic: ዋግ ኽምራ) is a Zone in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. Its name is a combination of the former province of Wag, and the dominant local ethnic group, the Kamyr (or "Hemra") Agaw. Wag Hemra is bordered on the south by ...
, although
G.W.B. Huntingford
George Wynn Brereton Huntingford (19 November 1901 – 19 February 1978) was an English linguist, anthropologist and historian. He lectured in East African languages and cultures at SOAS, University of London from 1950 until 1966. identifies it with Dahna, a village 15 miles east of the
Tekeze River.
[Huntingford, ''The Historical Geography of Ethiopia'' (London: The British Academy, 1989), p. 74] At the age of 30, Iyasus Mo'a travelled to the monastery of
Debre Damo during the abbacy of Abba Yohannis where he was made a monk, and was given arduous tasks by the abbot. After seven years, he left Debra Damo and came to live with a eremetic community around the eighth-century church of Istanafanos at Lake Hayq, and organized this group into a monastery with rules and a school. One of the students of this school was Saint
Tekle Haymanot, who stayed at the monastery for 10 years. One of the
Zagwe kings later made him abbot of this monastery.
[
His biography, the ''Gadla Iyasus Mo'a'' ("Acts of Iyasus Mo'a"), records that ]Yekuno Amlak
Yekuno Amlak (); throne name Tesfa Iyasus (; died 19 June 1285) was Emperor of Ethiopia, from 1270 to 1285, and the founder of the Solomonic dynasty, which lasted until 1974. He was a ruler from Bete Amhara (in parts of modern-day Wollo and ...
had fled from the authorities in Amba Sel and hid in the church because of a prophecy (''tinbit'') that he would become a king. His mother, upon hearing such prediction, brought him to Istifanos Monastery in Lake Hayq and begged the priests there to hide her son and save him from being killed. Iyasus Mo'a protected and educated the boy, and in return, Emperor Yekuno Amlak built the structure to house his community. Later hagiographies state that Yekuno Amlak was helped by Tekle Haymanot, but the critical researches of Carlo Conti Rossini suggest that the ''Gadla Iyasus Mo'a'' is closer to the correct version of events.[Taddesse Tamrat, ''Church and State'', p. 67.]
Notes
External links
Biography of Iyasus Mo'a from ''The Dictionary of Ethiopian Biography''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Iyasus Moa
Ethiopian saints
13th-century Ethiopian people
1214 births
1294 deaths
13th-century Christian saints