Ethiopia, an Astonishing Christianity on African Soil

An exhibition in Venice sheds light on a Church that is almost unknown in the rest of the world, and yet is numerous and flourishing, with extremely ancient origins and strong Jewish traits.

ROMA (Chiesa) - On the eve of Benedict XVI's trip to Cameroon and Angola, in Italy for the first time a major exhibition has been opened on another region of Christian Africa, Ethiopia, with icons, illustrated manuscripts, crosses, sculptures, paintings of evocative beauty, never before shown to the public.

The title of the exhibition is: "Nigra sum sed formosa," I am dark but lovely. These words from the Song of Songs are traditionally seen in reference to the queen of Sheba, the progenitor of Ethiopia in the national epic poem "Kebra Negast," the glory of kings.In the poem, which in part coincides with the biblical book of Kings, the queen of Sheba visits King Solomon in Jerusalem, and conceives a child with him. With her, Judaism set down roots in Ethiopia.

But the queen of Sheba also has a prominent place in Christian art and tradition. It is told how during her visit to Jerusalem, seized by prophetic intuition, she knelt in front of the wood of the bridge in the pool of Siloam, the wood destined one day to become the cross of Jesus.

The exhibition is being hosted in Venice, the city that especially in the 15th century had a close relationship with that faraway African kingdom.This nation and its Christianity are still remote today. Most people are unaware of them. Ethiopia is one of the very few countries in the world in which not even a traveling pope like John Paul II ever set foot.The exhibition therefore marks an end of isolation. Finally, attention is turning to this astonishing Christianity on African soil.

According to the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 8, the first pagan converted to the Christian faith was an Ethiopian follower of Judaism, a high official in the kingdom, baptized by the apostle Philip along the road between Jerusalem and Gaza.

In any case, Ethiopia was already Christian by the first half of the fourth century. Its closest connection was to Alexandria in Egypt, the patriarch of which appointed the metropolitan archbishop of the kingdom's capital. The two Churches, Coptic Egyptian and Ethiopian, have also been bound together since then by their Monophysite faith, which recognizes only the divine nature of Christ. They accept the first three councils, of Nicaea, Constantinople, and Ephesus, but not the Council of Chalcedon in 451, which established the doctrine of the two natures of Christ, divine and human. For this reason, the Coptic and Ethiopian churches are also called "pre-Chalcedonian."

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The isolation of Christian Egypt was reinforced by the expansion of Islam, which surrounded the kingdom and repeatedly tried to conquer it, but was always pushed back by a tenacious resistance.The greatest danger came in the 16th century. Ethiopia asked for help from Portugal, which sent an armada and defeated the Muslims. At that time, an attempt was also made to bring the Orthodox Church of Ethiopia back into union with the Church of Rome. St. Ignatius of Loyola worked on it personally. Jesuit missionaries arrived in two waves. At the beginning of the 1700's, Ethiopian kings embraced Catholicism. But immediately afterward, this attempt at union foundered.

In the 20th century - after the bloody interlude of the Italian colonial war - efforts were made to reinvigorate the Ethiopian Church by the emperor at the time, Haile Selassié. Until then, the sole bishop of that Church had been appointed and sent by the Coptic patriarch of Alexandria in Egypt. Haile Selassié first obtained an autonomous ecclesiastical hierarchy, and then, in 1959, autonomy in appointing the metropolitan, who was elevated to the dignity of patriarch.

In 1974, the Marxist-Leninist regime of Colonel Menghistu seized power. Patriarch Teofilos was arrested and later strangled in prison. His successor, Paulos, was also imprisoned and tortured, for seven years, and then sent into exile in the United States. He returned to his country in 1992, after the fall of the Menghistu regime, and is still in office. In 1993, he met at the Vatican with Pope John Paul II, who offered him a church in Rome for the celebration of liturgies for Ethiopian rite immigrants.

Patriarch Paulos described the Church of Ethiopia in interview published in this year's January issue of the Italian monthly "Jesus":

"At the moment, we have more than 50,000 churches in the entire country. Our young people go to Mass regularly, with participation of about 70 percent; overall, therefore, considering the regularity with which the adult and elderly age groups attend the liturgy, we reach 80 percent participation at Mass each Sunday. But there is another aspect that I would like to highlight, and that is monastic life: more and more young people are asking to become monks. We have 1,200 monasteries in the whole country, and about 50,000 monks and nuns. Overall, we can say that we have 45 million faithful if we consider the many Ethiopian Christians living abroad, to whom we have dedicated 17 archbishops. Inside the country, there are 45 bishops. In short, we are very proud of our history and our presence."

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To this it can be added that the clergy, who are extremely numerous, are for the most part married, but only before they are ordained, while the bishops are chosen from among the celibate monks. In the rural areas, the priests work as farmers, and are viewed favorably by the population. Many widowers and widows also retire to the the monasteries, groups of huts where an austere and penitential life is lived. The formation of the clergy is mostly limited to liturgical arts. The language of the sacred texts and rituals is ancient Ge'ez, but today Amharic is also used, the language of an ethnicity in the highlands north of the Blue Nile, the cradle of Ethiopian civilization.

The churches have a unique structure. The altar is inside a closed space called "the holy of holies," where only the priests (and, in the past, the kings) can enter. Around it is a circular area for the deacons and cantors, who belong to a lay confraternity. Then there is a space for the ordinary faithful, many of whom follow the ceremony outside of the church not only because of the crowd, but also because they are catechumens or penitents.

Ethiopian Christians always wear around their necks a cord called a "mateb," which they receive with baptism. Boys are circumcised eight days after birth, and presented at church forty days later, just as Jesus was. They enter church barefoot, as God ordered Moses from the burning bush. They do not eat unclean foods, such as pork, as prescribed by Leviticus. They claim to have the Ark of the Covenant and the Tablets of the Law, entrusted to them by King Solomon. In other words, they have preserved some features of Judaism.

Almsgiving and help for the poor are widely practiced.The same is true of fasting from meat and dairy products, which is observed about 180 days per year. There are frequent pilgrimages to shrines, especially in Axum, the historical and religious capital, and to Lalibelŕ, with its ten churches carved into the rock in the 12th century, symbolically representing the topography of Jerusalem.

The calendar is of twelve months with thirtty days each, plus a thirteenth month of five days, or, every four years, six days. The leap year is called the year of Luke, while the other three years take their names from the other three evangelists, in the order John, Matthew, and Mark. The rhythm of life is heavily influenced by the liturgical seasons. Christmas corresponds to January 7 for us. Lent lasts seven weeks, and each Sunday takes its name from its respective gospel passage: of the Sabbath, of the Temple, of the Paralytic, of the Mount of Olives, of the Good Servant, of Nicodemus.

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Ethiopian sacred art also has original features. And all it takes to enjoy its extraordinary beauty is to go to Venice, to the magnificent exhibition "Nigra sum sed formosa".

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Chiesa is a wonderful source on all things Catholic in Europe. It is skillfully edited by Sandro Magister. SANDRO MAGISTER was born on the feast of the Guardian Angels in 1943, in the town of Busto Arsizio in the archdiocese of Milan. The following day he was baptized into the Catholic Church. His wife’s name is Anna, and he has two daughters, Sara and Marta. He lives in Rome.