Feasts of Hamle 24
✞✞✞On this day we commemorate the departure of the Ethiopian Saint Abune ZeYohannes and the Martyr Abba Nob (Apanoub)✞✞✞
✞✞✞In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen!✞✞✞
✞✞✞The Righteous Abune ZeYohannes✞✞✞
=>The Ethiopian Saint was born at the end of the 13th century and his place of birth was in Shewa (Merhabete). His parents, Zacharias and Sophia, were God fearing. They loved the Mother of Light and were compassionate to the poor.
✞The kind Zacharias was a governor after the preceding ruler of Shewa tried to take and defile his wife forcefully by sending him to war as King David did to Uriah, and was smitten by the Archangel Gabriel and died. Then, the people gave the governing positon to Zacharias. After a while the Virgin Mary gave them a blessed fruit. And they named him, “Yohannes/John”. But through time, it was changed to ZeYohannes (John’s).
✞St. ZeYohannes stayed with his mother until he was seven years old and then went to school. Because the grace of God had called him, he learned the Old and New Testaments within a short period. And since he loved hunting, when he went out to hunt one day, a bright cloud came and took him from Ethiopia (Shewa) to Jerusalem (Golgotha).
✞Jubilantly, he took blessings from the Holy Churches/sites and that bright cloud took him back to his land. After a short period, the Prophet Elijah and St. John the Baptist descended from heaven, blessed him and said, “So that your lot could be with us become an ascetic.”
✞ZeYohannes, while he served his parents and the church (as he was a deacon), he grew to be twenty-five years old. At that time, when his parents said to him, “Let us wed you” he replied, “No, that can’t be.” And since they had become old, he prayed for their departure. As God had heard him, both passed away, one after the other.
✞And when the locals said, “Let us appoint you a ruler” in the place of his parents, he said, “No”. He then went to Debre Libanos (The Monastery of Abune Tekle Haymanot) after distributing the gold, silver, his inheritance, his house and all that he had to the poor. And because the time was 50 years after Abune Tekle Haymanot had passed, it was Abba Hezekiah (Ezkias) who was the Abbot.
✞Abba ZeYohannes served the monastery for seven years as a novice and became a monk. And because a cloud had taken him as usual and he was ordained a priest from the Archbishop of Jerusalem, he served in Debre Libanos for twenty-five years. He incensed the church seven times during the day and seven times throughout the night and prostrated 10,000 times daily. He also used to pray diligently and was obedient.
✞Thereafter, by the instructions of God, he preached in Tigray and other parts of the country. And when he was seventy years old, he went to the Lord’s [empty] Tomb saluted it and by His (the Lord’s) orders returned to Dara (at the Coast of Lake Tana).
✞And for the reason that a kind married couple named Gabriel and Mesqel Qebra lived in the area, he spent the night there as a guest. The house immediately filled with blessings. And they praised the Saint’s God.
✞Then, by the direction of Mesqel Qebra the righteous ZeYohannes entered into the Island of Kibran Gabriel. (By the way, the Island was named Kibran because of the kind woman named Mesqel Qibra. Since, she and her husband, Gabriel, were holy folks.)
✞When the Righteous Abune ZeYohannes entered into the Islands (Kibran and Entons Iyesus), parts of the islands were the abodes of the spirit-borne (anchorites/sowah), while the other half was the home of idol (serpent) worshippers. The Saint established the monasteries of Kibran Gabriel and Entons Iyesus in 1315 E.C during the reign of Emperor Amde Tsion (Amda Seyon I). Because a serpent was worshipped in the area (as mentioned earlier), he abolished it through his prayers and baptized the people.✞There, he separated the monastery for men and women. Kibran is a monastery of monks where women are not allowed to enter. Its abbot was the Saint himself.
