The source of the Blue Nile : $b a record of a journey through the Soudan to Lake Tsana in western Abyssinia, and of the return to Egypt by the valley of the Atbara, with a note on the religion, customs, etc. of AbyssiniaHayes, Arthur J.
Religion
The source of the Blue Nile : $b a record of a journey through the Soudan to Lake Tsana in western Abyssinia, and of the return to Egypt by the valley of the Atbara, with a note on the religion, customs, etc. of Abyssinia
Hayes, Arthur J.
Ethiopia -- Description and travel; Ethiopia -- Religion; Sudan -- Description and travel
Another saint of remarkable powers was Tederos (St. Theodore). He
resided at the hamlet near Rohabaita which now bears his name. Here,
“on the face of the rock is the little hole wherein he lived; it
is barely high enough for a person to squat in; and the marks worn
in the stone by the crown of his head, the soles of his feet, and
his elbows are still shown. His miracles were many. Among others,
a leopard ate up his son, the saint, returning home, missed him,
and set out in search of him. When in the forest he called aloud
to him three times, and at the third time the leopard appeared:
on seeing him, the saint guessed how the matter stood with the
unfortunate youth; but, nothing discouraged, he coolly ordered the
beast to return him safe and sound. Now this was rather difficult,
as the leopard had, no doubt, half digested him; nevertheless, so
great was the saint’s power that the boy left the leopard’s maw
none the worse, perhaps rather the better, for having been dismembered
and reconstructed. Being asked where a church should be built, the
saint threw his staff, desiring the inquirers to build where they
found the staff had fallen. After many days it was found several
miles off in Serawi, on the other side of the valley, exactly on
the spot where now stands the church of Debra Mariam.
“Many other wonderful stories were told me of his feats, but I
have forgotten them. The most useful act attributed to him was that
he caused the rock below him to become hollow, in order to receive
the rain-water. The hollow still exists, though I should strongly
suspect it to be of Nature’s construction; or, if the saint had
a hand in its design, he must have been a clumsy fellow, for with
half the labour he might have made a place capable of containing
twice the quantity of water.”[138]
Parkyns was not sure of the parentage of the youth who was disgorged
by the leopard. “I hope I am right in giving St. Theodore a son,”
he wrote. “I don’t know whether his being a father would preclude
his being a saint: however, it was a youth nearly related to him,
if I remember the story right.”
Some chroniclers “pretend that St. Matthew and St. Bartholomew
actually visited the country. Some even go so far as to assert that
the Virgin Mary herself, with the child Jesus, came into Abyssinia
when she fled to Egypt, and show a place in a high mountain which
is called her throne or seat.”[139] Bruce wrote that “in the
Synaxar, or history of their saints, one is said to have thrown the
devil over a high mountain; another persuaded him to live as a monk
for forty years; another had a holy longing for partridges, upon
which a brace perched on his plate—martyrs ready roasted.”[140]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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