Ewostatewos
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Ewostatewos (c.1273 - c.1352) was an important religious leader of the Ethiopian Church. He was a forceful advocate for the Ethiopian form of observing the Sabbath. His followers, known as the House of Ewostatewos (individuals are known as Ewostathians), have been a historic force in the Ethiopian church.
According to Taddesse Tamrat, he was the nephew of Abba Daniel, abbot of Gar'alta, who provided him with his earliest education. After being professed a monk by his uncle, Ewostatewos left the community and founded his own monastery in Serae, now part of the province of Tigray in Ethiopia. There he attracted a large number of students, and explained his views until the arrival of Abuna Yaqob (c.1337), who was opposed to hs views. Ewostatewos, accompanied by his disciples who included Bakamos Marqorewos and Gabra Iyasus, left Ethiopia. He first reached Cairo, where he met Patriarch Benjamin of Alexandria and defended his views before the church leader. He then visited Jerusalem, and eventually travelled to Armenia, where he died.1
Ewostatewos view of the Sabbath was that it should be observed on both Saturday and Sunday: Saturday for the Old Testament, and Sunday for the New, finding support for his views in the Ten Commandments and the Apostolic Canons. This later became the practice of the Ethiopian church. Taddesse Tamrat cites evidence that suggests that Ewostatewos' interpretation of the Sabbath was not his innovation, but had been practiced in the Coptic church before his time, and was only declared heretical a few centuries before.2
After his death, his students and disciples continued to advocate Ewostatewos' religious views. When Ewostatewos left Ethiopia, he entrusted his community to his senior disciple Abba Absadi, who had a difficult time keeping the community together until the other disciples returned to Ethiopia after a 14 year absence, and helped him establish a community at Debre Maryam. They later spread across northern Ethiopia, founding new monasteries that not only promoted Ewostatewos' interpretation of the Sabbath, but created a religious hierarchy that was independent of the Abuna. Their persistence eventually led to their success in 1450 at the Council of Dabra Mitmaq in Tegulet, where Emperor Zara Yaqob was able to convince the Egyptian leadership to acquiese to this local custom.
Notes
- Taddesse Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), pp. 206f.
- Taddesse Tamrat, p. 209.
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