Abuna Yesehaq
His Eminence Abune Yesehaq | |
---|---|
Archbishop of the Western Hemisphere and South Africa | |
Native name | አቡነ ይስሐቕ |
Personal details | |
Born | Laike Maryam Mandefro 1933 |
Died | 29 December 2005 (aged 72) Newark, New Jersey |
Buried | Holy Trinity Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Kingston |
Abuna Yesehaq (
Life
Laike was born to an Orthodox Christian family in Adwa, Tigray, attended Christian school in the monastery of Abune Gerima where he became a monk, and joined the priesthood. He was one of the clerics fortunate enough to be tutored personally by
In October 1959, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church officially established a branch in New York; Abba Laike Mandefro, as he was then known, was sent there in 1963 and was given the task of finding a more suitable building for the Church, which was purchased in 1966. Mandefro then returned to Ethiopia to seek assistance for renovations; unfortunately the building was taken by the New York City authorities in his absence.
With the assistance of Emperor Haile Selassie, and the Ethiopian consulate in New York, Mandefro returned to New York City and purchased another site for the Church in 1969.
In 1970, he was sent to
Abba Mandefro also founded many Orthodox Churches throughout the Caribbean and elsewhere, and received the title "Archbishop Yesehaq of the Western Hemisphere and South Africa" in 1979. On 4 November 1980, he baptized world-renowned Rastafari musician Bob Marley, then suffering from terminal illness, into the church.[1][2]
In the 1990s, a schism happened in the Orthodox Church when the new government of the
Death
Abuna Yesehaq died on December 29, 2005, at the Newark Beth Israel Medical Centre, Newark, New Jersey, USA, at the age of 72.[3] His death was announced by a spokesman for the archbishopric in Dallas, where he had recently moved his seat, and by Father Haile Malekot of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Kingston, Jamaica.[4] The Archbishop was buried in Jamaica in accordance with his personal wishes to fulfill his mission, directed by Emperor Haile Selassie I, to establish the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Jamaica, whose people had a love for Ethiopia and the Emperor.[3]
His funeral at the
His Mausoleum is in Kingston, Jamaica, at the Holy Trinity Ethiopian Orthodox Church on Maxfield Ave.[6]
As author
- Archbishop Yesehaq. The Ethiopian Tewahedo Church: An Integrally African Church. J.C. Winston Pub. Co., 1997. 244 pp. ISBN 9781555237394
References
- ISBN 9781401305697.
- ISBN 9780857121363.
- ^ a b "Abuna Yesehaq to be buried in Jamaica". Yahoo. Archived from the original on 15 September 2015.
- ^ Saxon, Wolfgang (8 January 2006). "Abuna Yesehaq Mandefro, Ethiopian Archbishop, 72, Dies". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2017-02-02.
- ^ "Juliet makes sad pilgrimage for long-time friend's service". Yahoo. Archived from the original on 12 September 2015.
- ^ "Ethiopian Orthodox Church Info". Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Archived from the original on 20 June 2013.
- "About His Eminence, Rasta Bishop" at Abba Yesehaq.com website
- Obituary in NY Times
- Barry Chevannes, "The Apotheosis of Rastafari Heroes", in Religion, Diaspora and Cultural Identity by John W. Pulis, p. 345