Giyorgis of Segla

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Giyorgis of Segla
Debre Damo
Bornc. 1365
ResidenceEthiopian Empire
Died1 July 1425(1425-07-01) (aged 59–60)
Venerated inEthiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
Feast14 July[1]
ControversySabbath in Christianity
Major worksHours and Book of Mystery
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Giyorgis of Segla (c. 1365 – 1 July 1425

Oriental Orthodox monk, saint,[7]
and author of religious books.

Giyorgis' work has had great influence on Ethiopian monastic calendars, hymns and

Ge'ez
writers in fifteenth-century Ethiopia.

Giyorgis was involved in a controversy concerning Sabbath in Christianity and consequentially fell into disfavor of emperor Dawit I. He managed to continue his work later in life, under the reigns of Tewodros I and Yeshaq I.

Disputed identity

It is possible that two or three prominent religious figures have been mixed into the same figure in

Ge'ez hagiography written by disciples of the saints after their demise.[8]

Early life

Lake Hayq where Giyorgis was student of Iyasus Mo'a monastery

Giyorgis' parents were of noble descent.

Ezra the Scribe). His mother was Emmena Seyon from Bete Amhara.[1][9][6] Giyorgis is among the monks who are claimed to have been students of Ethiopian saint and monastic leader Iyasus Mo'a at Lake Hayq's prominent monastery,[10][11] which had become a place of pilgrimage already during Iyasus Mo'a's lifetime.[12] The beginning of Giyorgis' career was not without hardship. He was so slow in learning that his teacher had lost hope at one point. Ethiopian education of the time relied heavily on memorization, and without showing ability one would not get very far in studies where knowledge was preserved orally. It has been told that:[1]

Faced with this problem, Giyorgis went daily to church, where he prayed with tears and total concentration to God and the Blessed Virgin. One night, the Blessed Virgin appeared to him and told him to be diligent in his learning, forgoing even sleeping by night.[1]

Career

Further information: Christianity in Ethiopia § The Sabbatarian controversy
Debre Damo monastery, where Giyorgis once was an abbot
Amba of Debre Damo

Giyorgis was among the most important (theological) authors in Ge'ez language during the fifteenth century in medieval Ethiopia.

Virgin Mary favored Giyorgis' book of hours.[5]

Giyorgis had risen into a position of court chaplain during emperor Dawit I's reign like his father had before him.

Miaphysite Church and monastic leaders found themselves occasionally at odds with foreigners who managed to influence political leaders. A foreigner called Bitu, who had wielded great influence on the emperor, was involved in a decision to imprison Giyorgis. There were differences in religious views between Bitu and Giyorgis, as shown in the Book of Mystery where Giyorgis devotes a chapter to refute Bitu's views on the Image of God.[1] He was finally released[1] when one of his former royal students, Tewodros I, rose to the throne. Despite his dissidence, he continued to hold influence until his death during the reign of emperor Yeshaq I.[6] While Giyorgis had wished to join a monastery of Dabra Libanos, disputes about the Sabbath led him to join Dabra Gol in historical Wollo region instead.[6][1] There, late in his life, he became the head of the community of Abba Batsalota-Mikael.[6][1] Many of his former royal students, who were the eight sons of emperor Dawit I, one by one became rulers of the Ethiopian Empire.[2][6][1]

Giyorgis writes in his Book of Mystery that man is a creature of God with an immortal soul. With the divine gift of soul, man becomes different from other creatures, as man is an intelligent and speaking thing. Giyorgis' view of man can be characterized as dualistic.[20] With the book, Giyorgis also attempted to refute heretical beliefs. It is an extensive anti-heretical work composed of 30 chapters. Treatises on heresy are meant to be read during important feast days of the Ethiopian Church. Each treatise concentrates on a different heretical doctrine, and the book refutes them one by one. The book was completed on 21 June 1424. It is the most important original Ethiopian theological work.[20][1] The book is still used in liturgy.[1]

At one point, Giyorgis held the position of

Debre Damo.[1][6][9][21] He also founded the monastery of Debre Bahriy in Gasicha.[15] At the monastery named after him, there is a crosscut in warka tree's bark claimed to have been left behind by Giyorgis himself.[22]

Hymnody

Further information: Ethiopian chant
Late 17th century illustrated manuscript that reproduces Giyorgis' hymns (The Organ of Mary)

In addition to being a renowned author of religious books, Giyorgis also composed hymns,

Saint Yared's 6th century hymnals (degua) which featured only three divisions.[25] The full extent of Giyorgis' compositions is unknown, and various local anaphoras of the Divine Liturgy may have been originally composed by him.[1]

Views on the Sabbath

Giyorgis sought to justify Christian observation of the Sabbath on Sunday based on Old Testament scripture.[26]

As is customary in Christianity, Giyorgis held that

Pentateuch.[26] He sought to do this by presenting mathematical proof based on the calendar found in the Book of Jubilees and the similar Enoch calendar in the Book of Enoch. The features of these calendars are a 364-day-year,[27] a seven-year cycle culminating in the Jubilee (year of the release),[28] and a particular arrangement of biblical Jewish holidays.[27] Giyorgis sought to demonstrate that Sunday corresponds to the Jubilee year,[28] the "Sabbath's Sabbath".[29]

Relying on the authority of the Jubilee and Enoch calendars was possible because both the Book of Jubilees and Enoch are part of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church's Biblical canon.[27] The Church, however, had already long before switched to the 365-day Ethiopian calendar (based on the Julian calendar). In effect, this meant that Giyorgis' calculation would have no practical impact on the liturgical year of the Church.[30]

Giyorgis lays out his idea in the following passage of his Sermon on the First Sabbath:[31]

And in substitution of the number of the days of the year of release the Lord gave the commemoration of His resurrection, that is the first of the Sabbath [= µία τῶν σαββάτων]. And the number of the days of the year of release is 364. And the fifth one is the shifting day that rolls around the days of the years and revolves them, from this to that, and from the second to the third, and, at the fourth year, catches up [lit. becomes equal] – due to the birth of the light after 30 days after the creation of the world – with the 30th hour of the fourth day after the birth of the ṭəntəyon. And because the number of the first days [= Sundays] of the seven years is 364, and because (the fifth day) shifted them when catching up [lit. becoming equal], it [sc., the day of resurrection = Sunday] remained hidden in the bosom of the Scripture, and its greatness has not been revealed until the commemoration of the resurrection. And, for the commemoration of the resurrection, we have left the year of release and accepted the commemoration of the resurrection that is the first [of the Sabbath = Sunday], because with the reckoning of the days of the year of release he [sc. the Lord] reckoned the first [after the Sabbath] days [= Sundays] of the six years.[32]

This can be summarized as:

At the first year of the four-year cycle, the beginning of the year falls on Wednesday. Then, at the second and the third years, it moves by one day forward, that is, from Wednesday to Thursday and from Thursday to Friday. The next, fourth year is the bissextile one. This year, the shift is not of one but of two weekdays. Thus, this day falls on Sunday. For Abba Giyorgis, however, there is no Sunday as a separate day but rather a part of the 49-hour Sabbath. Therefore, he continues counting of the hours of the Sabbath after the number 24. The 30th hour of Sabbath ("the fourth day after the birth of ṭəntəyon") is Sunday midnight, the approximate time of Christ's resurrection.[33]

Works

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Sources widely disagree on the dates of Giyorgis' birth and death. For the birth, see [2] and.[3] For the death, see,[4][5] and.[1]
  2. ^ Both "Giyorgis of Gasicha" and "Giyorgis of Segla",[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Getatchew Haile (1991). Ethiopian Saints: Claremont Coptic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
  2. ^ a b c Seife, Daniel; Feleke, Michael (2015). "SAINT ABBA GIORGIES OF GASSICHA THE ETHIOPIAN THEOLOGIAN". Retrieved 23 February 2017.
  3. ^ a b "Giyorgis Abā". WorldCat. Retrieved 11 March 2017.
  4. ^ a b Getatchew Haile (2009). "A Miracle of the Archangel Uriel Worked for Abba Giyorgis of Gasǝč̣č̣a" (PDF).
  5. ^
    ISBN 978-3-447-03540-8
    .
  6. ^
    ISBN 9780917256011. Archived from the original
    on 13 August 2017. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
  7. ^ "The Social and religious functions of the Eucharist in Medieval Ethiopia". Annales d'Ethiopie. 19 (1): 15. 2003.
  8. ^ "Lives of Ethiopian Saints". Link Ethiopia. Archived from the original on 5 March 2017. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
  9. ^
    ISBN 978-3-447-05175-0
    .
  10. ^ G. W. B. Huntingford. "GIYORGIS, Ethiopia, Orthodox". The Dictionary of Ethiopian Biography, Vol. 1. Archived from the original on 13 August 2017. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
  11. ISBN 978-0-19-538207-5
    .
  12. ^ Nigus, Kassa (7 December 2015). "Mahibere Kidusan – The Short Biography of Abba Iyyesus Moa". Retrieved 23 February 2017.
  13. ISBN 978-1-136-78716-4
    .
  14. ISBN 978-3-447-04799-9
    .
  15. ^ a b c Getatchew Haile (January 2013). "The Southern Shores of the Mediterranean and Beyond: The Case Ethiopian Manuscript Heritage" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 August 2017.
  16. ^ Sergew Hable Sellassie; Belaynesh Mikael (2003). "Worship In The Ethiopian Orthodox Church". Retrieved 28 March 2017.
  17. ^ "Miracles of Mary (Te'amire Maryam)". Art Institute of Chicago. 2013. Retrieved 11 March 2017.
  18. ^ Hastings 1995, p. 34.
  19. ^ Hastings 1995, p. 36.
  20. ^
    ISBN 978-88-7839-222-9
    .
  21. ^ Hastings 1995, p. 37.
  22. doi:10.3406/ethio.1957.1255
    .
  23. ISBN 978-0-8146-6234-2
    .
  24. S2CID 177283389
    .
  25. ^ Tsegaye, Mezmur (June 2011). "Traditional Education of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and Its Potential for Tourism Development (1975–present)". www.academia.edu: 22–23.
  26. ^ a b Lourié 2016, p. 74.
  27. ^ a b c Lourié 2016, p. 82.
  28. ^ a b Lourié 2016, p. 79.
  29. ISBN 978-1-920691-00-4
    .
  30. ^ Lourié 2016, p. 83.
  31. ^ Lourié 2016, p. 75.
  32. ^ Lourié 2016, pp. 77–78.
  33. ^ Lourié 2016, p. 80.
  34. ^ a b "Project search". Endangered Archives Programme. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
  35. ISBN 978-0-227-17384-8
    .
  36. doi:10.15460/aethiopica.14.1.414
    .

Sources

Further reading

External links
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