Debre Damo is one of Ethiopia’s most important monasteries and is thought to date back to Aksumite times and the 6thcentury reign of King Gebre Meskel. The monastery is situated on an isolated mountain in northern part of Tigray. It is unique compared with most Ethiopian monasteries. Debre Damo was built, in the sixth century AD, with curved wood panels, painted ceilings and walls dedicated to the legend of Saint (Abune) Aregawi.
The history of Debre Damo is centred on the “Nine Saints” who came to Ethiopia from Syria to spread Christianity in the Tigray region. One of them was Saint Aregawi who settled on the mountain of Debre Damo. The other eight saints settled around Tigray countryside and all have their own church named after them. Situated atop a 3,000m-high amba (tableland), and accessible only with the aid of a leather rope operated by the monks, the founder Abune Aregawi – one of the nine holy men who immigrated from Syria – was carried up the 15 m-high cliff by a flying serpent, so the legend goes.
Built in the 6th century, Debre Damo is the oldest monastery in Ethiopia while its stone Church is said to be the oldest still standing. The monastery is off limit to females. It was Abuna Aregawi, one of the most revered of the Nine Saints, who established Debre Damo monastery atop a sheer-sided amba (flat-topped mountain).
It may seem like it would have been impossible for the first person to reach this island in the sky, but Abuna Aregawi had God on his side, and God, knowing this was a fine place for a saint to find peace, made a giant snake lower its tail down the mountain, allowing Aregawi to clamber up it to the summit.
The monastery’s location once allowed Aksumite monarchs to coop up excess male members of the royal family here, thus removing possible threats to their reign. Today it hosts some 150 monks, who are entirely self-sufficient. They grow their own crops, raise their own livestock (all male) and have water reservoirs hewn deep into the rock.
The Ethiopian Herald May 16/2019
