Ethiopia, Abuna Yemata Guh
photo from report by Mikael Imba and Mikael Melehayzenghi
photo from thebrainchamber.com/abuna-yemata-guh-church/
Abuna Yemata Guh is the most amazing “monolithic” i.e. rock-hewn church in Megab in the Hazen district of the Tigray region, situated at 2,580 meters/8,460 ft, reachable only by a two-hour strenuous and very perilous climb one is expected to do barefoot. Women do it in long skirts with babies on their backs!
Life size frescos, carbon dated to 15th century although local tradition says it’s older, because the church itself was carved out of the rock in the 5th century.[i]
Christianity was established in this East African country when King Ezana adopted the faith in the 4th century AD. This makes Ethiopia one of the first countries in the world to adopt Christianity as its state religion. Since the majority of Ethiopians are Orthodox Christians and Orthodoxy doesn’t use the title Black Madonna like Catholics do, I don’t know what the locals would call this Madonna. What is clear however is that she is intentionally portrayed as a Black woman, very much in contrast to the many White men surrounding her. I wish I could say that this Madonna proves that Mary was actually Black or that the earliest traditions portrayed her as such. However, an ancient Bible written on goat skin in the same church shows Mary as a White woman. And if you image Google “Virgin Mary Ethiopian icons” you will see a lot of White Maries, but also all other shades of brown and black. Good to know at least that there is a certain freedom of expression and opinion in Ethiopia when it comes to the skin color of Jesus and Mary.
Maybe the artist didn’t mean to claim that the historical Mary was of a different skin color than the 12 apostles; maybe he or she wanted to make a statement that the Virgin became the divine Mother of her African children and was happy to appear to them looking like one of them, just like she appeared to the Native Mexicans looking like an Aztec princess. To all races she appears with the same words she spoke in Mexico: “Am I not here, who is your mother?!”
priest showing the goat skin Bible
The White men in the frescos around the church are the 12 apostles and “nine saints”, i.e. the Jewish-Christian missionaries to Ethiopia at the end of the 5th beginning of the 6th centuries. They came from Rome, Syria, and modern-day Turkey. The church was founded by and called after one of them Abuna Yemata, i.e. Father Yemata.
This church is one of about 100 rock-hewn churches in Northern Ethiopia. The dry air and lack of humidity have preserved these frescoes in their original perfection.
For a breath taking, short video of the climb up to this church and the inside click here.
Footnote
[i] https://www.brilliant-ethiopia.com/abuna-yemata-guh says while the church was hewn out of the rock in the 5th centuries, the present frescoes are from the 15th century.