ON ST. MICHAEL ARAGAWI, MONK AND CONFESSOR, IN ETHIOPIA,
IN ETHIOPIA.
From the sacred Fasti of the Ethiopian church.
FOURTH CENTURY.
CommentaryMichael Aragawi, monk, confessor, in Ethiopia. (S.)
BY C. B.
Job Ludolf, History of Ethiopia, book 3, chapter 3, num. 1, having said by way of preface that, the conversion of Ethiopia having been begun by St. Frumentius, The Saint, who in the sacred Fasti of the Ethiopians many monks betook themselves thither from the Roman empire, and indeed from Egypt, partly at his call, partly of their own accord, lists by name the nine more distinguished of them, the names of almost all of whom the Abyssinians changed, and grants the first place among them to the Saint here proposed, who was previously called only Michael. Papebroch, treating at the 6th day of June of St. Bazalota, an Abyssinian nun then inscribed in the Abyssinian metrical Hagiology, whom he suspected to have been the sister of this Saint of ours, and on this occasion holding discourse about the said monks who penetrated from Egypt into Ethiopia after the faith had been established there by St. Frumentius, says: The first of them is called by them (the Abyssinians) Michael Aragawi, and in the metrical Hagiology at the 14th of the month of October, which for us would be the 11th day, he is invoked thus: "Greeting to Michael, who was named Aragawi: since his life was wisdom and his death prudence: with him was God, three and one in essence."
[2] To this encomium, with which Papebroch here says St. Michael is invoked by the Abyssinians, stands inserted, and has a chapel named after him, the interpretation accommodated to the Ethiopic words in which it is couched in Job Ludolf, History of Ethiopia, book 3, chapter 3, agrees exactly; and the sacred Fasti of the Ethiopian church, according to whose order the Abyssinian metrical Hagiology praised by Papebroch is arranged, commemorate our Saint at the 14th, or, according to our manner of reckoning, the 11th day of October, in these few words in the same Job Ludolf: Michael, surnamed Aragawi, that is, the Old Man; and from there, or rather from the passage of the History of Ethiopia in which Ludolf, treating of the nine propagators of the Christian faith in Ethiopia after St. Frumentius, counts Michael first among these, Castellan today brought him into his Universal Martyrology with this following elogium, which I render from French into Latin: In Ethiopia, Michael Aragawi, that is, the Old Man, one of the nine principal propagators of the faith in that region after St. Frumentius. Further, St. Michael, who perhaps was surnamed the Old Man by them because already at the time when he came to the Abyssinians he was of very advanced age, is not only mentioned in the sacred Tables of the Ethiopians, but also has among them, no differently than the other eight who are celebrated as the principal propagators of the Christian faith in Ethiopia after St. Frumentius, a chapel named after him, as Ludolf again teaches. Nor ought the schism which tore the Abyssinians away from the Catholic Church to prevent us from granting Michael a place in our Work.
[3] before the year 451, or the Chalcedonian For this took place only after the year 451, or the council of Chalcedon, which was then celebrated; while Michael and the other eight monks who are held as the principal propagators of the Christian faith in Ethiopia after St. Frumentius both came into Ethiopia and died there before the council of Chalcedon, as you will understand from what is now to be said. In the fifth century, already advanced to its middle part, or at the time when the council of Chalcedon was celebrated, the Christian religion had already been promulgated and received far and wide throughout all Ethiopia; so that surely Michael and the other eight monks praised by Ludolf do not seem likely to have been celebrated as the principal propagators of it in that region if they had arrived there only after the year 450. Besides, the Poet, or that which is very often cited by Ludolf under the name of the Poet and comprises encomia of the saints and blessed according to the order of the Fasti in use in the Ethiopian church, an Ethiopic manuscript poem of uncertain author, praises Michael at the 14th day of October, in Ludolf, History of Ethiopia, book 3, chapter 3, num. 6, because he contributed his labour to destroying the kingdom of Arwè in Ethiopia.
[4] council, indeed, This writer recites there the words in which it does this, and then adds: By the word Arwè, which signifies a serpent, he understands either the kingdom of Satan in general, which was destroyed by the propagation of Christianity; or Ethiopian heathenism in particular. For, as we said in the preceding, the most ancient Ethiopians worshipped a serpent as God, and the Poet seems to allude to this. Afterwards indeed Ludolf himself, in his Commentary on the passage of his History of Ethiopia last cited, doubted whether he had rightly taken the word serpent here in an allegorical sense; but since the Poet ascribes the destruction of the kingdom of the serpent of which he speaks not to Michael alone but to all nine Propagators of the Christian faith in Ethiopia after St. Frumentius, I think that he is altogether to be understood in an allegorical sense, or of the kingdom of Satan destroyed in Ethiopia by them through the propagation of the Christian faith and the extirpation of idolatry, which widely held dominion in Ethiopia; and since at the time of the council of Chalcedon idolatry no longer held dominion in Ethiopia, and therefore, if Michael and the others who are judged the principal propagators of the Christian faith in that region after St. Frumentius had arrived there only after the council of Chalcedon, they could not have been praised by the Poet mentioned above for its extirpation in it, this is surely an argument that they came into Ethiopia before the council of Chalcedon, or the year 451, indeed already from the fourth century.
[5] But, you will say, Ludolf, in his Commentary on the History of Ethiopia, book 3, although meanwhile there is also reason why the contrary can be thought, chapter 3, in which he had said that it is read in the Chronicle of Axum that many monks came from Rome, or from the Roman empire, into Ethiopia in the time of king Amiamida, son of Saladoba, writes thus at num. 18: *We note here in passing that Saladoba and Amiamida
the kings whom we name in this chapter are the same as those whom above, in chapter 4 of this book, we called Alodaba and Alamida; for the aforesaid patriarch (Alfonso Mendes) testifies that they are written in various ways. But the time when these holy Men (namely Michael Aragawi and the other eight monks whom he names in the place cited) came into Ethiopia is uncertain, equally with the time of the reign of the said kings. The Patriarch Mendes thinks that they came within the years four hundred and sixty or eighty. For after Abreha and Atzbeha, in whose time Frumentius was ordained bishop, six emperors reigned in Ethiopia, the brothers Atzfa, Ardedus and Ameyus, ... then Aradus and Aladoba and Alamida, under whose rule these nine Saints entered with many other monks. The words of the Chronicle of Axum which he (namely the patriarch Mendes) has deserve to be related here: "In the time (of king) Amiamidus many monks came from Rome, who filled the whole empire. Nine of them stayed in Tigray; each of them erected a sacred building called by his name." If, therefore, the computation of Mendes is true, the arrival of these Monks falls after the time of the council of Chalcedon, and thus perhaps the persecution arising from the schism of that time compelled so many Egyptian monks to change their soil.*
[6] So he; but since the computation of Mendes is founded solely on the time already from the fourth century into Ethiopia in which Alamida, son of Saladoba or Alodaba, under whom many monks are related in the Chronicle of Axum to have come from Rome, or from the Roman empire, into Ethiopia, reigned in Ethiopia, and the time both in which Alodaba or Salodaba and in which Alamida or Amiamida reigned in Ethiopia is plainly uncertain, as Ludolf says in the words already recited, it must necessarily be that the computation of Mendes, which requires that the arrival of the nine principal Propagators of the Christian faith in Ethiopia after St. Frumentius into this region be placed after the council of Chalcedon, or the year 451, is likewise uncertain. Nor indeed could Ludolf and Papebroch, of whom the former sets out the said computation in the words just transcribed here, and the latter undoubtedly had it exceedingly well understood, be moved by it to believe that the arrival of either St. Michael or of all those Saints into Ethiopia was later than the council of Chalcedon, or the year 451. For the former, when he says in the History of Ethiopia, book 3, chapter 3, that it is read in the Chronicle of Axum that many monks came from the Roman empire into Ethiopia in the time of king Amiamida, clearly insinuates that these came thither partly at the call of St. Frumentius himself, who began to bring the light of the Gospel into Ethiopia not long after the year 330, and therefore even long before the council of Chalcedon, or the year 451; while the latter, or Papebroch, at the 6th day of June refers St. Bazalota, the Abyssinian nun already mentioned above, to the fourth century; which he would certainly not have done if he had believed that St. Michael, whose sister he there makes her, came into Ethiopia only in the fifth century, its middle part already elapsed, or after the council of Chalcedon.
[7] came, and there ended his life What more? Since the computation of Mendes which I gave above from Ludolf's Ethiopia is uncertain according to what has been said, I think that one must stand here, for the reasons adduced at num. 3 and 4, by Ludolf and Papebroch, of whom the former judged that the arrival into that region of all the nine principal Propagators of the Christian faith in Ethiopia in general, and the latter that of St. Michael by name, is to be tied to the fourth century, although meanwhile Castellan today in his Universal Martyrology, perhaps induced by the computation of Mendes related above, judged the contrary, as a note set in the margin indicates. The time, therefore, in which our Saint came into Ethiopia having now been in some way determined in this manner, let us now turn our discourse to what he did there. Since he is commonly celebrated as one of the nine principal men who propagated the Christian faith among the Ethiopians after St. Frumentius, it is surely not to be doubted that, when he had come into Ethiopia, he laboured excellently at spreading it everywhere there. Besides, he stayed chiefly in Tigray, a region of Ethiopia which, as Papebroch teaches at the 6th day of June at St. Bazalota, num. 2, is situated between the river Tocaza and the Red sea below the tenth degree from the equinoctial circle, and there, if Ludolf is to be believed, he was the first to act as abbot or superior of the monks whom he, himself also a monk, probably formed according to the rule of the discipline either of St. Antony or of St. Pachomius; and at length, full of days and merits, he passed to the Lord when the very fourth century in which he had come into Ethiopia had not yet elapsed, as the things which I subjoin suggest.
[8] ended in the same fourth century. St. Frumentius, ordained bishop by St. Athanasius, patriarch of Alexandria, about the year 330, having set out not very long after from Egypt into Ethiopia, announced the faith of Christ everywhere there; and since some years after a copious harvest had sprung up there from the seed of the Gospel sown, and there were not many workers to gather it, the nine holy Monks mentioned above, who were the principal Propagators of the Christian faith in Ethiopia after St. Frumentius, and therefore St. Michael, who was one of them, betook themselves thither from Egypt, as appears likely, about the middle of the fourth century, to bring help to Frumentius; wherefore, since he was then already of advanced age, as it appears must be gathered if only from the fact that the Abyssinians, who, according to what has been said, changed their names, called him Aragawi, or the Old Man, it follows that he probably ended his life while the same fourth century in which he had come into Ethiopia was still running, unless perhaps someone should wish that he was distinguished by the Abyssinians with the appellation of Aragawi, or the Old Man, not because he was already of advanced age when he came into Ethiopia, but because he afterwards reached great old age there, which however appears to me less likely.