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Controversy over Abune Paulos’ statue
By Eskinder Nega from Addis Ababa
Clad in the distinctive black robe of the Orthodox clergy, Abune Petros, one
of Ethiopia’s four native- born Abuns (equivalent to Bishops) under an Egyptian Copt Patriarch, stood in a manifestly noble pose before an Italian military tribunal in 1936, the year that Fascist Italy invaded Ethiopia.
A preposterously pompous Colonel presided over the proceedings. He was visibly relishing his moment in the spotlight. “The Patriarch has acceded to Italian rule,” began the Colonel darting his eyes dramatically between the hushed audience and the towering Abun. “Why then do you alone,”—a deliberate stop here for effect— “choose to disagree? Why did you rebel?”
Though tall, slim and markedly handsome, the Abun dominated the trial with the overpowering— and reassuring—calmness of his bearing. Nothing disturbed his peace. He responded in the deliberately restrained tone of a Church elder: “As a Church leader, I have responsibilities. I owe an allegiance to my Church and country. This is all I have to say to this court. I will tell the rest to my creator. Do as you please.”
Speechless, the judges froze in their seats. A higher authority was affirmed with such confidence, their skepticism was momentarily shaken. So pervasive was the silence that the drop of a pin would have been heard.
But few moments later, a death sentence, to be carried out that very same day, was briskly read out by the Colonel; who was suddenly noticeably dispirited. The other two judges could not even bear to look up. But as soon as the Colonel finished, Abune Petros compassionately held his cross high, blessed the judges, and proceeded to pray for them in Geez; once Ethiopia’s dominant language, now spoken by no community, but dutifully conserved from extinction by the Church. They did not dare stop him.
Eight Italian army privates awaited him to pull the trigger simultaneously. He stood facing a wall, to be struck by a hail of bullets from the rear. As is customary, an Italian Officer approached him to read the death sentence (absurdly, in Italian) one last time. His legs and hands trembled as he did so. When he finished, the Abun, calm as ever, kissed the Bible he was carrying; blessed the crowd that had assembled to witness the execution; and then, with an expression serene more than ever, took out a watch from his pocket, noted the time, and placed it back in his pocket. He was ready to meet his creator.
The soldiers stood twenty feet behind him, and were kneeling when the order to fire came. Not a single bullet missed him. No one doubted that his end had come to pass. But the medical doctor who had to ascertain death looked up with stunned expression. Eight bullets had not killed the Abun. He was still alive. The crowd stirred. A solider stepped in hastily, and fired three more bullets. Each one struck the skull.
Five years later, Ethiopia was free from the pagan Fascists. A grateful Church and nation revered no one more the martyred Abun. But however much he was held in high esteem, there were no calls to erect his statue by the Church or its followers. When his statue was finally built, it was at the site of his execution and was commissioned by the government. In deference to Orthodox tradition and the sensibilities of adherents, no statue of his has ever been built near a Church.
Three and a half decades later, a ferocious social revolution raged in Ethiopia. It was time for the theocracy that had endured for 1600 years to unravel. No mission, after land to the tiller, was held with more fervor by revolutionaries than the total subservience of the Church to the new order. But, to few surprises, the prospect of subservience to a hostile state was roundly unpopular in the Church. The consensus was for political neutrality and Church independence. And the Patriarch, Abune Teweflos, was fully prepared to be martyred for the cause. As such, in a deliberate move to assert the Church’s independence, he appointed five Abuns; one of whom was the present Patriarch, Abune Paulos, without consulting the government.
For the Derg, this amounted to nothing less than open rebellion. The dismissal and imprisonment followed in quick succession. Both were unprecedented in a nation where the person of the Patriarch had always been inviolable. The Patriarch’s arrival in prison is here recounted in an autobiography by a prisoner, Abera Jembere, a high official in Haile Selliase’s government held under preventive detention for over seven years:
“It was past midday when he came. Bare footed and handcuffed, the Patriarch was being pushed and shoved by soldiers as they steered him to a solitary confinement cell. Inside the tiny room, they ordered him to lie down, chained both his hands and legs to a bed, and locked the door from outside. “Keep a close eye on this devilish priest,” barked an Officer as he headed back to his office. Shocked by the spectacle, prisoners had frozen in their tracks.
He would neither eat nor drink. He persisted for seven days despite numerous pleas by prison officials. Finally relenting to his determination, his door was flung open on the eighth day, was unchained from the bed, and prisoners were urged to prevail upon him. His solitary confinement came to an abrupt end. But weeks were to pass before he was to eat again. He sustained his fast. Spirit had clearly prevailed over body. (THE END)”
The next twenty eight months passed with his continued incarceration in a maximum security prison on the grounds of the Great Palace, few hundred feet away from the very seat of power. And then, out of the blue, at the peak of Mengistu’s prestige and power in late 1982, and when the revolution had finally stabilized, he was moved to a secret prison in north Addis Ababa for his final rendezvous with death. He was never tried in a court of law.
His end was tragically malicious. He did not see his murderers. As had happened to Abune Petros, they chose to strike from behind. They used barbed wires to choke him to death. It was a slow, brutal and painful death. He was buried in a mass grave. And thus came to pass the most horrifying murder of a Patriarch in the annals of Christianity. His story is one of the Church’s most cherished, and the power of its message resonates with all religions. But in line with Orthodox tradition no statue of his has been erected, nor has their ever been a proposal to do so.
Then, just what exactly did Abune Paulos, the current Patriarch, do more than the two martyred Abuns to deserve a statue, with the obvious consent of the Church bureaucracy he leads, and contrary to Orthodox tradition, at the largest church in the country?
Statuary was rejected by Orthodox Christianity because the dimensional representations were considered to glorify the human flesh rather than the divine spirit. Orthodox iconography, which has a rich history in Ethiopia, was alternatively developed to emphasize the spiritual holiness of figures rather than their humanity. And thus, no statues have ever been built for Abune Selema, who brought Christianity to Ethiopia; Yared, who developed the Church’s sacred gospel music; Lalibela, who built the Church’s greatest relic, the rock-hewn Churches in Lasta; and Abune Tekle-Haymanot, Ethiopia’s greatest native-born Saint. But they have all been amply represented by Ethiopian iconography.
Why is Orthodox tradition being uprooted?
THE END.
A reminder: Ideally, politics should be debated civilly. It rarely happens though, both in Ethiopia and the rest of the world. But when the same coarseness trespasses into the realm of religion it becomes blasphemous. Please let’s keep it civil at least when religion is involved.
This man is a person of this world, and as such, what he cares about is his mortal flesh and not his spirit. It is doubtful if he really believes in the Almighty, his congregation, his people and his country he is supposed to serve.
He wanted to see his statue erected during his lifetime, contrary to what anybody would have done, whether a religious person or a politician. Only dictators have their statues erected during their lifetime, only to be removed and desecrated after their death, as has happened with Sadam Hussein, Stalin and others.
He knows very well that Ethiopian iconography will never represent the racist patriarch, as a holy person of the Ethiopian Orthodox church. That is the reason he wants to leave behind his statue.
We had an archbishop who would rather choose to walk barefoot among the poor people of his country, contrary to the modern day patriarch, who has innumerable expensive cars at his disposal and of course, great wealth.
It was the high priests and the Pharisees, who were supposed to be people of God, who crucified Jesus. They punished him for giving sight to the blind, making the cripple to walk etc. If Jesus were to come back to this world in our days, modern day high priests like our patriarch, are the ones who would crucify him right away, and not the ordinary people.
I do not think that everything is lost for our church. There are many humble and true Christians in our Tewahido Orthodox Church, who will give back their church and their religion to the people.
Just one Gabramadhin,the evil broke into the church did not mean the orthodox church is faulty;it is that the robbers did horroble things to the rest of the country and to the people of Ethiopia,they vandalized the orthodox church of Ethiopia.
This is why Ethiopias need to be engaged in the ongoing struggle against Zinawianrobbers to set free Ethiopians and Ethiopia for once and for all.We shall take out Zinawians from the homeland and put them in an eternal prison so that even the god they worshipped to shall not get a chance to visit them.
It is a TPLF ploy to destroy the religion with in. Be vigilant, Woyanes just begun. The people of Tigriy should rise up sooner than later to destroy the devil that came carrying their name.
This Abune deserves nothing .This Abune has not defended the Ethiopian Orthodox church, since he become head of Ethiopian Orthodox church missionary & pentes religion has been swarming the country left right & centre, even some missionary managed to convert most of the Ethiopian family to different kind of Christianity and take their kids for adoptions abroad, so Abune, what makes you think you deserve a Golden status?