Gondar - Phi Kappa Psi

Iyasus Mo'a with this honor) Another tradition credits Tekle Haymanot as the only
Abuna born in Ethiopia until the church was granted autocephaly in the 1950s.
Tekle Maymanot studied under Iyasus Mo'a (Iyäsus Mo'a, "Jesus has
Conquered" c. 1214 – c. 1294). Iyasus Mo'a is a saint of the Ethiopian Orthodox
Tewahedo Church; his feast day is 26 Hedar (or 5 December). In life he was an
Ethiopian monk and abbot of Istifanos Monastery in Lake Hayq of Amba Sel.
At the age of 30, he travelled to the monastery of Debre Damo during the
abbacy of Abba Yohannis where he was made a monk, and was given arduous
tasks by the abbot. After seven years, he left Debra Damo and came to live with
a hermetic community living around the 8th century church of Istanafanos at
Lake Hayq, and organized this group into a monastery with rules and a school.
One of the students of this school was Saint Tekle Haymanot, who stayed at the
monastery for 10 years.
His biography, the Gadla Iyasus Mo`a ("Acts of Iyasus Mo`a"), records
that Yekuno Amlak had fled from the authorities in Amba Sel and hid in the
church because of a prophecy (tinbit) that he would become a king. His mother,
upon hearing such prediction, brought him to Istifanos Monastery in Lake Hayq
and begged the priests there to hide her son and save him from being killed.
Iyasus Mo'a protected and educated the boy, and in return, Emperor Yekuno
Amlak built the structure to house his community. Later hagiographies state that
Yekuno Amlak was helped by Tekle Haymanot, but the critical researches of
Carlo Conti Rossini suggest that the Gadla Iyasus Mo`a is closer to the correct
version of events.
Abbot Johannes ministered in a long religious tradition. The Ethiopian
Orthodox Church, or Tewhado, dates the coming of Christianity to Ethiopia to the
fourth century AD, when a Christian philosopher from Tyre named Meropius was
shipwrecked on his way to India. Meropius died but his two wards, Frumentius
and Aedesius were washed ashore and taken to the royal palace. Eventually
they became king Ella Amida’s private secretary and royal cupbearer
respectively. They served the king well, and Frumentius became regent for the
infant prince Ezana when Ella Amida died. Frumentius and Aedesius were also
permitted to prosyletize the new religion in Aksum (as modern Ethiopia was then
known). After some time, Frumentius and Aedesius returned to the
Mediterranean, travelling down the Nile through Egypt to do so. When they
reached Egypt, Frumentius contacted bishop Athanasius of Alexandria and
begged him to send missionaries back to Aksum, since the people there had
proved so ready to receive the gospel.
Athanasius agreed that the need was urgent, and immediately appointed
Frumentius to the task, which needed someone fluent in the language and
sensitive to the customs of Aksum. He ordained Frumentius the first abuna or
bishop of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Frumentius has since come to be