Ethiopian Studies II: Saints, Struggles, and Sermons

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Centre for Medieval Studies, Univ. of Toronto; International Medieval Sermon Studies Society

Organizer Name

Felege-Selam Yirga

Organizer Affiliation

Ohio State Univ.

Presider Name

Felege-Selam Yirga

Paper Title 1

Sorcerers, Snakes, and Devils: Non-Christians in the Gadlāt of Ethiopian Evangelizing Saints

Presenter 1 Name

Augustine Dickinson

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Centre for Medieval Studies, Univ. of Toronto

Paper Title 2

Deception, Infanticide, and the Making of a Female Saint: A Look at the Gadl Krestos Samra

Presenter 2 Name

Meron T. Gebreananye

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Durham Univ.

Paper Title 3

Struggles in the Vita of Ethiopian Saints: The Case of Gadla Sarābāmon

Presenter 3 Name

Amsalu Tefera Alemu

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Addis Ababa Univ./Ludwig-Maximilians-Univ. München

Start Date

9-5-2019 1:30 PM

Session Location

Schneider 1350

Description

The flowering of hagiographic writing in the 14th century was vital to the formation of Ethiopian political/religious identity and its relationship with the wider Christian oikumene. While there are several genres (such as gädl and dərsan) that may be said to be particular to the Ethiopian context, the same performative and epistemological expectations that premodern readers of Western hagiographies might have had are equally applicable to the medieval Ethiopian context. This session invites papers examining Ethiopian religious stories and texts, their historicity/canonicity, and the debates about history, land tenure, and politics that came to shape their narratives. Felege-Selam Yirga