Christian miracle tales from the Horn of Africa

[St Za-Mika'el Aragawi]. Life of St Aragawi [and] Vision of Abba Barok.

€ 8.500,00

A rare Ge'ez manuscript on vellum, comprising both the Life of St Za-Mika'el Aragawi and the Vision of Abba Barok.

Composed in the 16th century, the Life of St Aragawi details the works of the most famous of the Nine Saints who were instrumental in the development and consolidation of Christianity in Ethiopia during the 6th century. Following this, the Vision of Abba Barok describes the three visionary dreams of the monk Barok, in which God ordered the monk, living in chastity (and perhaps castrated), to return to his normal life to marry and have children, which was duly undertaken. One similar manuscript copy of the Life of St Aragawi can be found at the University of Toronto's Gunda Gunde, also dated to the 18th century (cf. Toronto GG-020). While saints' lives and miracle tales are popular subjects for Ge'ez manuscripts, neither of these two stories are commonly found.