Dan’él

Dan’él, Abunä, was Metropolitan of Ethiopia apointed during the Patriarchate of Philotheos (979-1003), after a period of half a century without a canonical ordination. An unnamed ruler of Ethiopia wrote to George, the Christian king of Nubia, telling him of a queen of the ‘Bani al-Hamüya’ who was scourging his country as a punishment for the treatment meted out to Abunä Pétros; this is probably a reference to the infamous Gudit or Yodit. George was asked to intercede with the Patriarch and request a properly consecrated abun for Ethiopia. Dan’él of the monastery of Abü Maqar was chosen, and the queen was apparently defeated.

A. K. Irvine

Bibliography

J. Perruchon, “Notes pour l’histoire d’Ethiopie”, Revue Sémitique, Vol. I (1893), 71-6, 359-72.

E. A. Wallis Budge, The Book of the Saints of the Ethiopian Church (Cambridge, 1928), Vol. I, 234 (Synaxarium, 12 Hedar).

C. Conti Rossini, “I manoscritti etiopici della Missione Cattolica di Cheren,” Rendiconti della Reale Accademia dei Lincei, ser. V, Vol. XIII (1904).

This article is reproduced, with permission, from The Dictionary of Ethiopian Biography, Vol. 1 ‘From Early Times to the End of the Zagwé Dynasty c. 1270 A.D.,’ copyright © 1975, edited by Belaynesh Michael, S. Chojnacki and Richard Pankhurst, Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. All rights reserved.