List of abunas of Ethiopia

Abuna of Ethiopia
Bishopric
oriental
Incumbent: Mathias Since 28 February 2013
Style	His Holiness
Information
First holder	St. Frumentius (Bishop) Basilios (Patriarch)
Established	c. 350 (Foundation) 1959 (Autocephaly)
Cathedral	Holy Trinity Cathedral, Addis Ababa

This is a list of the abunas of Ethiopia, the spiritual heads of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. The Abuna is known officially as Patriarch and Catholicos of Ethiopia, Archbishop of Axum and Ichege of the See of Saint Taklehaimanot. The current Abuna, Mathias, acceded to this position on 28 February 2013.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is part of the Oriental Orthodox communion, and it was granted autocephaly by Cyril VI, Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church, in 1959.

Bishops of Axum

• Abune Selama I Kesatay Birhan (St. Frumentius) (c. 350–383)
• Minas or Elyas
• Abreham (late 4th century – early 5th century)
• Petros
• Abba Afse (late 5th century – early 6th century)
• Qozmos (fl. early 6th century)
• Euprepius (fl. early 6th century)

• vacant (c. 537–562)

Metropolitan Archbishops of Axum and of All Ethiopia

• Qerellos (620s – mid 7th century)

• unknown

• Yohannes (c. 820–840)
• Yaqob I (fl. mid 9th century)
• Salama Za-'Azeb (fl. 9th century)
• Bartalomewos (fl. 10th century)
• Peter (920s), opposed by Minas and Fiqtor

• vacant (c. 940–970s)

• Daniel (fl. late 10th century)
• Fiqtor (fl. 11th century)
• 'Abdun, claimant
• Sawiros (1077–1092)
• Giyorgis I (fl. 1090s)
• Mikael I (fl. early–mid 12th century)
• Yaqob II
• Gabra Krestos
• Atnatewos (fl. late 12th century)
• Mikael II (1206–1209), opposed by Hirun
• Yeshaq (c. 1209–1225)
• Giyorgis II (c. 1225)
• Saint Tekle Haymanot (c. 13th century), according to tradition
• Yohannes (XIII?) (fl. 14th century)
• Yaqob (III?) (c. 1337–1344)

• vacant (1344–1348)

• Salama II (1348–1388)
  • vacant (1388-1398/9)
• Bartalomewos (1398/9–1436)
• Mikael and Gabriel (1438–1458)

• vacant (1458–1481)

• Yeshaq (1481– c. 1520)
• Marqos (VI?) (1481– c. 1530)
• João Bermudes (c. 1536–c. 1545), self-proclaimed Ethiopian Orthodox Abuna, and Catholic Patriarch of Ethiopia and Alexandria
• Endyras (c. 1545–?)
• Andrés de Oviedo (1557–1577), Catholic bishop
• Marqos (VII?) (c. 1565)
• Krestodolos I (c. 1590)
• Petros (VI?) (1599?–1607), killed in battle
• Simon (1608–1617), died 1624
• Afonso Mendes (1622–1632), Catholic Patriarch, supported by Susenyos I and deposed by Fasilides

• vacant (1632–1633)

• Rezek (c. 1634)
• Marqos (VIII?) (c. 1635–1672), deposed with Krestodolos
• Krestodolos II (c. 1640–1672), deposed with Marqos
• Sinoda (1672–1687)

• vacant (1687–1689)

• Marqos (IX ?) (1689–late 17th century)
• Abba Mikael (1640–1699)
• Marqos X (1694–1716)

• vacant (1716–1718)

• Krestodolos III (c. 1718–1745)

• vacant (1745–c. 1747)

• Yohannes XIV (c. 1747–1770)
• Yosab III (1770–1803)

• vacant (1803–c. 1808)

• Makarios (fl. c. 1808)

• vacant (c. 1808–1816)

• Qerellos III (1816–1829)

• vacant (1829–1841)

• Salama III (1841–1867)

• vacant (1867–1868)

• Atnatewos II (1868–1876), died of wounds received at the Battle of Gura
• Petros VII (1876–1889), died 1918
• Mattheos X (1889–1926)
• Qerellos IV (1926–1936), deposed following the Second Italo-Ethiopian War
• Abraham (1937–1939), installed during the Italian occupation
• Yohannes XV (1939–1945), installed during the Italian occupation

• Qerellos IV (1945–1950), restored

• Basilios (1951–1959)

On 13 July 1948, the Coptic Orthodox and Ethiopian churches reached an agreement that led to the elevation of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church to the rank of an Autonomous Church; allowing the Archbishop of All Ethiopia to consecrate on his own bishops and metropolitans for the Ethiopian Church and to form a local Holy Synod. The Archbishop, however, is consecrated by the Pope of Alexandria along with the members of the Holy Synod of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.

Gallery

• 
  Salama III, Abuna from 1841 to 1867.
• 
  Mattheos X, Abuna from 1889 to 1926.
• 
  Qerellos IV, Abuna from 1926 to 1936 and from 1945 to 1950.
• 
  Abraham, Abuna from 1937 to 1939.

Patriarchs and Catholicoi of All Ethiopia

No.	Portrait	Abuna (Birth–Death)	Reign	Notes
1		Basilios (1891–1970)	1959–1970	Reigned during the 1960 Ethiopian coup attempt and the 1965 Conference of Addis Ababa. Born in Mada Mikael as Gebre Giyorgis Wolde Tsadik
2		Theophilos (1910–1979)	1971–1976	Confirmed by the Emperor after his election. Deposed and arrested by the Derg; executed by strangling in 1979. Born in Debre Elias as Meliktu Jenbere
3		Takla Haymanot (1918–1988)	1976–1988	Met Pope John Paul II in 1981, in the first such meeting in modern times. Born in Begemder as Melaku Wolde Mikael
4		Merkorios (1938–2022)	1988–2022	Deposed by the EPRDF, which claimed that he willingly abdicated. Headed the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Exile from 1991 to 2018. Entered into dual patriarch arrangement alongside Abune Mathias from 2018 to 2022. Born in Begemder as Ze-Libanos Fanta
5		Paulos (1936–2012)	1992–2012	Reign disputed by followers of Abune Merkorios. Born in Adwa as Gebremedhin Woldeyohannes
6		Mathias (born 1941)	2013–present	Reign disputed by followers of Abune Merkorios until 2018. Entered into dual patriarch arrangement alongside Abune Merkorios from 2018 to 2022. Born in Agame as Teklemariam Asrat

In 1959, the Coptic Orthodox Church granted autocephaly to the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, and elevated the Archbishop to the Patriarchal dignity and was enthroned with the title of: Patriarch and Re'ese Liqane Papasat Echege (Catholicos) of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. The title of Ichege (Supreme Abbot) of the See of St. Tekle Haymanot of Debre Libanos was subsumed into the Patriarchate. The title of Ichege was revived and the title of Archbishop of Axum was added to the Patriarchal titles in 2005, as Axum was the seat of Ethiopia's first Bishop, St. Frumentius, and thus the oldest see in the church.

Timeline

See also

• Coptic Christianity
• Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church
  • List of abunas of Eritrea
• Ethiopian ecclesiastical titles

Sources

• Modern Primates of Ethiopia (1694–present)