Commemoration of Abune Aregawi’s Birthday
January 21, 2022
Our Holy Father Aragawi’s birthday is commemorated on January 22, who is surnamed Za- Mikael. This Saint is one of the renowned fathers in our country. He was born in the middle of the 5th century in Rome and his parents were called King Isaac and Queen Edna.
He is known with different names. His parents named him ZeMichael (Of Michael) while in the desert he was known as Theodoulos (Gebre Amlak) and in Ethiopia, he is called Aregawi. Though he was a prince and a child, because he was learned in the scriptures, he ran-away and entered a monastery.
This holy man became a guide to the servants of God on the road. He went up to the holy Dabra Damo holding the tail of a serpent, and there he fought countless noble fights. God graciously made a covenant with him concerning the man who should call upon his name, and the man who should celebrate his commemoration, and then he was hidden from the face of death by the grace of God. He established among his children the Rules for the Monastic Life, which he had learned in the house of his father Pachomius.
May his intercession be with us!
Source: The Ethiopian Synaxarium page 89