Saint Gabra Krestos
The son of Theodosius, Emperor of Constantine Saint Gabra Krestos, died on Tikmet 14. Theodosius was a God-loving man and one who feared God. His wife was a good and God-fearing woman whose name was Markiza. They were sorrowful because they had no son. Then, they went to Jerusalem and made vows. They made supplication to God, which onwards, He heard them and gave them a son. They called his name ‘Abd Almasih’ that is to say, “Gabra Krestos.” And they taught him every kind of learning on the earth, that there was nothing, which he did not learn.
Afterwards they married him to a princess of Rome. They brought to him the bride and they performed for him all the ceremonies, which are wont to be performed for the bridegroom and bride. At midnight Gabra Krestos took the bride by the hand, and they made a covenant together. Later on, they recited the prayer of belief” We believe in one God” to the end thereof. Then he stripped off himself the marriage-garments, and dressed himself in coarse apparel. Afterwards, he went to the bride, kissed her head, and he bade her farewell, saying to her, “God be with you, and deliver thee from every evil work of Satan.” She wept and said to him, “Where did you? And to whom will you leave me?” And he said to her, “I have you to God, and I am going to follow Christ, for my father’s kingdom is a transitory thing. Remember your oath”; and straightway she was silent and remembered her oath.
He then went forth by night whilst those who belonged to the marriage-chamber were sleeping, and he came to the sea-shore where he found certain men who were about to sail. They took him with them. When his father and his mother went into the marriage-chamber, where they found only the bride and not the bridegroom. They said to her, “Where is our son?” And she said to them, “He came in to me in the night, made me swear an oath, made a covenant with me, he kissed my head, and went away from me. I have passed the night weeping.” When they heard her words, they fell down upon the ground, on their faces. They groaned, uttered loud cries of grief and lamentation. The Emperor Theodosius sent out five hundred of his servants to seek his son, and he gave them much gold to distribute among the poor in alms.
Now Gabra Krestos arrived in the country of Armenia after a journey of one year. There was a church built in the name of our Lady Mariyam. He lived there for five years fasting and keeping vigil. Two envoys, servants of his father, arrived there, and searched for him, but were unable to hear any news of him; They gave alms to the poor, and Gabra Krestos himself received some of them. After he had dwelt there for five and twenty years, our holy Lady the Virgin Mariyam appeared to certain priest, and she said to him, “Take the man of God with you, and let his habitation be inside [the church]”; He did as she had commanded him. Gabra Krestos said, “My Lady, why do you reveal my secret?” He bade farewell to her picture (or image) and he departed by night and came to the seashore, where he found a ship in which he embarked. He wished to depart to another country, but by the Will of God he arrived at his father’s city. He dwelt there of fifteen years and no man recognized him. His father’s servants used to make sport of him; but Saint Gabra Krestos said, “[O God] punish not my father’s servants for their offence, but take me to yourself”; and thus saying he died, and they buried him with honor.
As they were burying him they found a paper grasped tightly in his hand and they were unable to remove it. They prayed together to the God of heaven; When they had prayed the paper was released from his hand, and they read it. They knew that he was their son. Then they wept bitterly and buried him. His tomb became a place where the sick were healed, the blind [were made to see], where many miracles were wrought and where countless acts of grace were performed.
Salutation to Gabra Krestos, whose sores the dogs licked in the courtyard of his father’s house.
The Ethiopian Synaxarium of Tikemet 14