Abune petros biography for kids
Abune Petros
20th-century Ethiopian bishop and martyr
Abune Petros (Ge'ez: አቡነ ጴጥሮስ; born Haile Maryam; 1882 – 29 July 1936) was an Ethiopian bishop and martyr, who was known for his execution by firing squad in 1936 by Fascist Italian troops for his resistance to the Italian invasion of Ethiopia.
Early life
Abune Petros was born in Fiche, north Addis Ababa. He grew up in a peasant family and was educated from elementary school to the highest stage of ecclesiastical education at the monastery of Debre Libanos, where he took vows in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, and became a monk in 1916.
Career
He started his teaching career at the monastery of Meskabe Kedusan in Amhara Sayint in Wollo Province, and later he moved to Debre-Menkerat monastery in Welayta, South Ethiopia, where he was authorized by the church as the teacher in charge. In 1924 he was appointed as a professor at the monastery church of Mary, on an island in Lake Zeway, southern Ethiopia. In 1927 he was assigned as memher of Menbere Leul Markos Church in the compound of the then Gennete Le’ul Imperial Palace at 6 Kilo where he became the spiritual father of Ras Tafari (later Emperor Haile Selassie).
His sermons were known and appreciated by the local population. He spent a lot of time in monasteries around the city of Dessie and the region of Wereilu. He was also well known for his teaching and preaching to the people around the region to seek first the kingdom of God. One of his preaching was Colossians 3:12 "Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience." His sermons and preaching was very popular and insightful to the people in the area and the monastery. In 1928 at St. Marks Monastery, Alexandria, he was nominated to be one of the four bishops for Ethiopia and given the title and name Abune Petros. He th Abune Petros A Martyr of the Millenium Fesseha Mekuria and Sven Rubenson (Lund, Sweden) Abune Petros was born in 1892 in a farmer family in the city of Fiche, which is situated north of Addis Ababa. He got the baptismal name Hailemariam that means power of Maria. As the custom of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC) tradition he got a special bishop name, that is PETROS with the Ethiopian title for a bishop which is ABUNE. As a young boy Abune Petros was known as clever, helpful and humble disciple in the church and city of Fiche. He chose early to study the EOC diakon and priest education. At the age of 24 he took the EOC oath and became a monk. He grew up and became a principled and well-known teacher around the monasteries in Fiche and Wolamo areas. In 1918 he was assigned by the EOC as the teacher and priest for the Debre-Menkrat monastery church in the region of Wolamo. Abune Petros continued to teach there when in 1924 he was assigned as the main teacher for the well-known island monastery-church of Mary, which is situated inside Lake Zewai in southern part of Ethiopia. He was well known for his teaching and preaching to the people around the region to seek first the kingdom of God: “ To put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. “ (Colossians 3:12) His teachings and preaching were very popular and insightful to the people in the area and the disciples he teaches in the Monastery. In 1928 in connection with the nomination of Ethiopian bishops in the St. Marks Monastery in Alexandria, he was nominated to one of four bishops of Ethiopia, with the title and name ABUNE PETROS. Abune Petros was nominated as bishop of the central and eastern part of Ethiopia. Half of his time he stayed in the City of Dessie and the surrounding monasteries, while the rest of his time he spent visiting and teaching in t Today marks the 77th infamous anniversary of the invasion of Ethiopia—also called Abyssinia—by Benito Mussolini’s Italy. The Italian Fascists killed, even with gas, about a million Orthodox Christians in total, including women and children, and destroyed thousands of churches and over one and a half million homes. As explained in Ethiopian and Eritrean Monasticism: The Spiritual and Cultural Heritage of Two Nations, what made these atrocities worse than, for example, the Armenian genocide, which killed approximately one and a half million Christians, is that Mussolini’s operations had the approval of a good part of the Italian Catholic hierarchy. Numerous Italian bishops—almost all pro-Mussolini—saw the conquest of Fascist Italy in Abyssinia as a missionary enterprise. The Archbishop of Taranto, Ferdinando Bernardi, in a speech of 23 February 1936 justified the Fascist invasion of Ethiopia by saying: ‘The Italian victory would have opened Ethiopia, a country of infidels and schismatics, to the expansion of the Catholic faith; therefore, the war against Ethiopia should be considered as a holy war, as a crusade.’ The Bishop of San Miniato, Ugo Giubbi declared to the Duce that ‘for the victory of Italy the Italian clergy is ready to melt the gold of the churches and the bronze of the bells.’ The Cardinal Archbishop of Milan, (Blessed) Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster, speaking in his Cathedral on 28 October 1935, praised the Italian armed forces as ‘The gallant army which, imbued with obedience to the command of the homeland, is opening the doors of Ethiopia to faith and the Roman civilisation.’ The paradox is that Ethiopia as a nation, called Axum in Antiquity, was civilised and Christian before the inhabitants of the Italian peninsula—Ethiopia, under King Ezena, accepted Christianity c. 330 AD, while Rome did not until 380
Abune Petros (1892-1936) was born near Fiche and his given name on birth was Haile Mariam. He studied with clergy to become an Orthodox Church priest, and he became a monk at the age of 24. He taught in the Fiche area, at the Debre-Menkrat monastery in Wolamo, and at the island Church of Mary in Lake Zewai. In June 1929 he was appointed Bishop of Wollo and was given the patriarchic name Abuna Petros. When the Italo-Ethiopian war began in 1935, he accompanied Emperor Haile Selassie in the northern campaign and witnessed the horrific effects of poison gas attacks on civilians. During the Fascist occupation, Petros briefly took refuge in Debre Libanos Monastry in Shoa before moving to Addis Ababa. Abune Petros through his preaching & teachings reminded Ethiopians to stand-up for their belief and conviction that God would redeem Ethiopia & her people. Italian occupation authorities looked at his preaching & teaching as incitement to resist the occupation and asked him to stop. He replied by saying: “The cry of my countrymen who died due to your poison gas and terror machinery will never allow my conscious to accept your ultimatum. How can I see my God if I give a blind eye to such a crime?”
When the Patriots’ Resistance Movement began a nation-wide war of resistance, Petros moved to Addis Ababa. In the summer of 1936, when an attempted insurrection in the capital failed, Petros was arrested and tortured for having spoken out against the occupying army. In a hurried trial, he was convicted of treason and sentenced to death. His final words before his execution were: “May God give the people of Ethiopia the strength to resist and never bow down to the fascist army and its violence. May the Ethiopian ear The Ethiopian Genocide and the Rise of Abune Petros