Mazgaba Maṣāḥəft

Title

• Dabra Zamaddo's Abbot Abuna Sinodos whom people opposed to cut the hab tree.

Description

When Walda Yohannes (later known as Abbuna Sinodos) was named the new keeper of the law at Dabra Zamaddo, he noticed that water poured into the grotto and endangered the church. He decided to pave the mouth of the grotto and divert the water’s flow, and he went in search of materials for this purpose. Some people informed him of a large hab tree standing on top of the mountain, so he went there to cut it down. But when Walda Yohannes arrived, people had gathered there to tell him that he would have to kill them first if he wanted to fell the tree. In sadness he returned home, where he prayed to Mary. He said the people of the country were crooked, and he wondered why they would not let the tree be cut down to benefit Mary’s church. Mary heard Walda Yohannes’s words, and she spent three days in silence. After observing the people’s stubbornness and lack of humility she split the tree into three parts. With the tree destroyed, the people allowed Walda Yohannes to use the wood. Mary moved the tree from the mountaintop to the grotto. But Walda Yohannes realized that the wood pieces were unusable, as they had not been cut peacefully.