Mazgaba Maṣāḥəft

Title

• Dabra Zamaddo's Mabaʾa tsǝyon church and the density of trees there that prevented two boys from dying in a fire

Description

Maba'a Seyon lived in Semrata Ab. One day, a woman came to Maba'a Seyon and asked him to take her baby as a servant. Maba'a Seyon reluctantly accepted this child, who was very sick and vomited what looked like charcoal and scorpions. One night, after the child had recovered from his illness, there was a terrible fire. The adults escaped the house, but two children remained inside, including the child Maba'a Seyon had taken on as a servant. The next morning, the people of the country found that though one child had burned to ash, Maba'a Seyon’s servant had miraculously survived thanks to Mary. Elsewhere in the same country there was a beautiful church surrounded by tall trees. The trees blocked the sun in the dry season, and in the wet season they dripped water and shed leaves onto the church, eroding its walls. The people did not want to upset Mary by cutting the trees down, so they left them alone. But Mary, who loved her people, caused a fire to burn down the offending trees. The fire grew so intense that the people worried it would destroy the church as well. But when the fire cleared they found the church still standing, with its thatch roof miraculously intact.