Mazgaba Maṣāḥəft

Title

• Dabra Zamaddo's three monks who starved in the cell that once belonged to the Holy Family.

Description

There was a monk named Bakwra Tseyon who planned to take hermitage with four other monks. These monks were familiar with a story that told of how Mary fled from Egypt and went to Ethiopia, where she stayed in a cell for seven months with her son and Joseph. Inspired by Mary, Bakwra Tseyon and the other monks planned to live in this same cell for five years. They had no food and no company, since the cell was in the desert. After five years of toil, the enemy (i.e., Satan) influenced some of the monks to consider leaving. But Bakwra Tseyon declared that he would wait in the cell until he received Mary’s blessing. The other monks set off into the desert. The next morning Mary appeared in the cell and told Bakwra Tseyon he must go to King Lalibala’s country, for his grave would be located there. He followed Mary’s instructions, and when he died he was buried in the church of Madhane ʿAlam. Meanwhile, the other monks searched the desert for a miracle, but in vain.