Article in ENGLISH !

Our priory is called “Blessed Abba Gebré-Mickaël House”, and before to arrive to Ethiopia, he was for us totally unknown... and we believe that it may be the same for you ! So that we thought it could be a good idea to let you know more in details about him :

Born in the village of Goggiam, in Ethiopia, a boy of keen intelligence, he sought intensely the truth and found in it fullness with the help of Saint Giustino De Jacobis, who welcomed him into the Catholic Church. Persecuted for a long time, he died on 13 July 1855 at about the age of seventy. A growing number of religious institutes were named after him and took him as their patron.

From a report written by B. Giustino De Jacobis to the Cardinal Prefect of the S. Congregation de Propaganda Fide, dated 30 November 1856:

“Abba Ghebre Michael was a highly respected figure, a man of keen intelligence, upright, not at all factitious. With rigorous study he sought the true faith. After some fifty years of personal reflection on the faith, as a neophyte he went to Rome in 1841 as legate to the Supreme Pontiff. In Rome at last he discovered the truth which he had so earnestly sought. He clung to it with all his mind, heart and action and already in 1844 professed it in prison, at the time of a persecution unleashed against Ethiopian neo-Catholics by Abuna Salama. From then onwards once again his life was one of prayer, Catholic instruction and doctrinal controversies, crowned with many successes. Who more than he then deserved the priesthood? I consider myself fortunate that he was the first on whom I conferred the priestly dignity.

He and I, were taken prisoner together in Gondar on 15 July 1854 and confined in two separate cells, only at the end of that day could we exchange a few words. For months that intrepid athlete was beaten with sticks and fists by the Abuna's followers. Five months later he was taken to the camp of Prince Cassa and there, before the tribunal and a vast crowd, he bore noble witness to the faith with wondrous fortitude. Rejecting all the arguments presented to make him retract, he was condemned to death. The execution was however postponed and in the meantime, at the order of Prince Cassa, two robust soldiers struck the martyr repeatedly on the mouth, while in a loud voice and with splendid words he repeated the dogmatic confession of Pope Saint Leo and the Council of Chalcedon on the two natures in Christ. He resisted in this manner until his tormentors themselves collapsed with fatigue. Everyone thought the victim's life was ended when all at once, amidst general amazement, the old man stood up and began to walk without assistance: all signs of the torments suffered had disappeared from his face, indeed his eyes shone with a brilliant light. After this he was taken back to the prison.

Two days later there began a long journey which was to last, along rugged paths, his feet in chains, for two whole months, behind the army which Prince Cassa had sent against the Prince of Scioa. He was forced to stand a second time before a tribunal, presided by the Prince with Abuna Salama, in front of the whole army.

Interrogated, he renewed his profession of the faith. He was again condemned to death and led out to be executed. However the crowds were moved to tears and asked the Prince to grant a reprieve which he did. Abba Ghebre Michael was so weakened by the beating that he suffered an attack of violent stomach cramps and then dysentery. The soldiers, full of admiration, instead of using his real name began to call him Saint George, Chedus Ghiergis. Ethiopian legends say for the faith that seven times Saint George lost his life and returned to life. It would seem that the Lord wished to confirm for Ghebre Michael the implicit wish in the name used by the soldiers; on 13 July, the day on which the Ethiopian calendar commemorates that early martyr, He called to himself, his faithful servant, during the journey the saintly confessor of the faith was making weighed down with chains for the glory of Christ.”

Brother Iovane