Ethiopia, in eastern Africa, has been Christian for longer than most of Europe. The area was never part of the Roman Empire, but missionaries presumably made their way down there from Egypt, which was in the Empire and became Christian early.
Indeed, there has often been assumed to be a long connection between Ethiopia and Judea/Israel. The Song of Solomon (love poems supposedly written by King Solomon, father of David, now usually interpreted as expressing Christ's love for His church), speak about his beloved as black and comely, and this is often said to indicate that she was from Ethiopia. Did the queen of Sheba move to the Middle East from Ethiopia? Hard to say.
Because Ethiopia was predominantly Christian in the Middle Ages, it had saints and miracle stories, just as Europe did. And, again like Europe, the most common miracle stories involved the Virgin. She was Mom, the one who would always love you no matter how bad you were. God would judge you for your crimes, and Jesus was too awe inspiring to approach for everyday issues (he saved your soul and everyone else's, the church said, isn't that enough of a miracle?) but Mary was right there, even edging out the Holy Ghost as the "real" third member of the Trinity.
Ethiopia's stories of the Virgin, like those in Europe, may seem weird to the modern eye, because someone is very bad yet, because they pray to her, they are saved. In Europe, for example, one of the most common stories was of a knight on his way to a tournament who stopped to pray to the Virgin and prayed so hard he lost track of time, but no problem! the Virgin put on his armor, rode his horse, and won the tournament. Because she was wearing his armor, everyone thought it was him, and he won the prize. In another, a monk rowed across the lake every night to visit his mistress, but he always prayed to the Virgin before going, so when his boat sprang a leak and he drowned, she interceded with God to save his soul. Mom always will love you!
One of the most common Ethiopian stories, retold and illustrated multiple times, involved a rich lord who was also a cannibal. (A little dig at the powerful there.) After eating all his friends and family, he set off to find more people to eat, taking a water skin with him. Soon he met a dying leper, who begged for a drink. No way, said the cannibal. The leper begged in the name of God, in the name of Christ. No luck. But then he begged in the name of the Virgin, and the cannibal relented and gave the leper a little water as he finished expiring. Shortly thereafter, the cannibal too died (not clear why, but let's not spoil the story worrying about it, I doubt that he got sick from eating a dead leper). The devil was all set to seize his soul, but the Virgin intervened, and he was saved. Better pay attention when someone asks for something in her name!
Since both Ethiopian and European miracle stories can seem weird to us, maybe our role as historians is to stop trying to make the past fit our idea of what religion and society should properly be like and instead try to understand people for their own sake.
Wendy Belcher of Princeton University is leading a team studying Ethiopian miracles of the Virgin.
© C. Dale Brittain 2025
For more on religion, saints, and other aspects of medieval history, see my ebook Positively Medieval, available on Amazon and other ebook platforms. Also available as a paperback.