Axum - Cathedral of Tsion Maryam (St. Mary of Zion)

April 12 - After exploring the stelae field, we crossed the street to enter the grounds of Maryam Tsion Church. Because this is the day before Palm Sunday, or Hosanna, people everywhere were preparing for the long procession in the afternoon (separate blog post). Tens of thousands of Orthodox Christians flocked to the area for this most holy day in Axum. 

At each door to the church, people prayed and asked for God's blessing before entering. 

This is at the end of the morning procession where the priests and monks, followed by thousands of worshippers, circumambulated the church 3 times. The priests offered a blessing to the huge crowd then went inside for more praying. 

Here is Carrie receiving a blessing for an Orthodox bishop. Carrie is the one with blonde hair. Ha!  It was amazing what our guide was able to do for us once he told people we were also Orthodox Christians. They welcomed us with open arms and great excitement. 

The altar and sanctuary with icons all around. The curtain is drawn over an area they call "the holy of holies", which is where they keep the Tabot, or replica of the Ark of the Covenant. 

The book of The Miracle of St. Mary, written in Ge'ez, the ancient language of the clergy. The illustration on the left depicts the Holy Trinity. This book is more than 600 years old and printed on goat skin. It is wrapped in a special shroud and kept on a podium in the back of the church. A passage is read every day of the year, then they start over. 

This 400 hundred year old painting tells the story of the Ark of the Covenant, the vessel in which the Ten Commandments were brought from the mountain by Moses. Ethiopian Orthodox Christians claim to have the true Ark of the Covenant...

... In this building (center). There is one monk whose sole purpose in life is to guard the Ark. Nobody is allowed to see it. As the story goes, The Queen of Sheba and King Solomon bore a son, Menelik I, during her visit to Jerusalem. Sheba and Menelik returned to Ethiopia, But years later when Menelik went to visit his father, Solomon gave him the Ark as a gift, and for safe keeping in Ethiopia. At that time, Axum was the capital of Ethiopia and the religious center of Christianity in all of Africa. Menelik I went on to become Ethiopia's first emperor.