Work dossier · summary and historical context
The Malkeʿ of Walda Māryām of Dabra Zamaddo is an undated Geʿez encomiastic poem from the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo tradition, structured as a malkeʿ (praise poem) that celebrates the physical and spiritual attributes of the saint Walda Māryām. The sole known witness is a manuscript at Dabra Zamaddo monastery, catalogued in the Ethiopic Manuscript Association database. The poem likely served a liturgical function, possibly for a feast day, though no such feast is attested in the Synaxarion. Its content employs common hagiographic topoi, including salutations to the saint's conception and birth, and localizes the saint's cult through references to Dabra Zamaddo and symbolic geography.
This poem is significant as a rare witness to the cult of Walda Māryām, a saint otherwise poorly attested in Ethiopian hagiography. It exemplifies the malkeʿ genre's adaptation to local monastic contexts and provides insight into the liturgical and devotional practices of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. The text's survival in a single manuscript underscores the fragility of Ethiopian manuscript traditions and the importance of preserving such unique sources.
The poem is composed in Geʿez, the classical liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, and belongs to the malkeʿ genre, which flourished from the 14th century onward. Walda Māryām is associated with Dabra Zamaddo, a monastery in northern Ethiopia, and likely lived in the 15th–16th centuries, but the manuscript itself is undated and may be later. The text survives in a single witness, with no colophon or scribal note providing a terminus ante quem, limiting precise dating. The malkeʿ genre was used liturgically, often recited on a saint's feast day, but no specific feast for Walda Māryām is recorded in the Synaxarion. The poem's transmission is restricted to this one manuscript, suggesting a localized cult. The text's references to Dabra Zamaddo as Jerusalem and Golgotha reflect a common Ethiopian monastic trope of sacralizing local geography.
Apparatus · what the pipeline recorded
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