Hagiographic dossier of ʾAlāniqos

Years of the Kings of Aksum: of the Serpent, 400 years; of the Man Angabo, who drove out the Serpent and killed it, 200 years; of Geduh of Banukh, 50 years; of Sabado of Sabado, 50 years; in Aksum, the year of Qawasaya Magda, 50 years. A clever deed on the day of Monday, by the grace of God: wonderful is your deed for him who hears it with inquiry. ʾAlāniqos, Peter and Paul of Thessalonica, with your Lord, as you were a vessel of the four. In the name of God, the Trinity, and in the name of God, the Eternal, before the creation of the world, who emboldened and strengthened me to write the account of the miracle and the story of the struggle of the blessed, holy, chosen, and struggling ʾAbuna ʾAlāniqos. May the blessing of his grace and the power of his help be with the servant of God, the servant of the Trinity, and with all the children of this righteous ʾAbuna ʾAlāniqos, forever and ever. Amen.

A miracle and great deed which this righteous and ascetic chosen one performed: a precious stone by nature, pure of face like the sun, parent of thousands of stars, morning and evening, nuptial. Our father ʾAlāniqos, who showed forth while he was on Dabra Ṣalay, which is the sanctuary of his son Tomās. How ʾAbuna ʾAlāniqos miraculously repaired a broken vase that belonged to a monk of Dabra Ṣalay. And he performed a work of miracle and wonder on the day of the first sabbath, while the fathers were gathered in the church. He filled the cup of the sabbath house which the monks of that mountain drink, and there was a monk of Dabra Ṣalay, the son of ʾAbuna Tomās, and when he filled the cup, it broke and became two pieces, and the wine spilled. How ʾAbuna ʾAlāniqos provided bread to ʾAbbā Tomās on a Sunday when there was no flour in the convent.

His miracle. May the prayer and blessing of our father ʾAlāniqos be with his servant for ever and ever. Amen. And a great and mighty deed of our father ʾAlāniqos: when he had gone to his mountain, having completed the measure of his thought and his heart being pure for his son and beloved, abba Tōmās of Dabra Ṣalay. How ʾAbuna ʾAlāniqos restored to life a cow that belonged to the convent and had been killed by a lion. His miracle. May the prayer and blessing of our father ʾAlāniqos be with the children of the community for ever and ever. Amen. And a certain day came; a lion came and killed a cow of the convent. And the steward came to our father ʾAlāniqos and told him how it had killed the cow of the convent at the ninth hour. And the time for offering incense in the church arrived. And our father ʾAlāniqos said to the steward: How ʾAbuna ʾAlāniqos converted 557 idolaters from Qāgmā.

His miracle. May the prayer and blessing of our father ʾAlāniqos be with his servant for ever and ever. Amen. And our father ʾAlāniqos was, while fasting, on a single day from dawn until the ninth hour without breaking his fast, daily, the place of water at Rāzyo and the place of Qāgmā he would reach, going around both churches, carried on a chariot of spirit. This spiritual righteous one, an elder, a king’s son from the kingdom of his father. His miracle and a great and mighty deed of this our father ʾAlāniqos: In the time of the governor who is called ʾAkḥadom, who is the appointed one of Tǝgrāy, great and mighty. And there was his wife, an evil woman, a widow, a second Jezebel, a widow. And she conceived from one of the servants of the governor ʾAkḥadom. And they told him, slandering and falsely accusing him, saying, “Your wife has conceived, O our lord.” And the governor ʾAkḥadom said to them, “By whom has she conceived?

How a merchant called Yǝsākor who used to bring incense from his travels to the church of ʾAbuna ʾAlāniqos is attacked by robbers who were finally blinded. His miracle. And again, the deed of this our father ʾAlāniqos the righteous, whose name is renowned and whose name is great, father of monks and begetter of thousands, like unto the two prophets. There was a certain man, a merchant, and while this merchant was on the road to Torat, robbers of the way came to him and found him when he arrived at a city called Ṣila, and they plundered the goods of his load of incense at the time he reached this city. Miracle accomplished under the reign of Wǝdǝm ʾArʿad: Healing of a blind and limping boy. His miracle. Listen, our fathers, to what this venerable father, the elder, the spiritual, the righteous, of royal lineage, the valiant one like unto them, ʾAlāniqos, prophet of the faith, new like Enoch who was bound in the life of body and soul, and like Elijah whose spirit was, ʾAlāniqos, zealous for God, with his eyes until the hidden he sees. The story of your life, where there is one who hears, is sweet.

How ʾAbuna ʾAlāniqos traversed the high waters of the Takkaze in the middle of the rainy season together with the monks who accompanied him on the way to Gadāma Wāli by dividing the waters of the river. His miracle. And it came to pass on one day in the time of the reign of King ʾArʿād, while the blessed ʾAbuna whom wisdom had embraced and prayer had joined, ʾAlāniqos, the new martyr who surpassed Mar Giyorgis of Lǝdā the king, was drunk with the dew of the Holy Spirit. Then, when the time came for him to go to Gadāma Wāli to the holy fathers, his brothers, in order to visit them, for they were there at that time in love and peace, and as he was going toward his monastery.

A serious abscess forms in his throat, and he is about to die, but is healed by the demand of ʾAbuna Fǝre Krǝstos thanks to the intercession of ʾAbuna ʾAlāniqos. His miracle and wonder. This righteous one, ʾAbuna ʾAlāniqos, performed [this] in the time of the reign of our king ʾAṣnāf Sagad. After the death of ʾAbuna ʾAlāniqos, Yǝsḥaq came to his monastery with his father Deganā and his teacher Śǝyum. At that time, ʾAbbā Fǝre Krǝstos was abbot, and Yǝsḥaq quarreled with ʾAbuna Fǝre Krǝstos and spoke words of insult against ʾAbbā Fǝre Krǝstos. Yǝsḥaq, the son of Deganā, grieved and wept. The blessed elder ʾAbbā Fǝre Krǝstos [was distressed]. A miracle accomplished under the reign of ʾAṣnāf Sagad; when Yǝsḥaq, son of Deganā, was governor of Tǝgrāy, ʾAbuna Mobaʿa Dǝngǝl was abbot of the convent, and ʾAbuna Ṗeṭros, spiritual son of ʾAbuna ʾAlāniqos, was administrator of the convent: A donkey that belonged to the convent and was stolen by merchants returns to the convent after three years thanks to the intercession of ʾAbuna ʾAlāniqos.

His miracle and wonder, exceedingly great. And the marvel of the story which this righteous one, ʾAbuna ʾAlāniqos, performed in the time of our king ʾAṣnāf Sagad, and during the governorship of Tǝgrāy, Yǝsḥāq, son of Däggāna; and at that time, our teacher ʾAbuna Mobaʾa Dǝngǝl and the librarian of the convent, ʾAbuna P̣eṭros, son of ʾAbuna Kǝbur, teacher of the faith of ʾAlāniqos. And at that time, there was a great famine in the land of the convent which is called Māy Mǝlāʿ.

Hearken, our fathers and our brothers, to the miracle which our father ʾAlāniqos performed in the time of the reign of our king Susǝnyos, and of the governor ʾǝḫǝwa Krǝstos, and of our teacher ʾAbbā Maḫǝzǝnta Wāld, and at that time when there was a famine in the land of Tǝgrāy, and it destroyed the land of Tǝgrāy, the planting of Krǝstos which had been planted earlier, whose name and whose superiors, the earth, they have no mercy, while they were killing people. By your unity, O God, and by your Trinity, O Trinity, from the mouth of angels and men, you who are ordained, the whole of the liturgy, for Taṭamqa Madḫǝn, who kindled the fire, the bringer of the field and the threshing floor, the fathers, tell me, as Moses spoke, for the priest Aaron and the faithful Ouse.

Let us write the account of the birth of the holy fathers: ʾAbbā ʾAnṭons, who begot ʾAbbā Maqāros; and ʾAbbā Maqāros begot ʾAbbā Paqʷāmis; and ʾAbbā Yoḥannes, likewise, begot ʾAbbā ʾAlāniqos; Māy Barāziyo and Gabra Masqal of Maʿāre and ʾAbrəhām of Dabra Ṣəyon.