In The Name of The Father, The Son;
& The Holy Spirit One God Amen!!
Therefore the feast of Meskel was celebrated by all Christians of the world in ancient times in Jerusalem where our Lord was crucified on the cross.
MESKEL IN JERUSALEM
The Holy Cross on
which our Lord was crucified healed the sick when they touched it after He rose
from the dead. The Jews crucified the Savior of the world because of their
jealousy as they witnessed that He healed the sick and revived the dead when He
touched them. In addition to healing different kinds of diseases, the Holy
Cross on which the Jews crucified the Lord had given sight to the blind. When
the Jews realized that the miraculous acts of the Holy Cross continued, they
wanted to hide it away from the knowledge of the people once for all. Therefore
they buried it in the ground, & to obliterate the burial site they ordered
people in Jerusalem to put their garbage on it which eventually turned in to a
mountain after some years. But the Christians never lost sight of the place of
the burial of the Holy Cross, & could remember that it was buried under the
mountain of garbage. However; the site was forgotten after the Christians fled
Jerusalem in 70 A.D. due to the invasion of the Roman generals Titus &
Vespasiamus.
Queen Helena; the
mother Constantine the Great, had accepted Christianity before her son. She
made a vow that she would rebuild the destroyed churches & recover the Holy
Cross from where it was hidden if her son was converted to Christianity. After
his conversion, Queen Helena went to Jerusalem in 327 with a group of her
entourage to fulfill her vow. Constantine the Great was also as much concerned
about recovering the Holy Cross as Queen Helena was. Therefore he was happy
when she expressed her interest to search for & find the Holy Cross. He
gave her a lot of money & sent a lot of aids with her to Jerusalem to
assist her in her searching for the Holy Cross. After her arrival in Jerusalem,
she ordered the digging of all mountains in search of the Holy Cross. She also
ordered the Jews to clear off the mountain of Golgotha for the same purpose.
But the Holy cross was not found as under other mountains so far dug. As a
desperate attempt to get the Holy Cross to force them to show her where they
might have buried it. But they adamantly refused to cooperate with her.
George; the son of
Amid, says that ‘Queen Helena asked Bishop Macarius in Jerusalem to show her
where the Holy Cross was buried, & the latter told her that the renegades
had put a lot of garbage on the burial site to the extent that it had turned in
to a big mountain.’
It so happened that
she found an old man called Karacious who told her that the Holy Cross was
buried in Calvary (Keranio) as his father had told him when he was young, thus
pointing at that mountain where the Holy Cross was buried. At the same time she
was in a meditation for the revelation of the site of the Holy Cross & her
meditation was answered. The Angel of God; St. Michael, reveled to her that she
would find the Holy Cross with the help of the smoke of incense. With the help
of the clue the old man gave her & the revelation of the Angel, she ordered
again all people in Judea & Jerusalem to bring poles of wood (Chibo) to
burn incense in Golgotha. So they brought their poles & put them together
(Demera) on September 26 (Meskerem 16) & put them on fire burning. A lot of
incense was put on the fire to make a smoke to show where the Holy Cross was
buried. So after the smoke was made it ascended to the sky & then bent down
to the ground indicating the site where the Holy Cross remained buried. St
Yared says in his hymn book that ‘The Incense smoke had shown the site of the
Holy Cross; the smoke bowed to the Holy Cross.
Now that the site was known Queen Helena ordered the people
to begin digging the site on September 26. After six months of digging, the
Holy Cross was excavated on March 19 (Megabit 10) along with two other crosses
on which two criminals named Titus & Darks were hanged with Him with the
same day at the same place. So it was found difficult to distinguish among the
three crosses on which one was Christ crucified. So she asked the assistance of
Bishop Macarius in the mystery of distinguishing the Holy Cross. The Bishop
advised her that the cross that could heal the sick, & raises the dead was
the Holy Cross. So the Holy Cross raised the dead when it was put on the grave
& healed the sick when they touched it. Thus the Holy Cross was distinguished
from the cross of the two criminals. When the Holy Cross was found the people
sang ululating & danced saying ‘The Holy Cross has lit; flourished &
its flower has borne fruit.’
The good news of
the finding of the True Cross was passed to Constantinople, the seat of
Constantine the Great. People from Jerusalem to Constantinople expressed their
joy by singing & lighting their neighborhood by making fires & carrying
flowers when they heard that Queen Helena had passed the good news about the
recovery of the Holy Cross to Constantinople.
Queen Helena built
churches at the Holy sites in Bethlehem the birth place of Jesus, Mount Olive
where He told people about His second coming, in Golgotha where He was
crucified & buried. The Queen has decorated these churches with precious
stones like diamond, gold, & silver. Constantine the Great assisted her
financially so that she could provide these churches with support to run.
Constantine the Greta invited to the inauguration of these new churches the
Archbishops of Alexandria, Constantinople & Antioch. On the eve of the
inauguration they blessed the churches with religious service on September 26
(Meskerem 16). Accompanied by their followers the archbishops went round the
churches carrying the Holy Cross & censers smoking with incense. Christians
used to celebrate in Jerusalem the feast of the founding of the Holy Cross
since Helena found it, under a hip of mountain of garbage in Jerusalem.
The city of
Jerusalem was frequently invaded & people living here made captives. The Holy Cross was also carried away from
place to place by invaders with the captives. A lot of kings had made wars to
recover the Holy Cross from captivity. Among the kings who fought to recover
the Holy Cross was Heraclus. He got it back after a long battle when the
Persian invaders took it. The crusade is also one other instance where
Christians had shade their blood for the sake of the Holy Cross. After the
Christians took the possession of the Holy Cross of the archbishops of
Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople & Jerusalem had it broken in to pieces
& each shared a piece among themselves.
THE HOLY CROSS IN ETHIOPIA
The piece of the Holy Cross that was share of Alexandria was
kept for a long time under the custodian of the Alexandrian Bishopric. When a
conflict broke out between Christians & Muslims in Egypt, king David (1401
A.D.), made a campaign to Egypt with the purpose of either reconciling the
followers of the two religions. Or if the Muslims refused the offer of his
reconciliation, he threatened that he could support in the conflict his natural
allies, the Coptic Christians. Before crossing into Egypt he made his station
in Khartoum, Sudan. From here he sent a message of warning to the king of Egypt
either to solve the conflict amicably or face the consequence of facing
invasion or the division to different direction of the Nile (Abay) river which
supplied water to Egypt. The messenger of the king of Egypt came to Emperor
David with the good news that the conflict was resolved & at the same time
presented him with 12,000 dinars of gold from the king of Egypt. But Emperor
David returned the precious present through his messenger with gratitude for
the offer, & made request of a different present, the piece of the Holy
Cross kept under the custody of Alexandrian Archbishop.
After consultation was held between the Alexandrian
Archbishop & the king of Egypt they decided to meet the desire of the
Emperor of Ethiopia. So Archbishop Michael who was designated as a delegation
brought to the Emperor & presented with the piece of the Holy Cross, the
Icon of St. Mary painted by St. Luke, the painting of the thorn put around the
beaten head of Jesus when He was crucified painted by St. John the Evangelist
as well as holy articles. To meet the delegation on their way Emperor David
also travelled to Aswan which was at the time the border between Ethiopia &
Egypt.
Even though the coming of the Holy Cross was a joy to the
Ethiopian Christians, it was unfortunate that Emperor David died at Sinar
(Sudan) while on his way back home to Ethiopia with the piece of the Holy
Cross. The piece of the Holy Cross stayed in Sinar for a long time until his
son Emperor Zera Yacob brought it to Ethiopia with the remains of his
father. As Emperor Zera Yacob brought
the piece of the Holy Cross it was revealed to him by the Lord that he should
put the cross on a cross. So he tried to put it on Mt. Yerer, Mt. Menagesha,
Debre Birhan & other spots searching a suitable place. There descended a
blazing light the night the piece of the Holy Cross reacehed at a spot. This
site was named Debre Birhan, to mean the place of light. That is how the
present Debre Birhan town got its current name. Commemoration has been annually
held in the church since the night; March 19 (Megabit 10), the light descended
on Debre Birhan. Eventually Gishen Mountain was found exactly to be the right
place for the Holy Cross. This is a mountain & looks like a natural cross.
On the top of it Atse (Emperor) Zera Yacob started to consecrate churches in
the names of God the Father (Igziabher Ab) & St. Mary after he kept the
piece of the Holy Cross here. The construction took three years to be finished
& on Oct. 1, 1421 E.C. the churches were consecrated.
It was at this time
that by the will of the Emperor the Holy Cross was decided to be buried under
an earth under the temple of God the Father Church.
The Holy Cross was put as follows:-
1. First of
all the Holy Cross was put in a box of gold.
2. The box of
gold was put in a silver box.
3. The silver
box was put in an iron box.
4. The iron
box was put in another iron box.
5. The iron
box was put in a bronze box & this was stamped by the Emperor & was put
in abed made from ivory.
It was decided, that
strong spiritual restrictions were passed by the contemporary bishops called
Abba Michael & Abba Gabriel & also Abba Yohannes episcopes, so no king
could take the Holy Cross from Gishen to other places.
THE FEAST OF MESKEL
The feast of
Meskel is celebrated four times in Ethiopia. The first is on September 20. This
is in commemoration of the day Emperor David received the piece of the Holy
Cross from Alexandria & Emperor Zera Yacob brought it to Debre Birhan. The
event was celebrated in the past in Ethiopia with religious activities in the
king’s palace, such as religious dance accompanied by hymn, prayer sticks, drum
beatings. The palace attendants put woven flower beads around the necks of the
Emperor, the nobles & other dignities as well as archbishops & bishops.
This; however, discontinued after the coming of the political power of Dergue,
& yet has been resumed in 1993/94 after 17 years. It is now celebrated at
the Holy Trinity Cathedral Addis Ababa instead of in the palace in the presence
of Christians & church leaders.
In the former days the Emperor accompanied by members of his
family, the nobles & other dignitaries was in attendant of the occasion of
demera celebration at Meskel Square in Addis Ababa. The Patriarch used to lead
the clergy in prayers over the demera & bless the demera making cross signs
in all four sides; East, West, North & South, of it. Then the Emperor &
his company went round the demera in a circle. Then the Patriarch blessed a
chibo, set the top on fire & handled it over to the Emperor. The Emperor
first throw the chibo to the demera & all the others did the same after
him.
On this day the Ethiopians have made it a tradition to sing
‘Joy has occurred on His (Jesus’) Birth Day, Sinners are washed off their sins
in His Baptism, He has lit the world in His Holy Cross, Eyoha! Eyoha!’ The
clergy also say their religious song as they go round the demera ‘He Has lit
the world with His Holy Cross!’ accompanied by their drum beats & cestrum
in a Yaredian choir. The lay people also sing ‘Eyoha! The spring has come!’
Thus they glorify the occasion. It may be noted that this feast held
immediately after the rainy season in Ethiopia.
The third feast is celebrated on September 27, after the day
of demera. It is a festive day for every family, poor & rich. In former
times the Emperor used to hold a grand lunch party for the occasion which
members of the royal family, the nobles, dignitaries, civil & military
officials, members of the armed forces as well as church leaders attended. Currently
this is held by the Patriarch of the Church for the clergy in accordance with
this custom.
The fourth holiday is on Oct. 1 to commemorate the day
Emperor Zera Yacob finally put the piece of the Holy Cross at its final resting
place, Mt. Gishen.
Glory be to God Who
is glorified in His Saints. Amen.
My
References:-
1.
The
Ethiopian Synaxarium
2.
Special
bulletin prepared by the general office of the Patriarchate of EOTC occasion of
2009 Meskel demera celebration
3.
Saints
& Monasteries in Ethiopia, by Kesis Kefyalew Merahi, 4.The Photos
are taken from the official website of Mahibere Kidusan, http://multimedia.eotc-mkidusan.org/photo/
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