Qualla: Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion

Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion: Introduction

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sailko, CC BY 3.0. Only one man alive has seen it. A monk appointed for life, confined to a chapel on the grounds of the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in the town of Axum, spends his days praying before what the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church holds to be the Ark of the Covenant - the chest described in Exodus, the one that held the tablets of the Ten Commandments. The guardian monk may not leave. He will appoint his successor before he dies. If he fails to, the monks of the monastery will elect a new one. This is how it has been done for generations.

Image: Sailko | CC BY 3.0

Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion: Menelik and Solomon

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit A.Savin, FAL. The Ethiopian tradition is specific. According to the Kebra Nagast - the Book of the Glory of Kings, Ethiopia's national epic, compiled in the 14th century - the Queen of Sheba travelled to Jerusalem to meet King Solomon. Their son Menelik I, later returning to Ethiopia, brought ...

Image: A.Savin | FAL

Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion: Destruction and Rebuilding

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit A.Savin, FAL. The church has been destroyed at least once. Tradition claims an earlier destruction under Queen Gudit in the 10th century, though historians are uncertain. The confirmed destruction came in the 16th century at the hands of Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi - Gragn the Left-Handed - dur...

Image: A.Savin | FAL

Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion: Ullendorff's Account

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit A.Savin, FAL. On 9 June 1992 Edward Ullendorff, a former professor of Ethiopian Studies at the University of London, made a public statement in Tel Aviv. In 1941, while serving as a British Army officer during the East African Campaign, he said, he had personally examined the ark inside the ch...

Image: A.Savin | FAL

Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion: Festival of Zion Mariam

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit JensiS65, CC BY-SA 3.0. On 30 November - 21 Hidar in the Ethiopian calendar - the Festival of Zion Mariam draws pilgrims to Axum from across the country. They come on foot, by bus, in ancient coaches painted with saints. The liturgical language is Ge'ez, the ancient Semitic language of Ethiopia's Orthod...

Image: JensiS65 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion: December 2020

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ondřej Žváček, CC BY 2.5. In mid-December 2020, during the Tigray War between the Ethiopian federal government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front, 750 people who had taken shelter in the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion were taken out and killed by soldiers. The account is from the Europe External Pr...

Image: Ondřej Žváček | CC BY 2.5