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 "title": "Abba Liqanos",
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 "excerpt": "Abba Liqanos was a monk of the Nine Saints, missionaries who founded Ethiopian monasticism in the kingdom of Aksum in the late 5th or early 6th century.",
 "snippet": "Abba Liqanos was a monk of the Nine Saints, missionaries who founded Ethiopian monasticism in the kingdom of Aksum in the late 5th or early 6th century.",
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 "markdown": "# Abba Liqanos\n\nAbba Liqanos was a monk counted among the [Nine Saints](https://www.edgepedia.org/nine-saints), a group of foreign missionaries remembered as founders of Ethiopian monasticism, who came to the kingdom of Aksum in the late 5th or early 6th century AD.<sup>[1](https://en.sewasew.com/p/nine-saints)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[2](https://dacb.org/stories/ethiopia/liqanos/)</sup> Hagiographic tradition makes him a native of Constantinople, and he is remembered for settling at the monastery of Dabra Qwanasel near Adwa and for a church north-east of Aksum that bears his name.<sup>[1](https://en.sewasew.com/p/nine-saints)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[3](https://en.sewasew.com/p/liqanos-(%E1%88%8A%E1%8A%AB%E1%8A%96%E1%88%B5))</sup>\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Group | One of the Nine Saints, foreign (\"Roman\") monks of the \"second Christianization\" of Ethiopia<sup>[1](https://en.sewasew.com/p/nine-saints)</sup> |\n| Period | Late 5th to early 6th century AD, under the Aksumite kingdom<sup>[1](https://en.sewasew.com/p/nine-saints)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[2](https://dacb.org/stories/ethiopia/liqanos/)</sup> |\n| Stated origin | Qwestenteya (Constantinople), according to the hagiographies<sup>[1](https://en.sewasew.com/p/nine-saints)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[2](https://dacb.org/stories/ethiopia/liqanos/)</sup> |\n| Monastery | Dabra Qwanasel, near Adwa<sup>[2](https://dacb.org/stories/ethiopia/liqanos/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[4](https://brill.com/display/book/9789004505254/BP000004.xml)</sup> |\n| Epithet | Kokaba gadam, \"Star of the Desert\", like St. Antony<sup>[3](https://en.sewasew.com/p/liqanos-(%E1%88%8A%E1%8A%AB%E1%8A%96%E1%88%B5))</sup> |\n| Commemoration | 28 Hedar (7 December) in the Ethiopian synaxar<sup>[2](https://dacb.org/stories/ethiopia/liqanos/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[1](https://en.sewasew.com/p/nine-saints)</sup> |\n| Main source | The unpublished Gadla Liqanos, surviving in several manuscripts of the reign of ase Yohannes IV<sup>[3](https://en.sewasew.com/p/liqanos-(%E1%88%8A%E1%8A%AB%E1%8A%96%E1%88%B5))</sup> |\n\n## Origins and family\n\nThe hagiographic tradition states that Liqanos came from Qwestenteya, that is Constantinople, and came to Ethiopia with the Nine Saints.<sup>[3](https://en.sewasew.com/p/liqanos-(%E1%88%8A%E1%8A%AB%E1%8A%96%E1%88%B5))</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[2](https://dacb.org/stories/ethiopia/liqanos/)</sup> The Constantinopolitan origin is a detail of the later tradition and is not mentioned in his own Vita.<sup>[3](https://en.sewasew.com/p/liqanos-(%E1%88%8A%E1%8A%AB%E1%8A%96%E1%88%B5))</sup> His epithet Kokaba gadam, \"Star of the Desert\", likens him to St. Antony.<sup>[3](https://en.sewasew.com/p/liqanos-(%E1%88%8A%E1%8A%AB%E1%8A%96%E1%88%B5))</sup>\n\n## Career\n\nThe Nine Saints are a half-legendary group of nine foreign monks who, according to tradition, came to the kingdom of Aksum between the end of the 5th and the beginning of the 6th century, the period scholars call the \"second Christianization\", when Christianity began to spread across northern Ethiopia.<sup>[1](https://en.sewasew.com/p/nine-saints)</sup> The group is usually listed as Alef, Afse, Zamikayel Aragawi, Garima, Guba, Liqanos, Pantalewon, Sehma, and Yemyata.<sup>[1](https://en.sewasew.com/p/nine-saints)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[5](https://ethiopianhistory.com/The_Nine_Saints)</sup> Liqanos is commemorated on 28 Oedar (Hedar), which corresponds to 7 December.<sup>[1](https://en.sewasew.com/p/nine-saints)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[2](https://dacb.org/stories/ethiopia/liqanos/)</sup>\n\nLiqanos settled at Dabra Qwanasel, a monastery near Adwa in the Aksum region, one of the sites where the Nine Saints established themselves around Aksum.<sup>[2](https://dacb.org/stories/ethiopia/liqanos/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[4](https://brill.com/display/book/9789004505254/BP000004.xml)</sup> A separate church known as Abba Liqanos stands to the north-east of Aksum, about half an hour's walk from the town, overlooking the so-called Abba Liqanos plateau; it is his burial place and the oldest witness to his cult.<sup>[3](https://en.sewasew.com/p/liqanos-(%E1%88%8A%E1%8A%AB%E1%8A%96%E1%88%B5))</sup> According to Sewasew, the church was mentioned by Alvares around 1520 as a remarkable place of pilgrimage, and the Deutsche Aksum Expedition in 1906 described the building as rectangular and possibly standing on an Aksumite sanctuary. \n\n## Political influence\n\nThe Nine Saints worked with the support of the Aksumite monarch, whose protection backed their preaching against paganism and their founding of monastic institutions.<sup>[6](https://ninesaintsethiopianorthodoxmonastery.org/docs/history/4th-century/)</sup> As a group they are credited with translating doctrinal and literary works into Ge'ez, including the Qerllos (the de Recta Fide of St. [Cyril of Alexandria](https://www.edgepedia.org/cyril-of-alexandria)).<sup>[6](https://ninesaintsethiopianorthodoxmonastery.org/docs/history/4th-century/)</sup> The lasting institution tied to Liqanos is monastic: Ethiopian tradition, written and oral, asserts that the hundreds of monasteries of the Ethiopian church were founded by monks tracing their monastic genealogy to the celebrated fathers of monasticism, among them Liqanos of Dabra Qwanasel.<sup>[7](https://ccdl.claremont.edu/digital/api/collection/cce/id/804/download)</sup>\n\n## Death and successors\n\nThe greater part of the posthumous miracles (Taammer) attached to his Gadl belong to the tradition of his continuing cult.<sup>[3](https://en.sewasew.com/p/liqanos-(%E1%88%8A%E1%8A%AB%E1%8A%96%E1%88%B5))</sup>\n\n## Historians' assessment\n\nLiqanos belongs to a group whose historicity is partly legendary. The Nine Saints' arrival has been connected by scholars with the [Council of Chalcedon](https://www.edgepedia.org/council-of-chalcedon) of 451 and the monastic reaction to the Henotikon, the decree promulgated in 482 by the emperor Zeno, but the hagiographies were written in Ethiopic from the 14th century onward, long after the events they describe.<sup>[1](https://en.sewasew.com/p/nine-saints)</sup> The possible Syrian background of the saints has been challenged in studies by Polotsky and Marrassini, and remains an open scholarly question.<sup>[4](https://brill.com/display/book/9789004505254/BP000004.xml)</sup>\n\nThe specific source on Liqanos, the unpublished Gadla Liqanos, survives in three copies (two from Dabra Qwanasel, one from Aksum Seyon), all dating to the reign of ase [Yohannes IV](https://www.edgepedia.org/yohannes-iv).<sup>[3](https://en.sewasew.com/p/liqanos-(%E1%88%8A%E1%8A%AB%E1%8A%96%E1%88%B5))</sup> Its colophon claims composition under [Gabra Masqal](https://www.edgepedia.org/gabra-masqal) \"in the 114th year of mercy\".<sup>[3](https://en.sewasew.com/p/liqanos-(%E1%88%8A%E1%8A%AB%E1%8A%96%E1%88%B5))</sup>\n\nSources differ on the location of his monastery: one places Dabra Qwanasel near Adwa, while another describes Dabra Qwanasel as near Aksum and places his own burial church north-east of Aksum.<sup>[2](https://dacb.org/stories/ethiopia/liqanos/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[1](https://en.sewasew.com/p/nine-saints)</sup>\n\n## Legacy\n\nLiqanos is commemorated annually on 28 Hedar (7 December).<sup>[2](https://dacb.org/stories/ethiopia/liqanos/)</sup> At least two malkey (hymns of praise) dedicated to him are known, in 18th-century manuscripts in the [British Library](https://www.edgepedia.org/british-library) (Orient. 577, fol. 53v) and the Bibliotheque nationale de France (Eth. 350, fols. 40r-48v), together with a few hymns from the Littmann collection and a fragment of the Wazema from Dabra Qwanasel.<sup>[3](https://en.sewasew.com/p/liqanos-(%E1%88%8A%E1%8A%AB%E1%8A%96%E1%88%B5))</sup> His church near Aksum, recorded as a pilgrimage site around 1520, remains the oldest material witness to his veneration.<sup>[3](https://en.sewasew.com/p/liqanos-(%E1%88%8A%E1%8A%AB%E1%8A%96%E1%88%B5))</sup>\n\n## References\n\n1. [Nine Saints, Sewasew (Encyclopaedia Aethiopica online)](https://en.sewasew.com/p/nine-saints)\n2. [Liqanos, Dictionary of African Christian Biography](https://dacb.org/stories/ethiopia/liqanos/)\n3. [Liqanos (ሊካኖስ), Sewasew (Encyclopaedia Aethiopica online)](https://en.sewasew.com/p/liqanos-(%E1%88%8A%E1%8A%AB%E1%8A%96%E1%88%B5))\n4. [Cultural Contacts between Ethiopia and Syria: The Nine Saints of the Ethiopian Tradition and Their Possible Syrian Background, in A Companion to Medieval Ethiopia and Eritrea (Brill, 2020)](https://brill.com/display/book/9789004505254/BP000004.xml)\n5. [The Nine Saints, ethiopianhistory.com](https://ethiopianhistory.com/The_Nine_Saints)\n6. [Ethiopian Church History, 4th to 6th Century, Nine Saints Ethiopian Orthodox Monastery](https://ninesaintsethiopianorthodoxmonastery.org/docs/history/4th-century/)\n7. [Ethiopian Monasticism, Coptic Encyclopedia (Claremont)](https://ccdl.claremont.edu/digital/api/collection/cce/id/804/download)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › History and archaeology › Other history › Sub-Saharan Africa and the Horn › Aksum and the Zagwe dynasty (100 to 1270)*\n\n*Initially written Sep 24, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n",
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 "credit": "\"Abba Liqanos\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/abba-liqanos. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.",
 "credit_md": "\"[Abba Liqanos](https://www.edgepedia.org/abba-liqanos)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/abba-liqanos](https://www.edgepedia.org/abba-liqanos). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).",
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 "speakable": "Abba Liqanos was a monk of the Nine Saints, missionaries who founded Ethiopian monasticism in the kingdom of Aksum in the late 5th or early 6th century."
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