The life of walatta petros

Written by Galawdewos. Translated and edited by Wendy Laura Belcher and Michael Kleiner. Princeton University Press. October pages. ISBN:  
Buy here! 

Written by Galawdewos. Translated and edited by Wendy Laura Belcher and Michael Kleiner. Princeton University Press. November pages. ISBN:  
Buy here!

Winner of the Paul Hair Award for the Best Critical Edition or Translation of Primary Source Materials on Africa in (awarded by Association for the Preservation and Publication of African Historical Sources and announced at the African Studies Association Annual Meeting). 
Winner of the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women award for the best Scholarly Edition in Translation of

Read a short history of the saint here. Read poems to her here. Read a lesson plan for teaching the book here. Read the original manuscript here. Read about the translators here. See free images from the text here. Read the table of contents and introduction here. Read media coverage about the text here. Listen to talks about the text here. Read about the controversy about the text here.

This is the first English translation of the earliest-known book-length biography of an African woman, and one of the few lives of an African woman written by Africans before the nineteenth century. As such, it provides an exceedingly rare and valuable picture of the experiences and thoughts of Africans, especially women, before the modern era. It is also an extraordinary account of a remarkable life—full of vivid dialogue, heartbreak, and triumph.

The Life and Struggles of Our Mother Walatta Petros () tells the story of an Ethiopian saint who led a successful nonviolent movement to preserve African Christian beliefs in the face of European protocolonialism. When the Jesuits tried to convert the Ethiopians from their ancient form of Christianity, Walatta Petros (–), a noblewoman and the wife of one of the emperor’s counselors, risked her

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In the year , in the east African empire of Ethiopia—a place that had practiced a form of Orthodox Christianity since antiquity (cf. Acts –40)—a monk approached the nobleman Bahir-Saggad to prophesy the birth of a daughter. The monk told him:

I have seen a great vision, with a bright sun dwelling in the womb of your wife Kristos-Ebayaa: A beautiful daughter who will shine like the sun to the ends of the world will be born to you. She will be a guide for the blind of heart, and the kings of the earth and the bishops will bow to her. From the four corners of the world, many people will assemble around her and become one community—people pleasing God.

The next year, a daughter was indeed born to Bahir-Saggad and Kristos-Ebayaa, a daughter who would grow up to lead a successful resistance against the attempted colonization and conversion of Ethiopia by Portuguese and Spanish Jesuits. Her story, recorded just thirty years after her death by her hagiographer Galawdewos, is one that powerfully addresses the challenges faced by women who set out to serve the Lord with their whole hearts. These challenges included imprisonment for the Gospel, sexual assault, friction between familial expectations and the call of God (Luke ), and conflict with men in authority who refused to accept that God calls women. Her account is the earliest known biography of an African woman and the only one from this era to be written from an African perspective. Her name was Walatta-Petros (–), and this is her story.

The name “Walatta-Petros” means “daughter of Peter,” and as translator Wendy Laura Belcher explains, just as we would not shorten the name “Peterson” to “Peter” or “Son,” her name should not be abbreviated to “Walatta” or “Petros.” Her hagiographer exulted, “She truly was worthy of this name of Walatta-Petros since the son of a king becomes a king and the son of a priest becomes a priest; and just as Peter became the he

"By , Africans will constitute around a third of the world's Christian population, roughly a billion people, and over a hundred million of those will live in Ethiopia. As we confront that new reality, the need to rediscover those African cultural and spiritual roots becomes imperative. The story of Walatta Petros is a wonderful contribution to this task."—Philip Jenkins, Books & Culture

"This richly informative book is unexpected in many ways. . . . In following the dramatic main narrative, we learn about the customs and faith of the great Ethiopian church, all of which is profoundly important for understanding that tradition as it exists today."—Philip Jenkins, Christian Century

"A significant contribution to the study of African literature and the early history of African resistance to European expansion into the continent."—Neal W. Sobania, African Studies Review

"The editors and press have produced [this text] beautifully. . . . The Life and Struggles of Our Mother Walatta Petros is an important text on its own, presented in an exemplary fashion, and worthy of attention by any interested in early colonialism in Africa and the biographies of female religious in Africa and beyond. Belcher and Kleiner have done a great service in making this literature accessible in a responsible and scholarly form to a wider readership."—Andrew Crislip, Biography

"Rarely have I read a text that offered as many possibilities as this story of the seventeenth-century Ethiopian saint Walatta Petros, a multidimensional woman worthy of study. Belcher and Kleiner have given a new generation of readers access to this full biography of a formidable resister to European colonization, as well as keen insight into her communities and relationships with women."—Salamishah Tillet, University of Pennsylvania

"The revolutionary Ethio

Ethiopian saint in 17th century

Walatta Petros (Ge'ez: ወለተ ጴጥሮስ; – 23 November ) was an Ethiopian saint. Her hagiography, The Life-Struggles of Walatta Petros (Gädlä Wälättä P̣eṭros) was written in She is known for resisting conversion to Roman Catholicism, forming many religious communities, and performing miracles for those seeking asylum from kings.

Names

Walatta Petros's name in the Ge'ez script is written as ወለተ ጴጥሮስ. It is transliterated into the Latin alphabet in many ways online and scholarship, including the Library of Congress spelling Walata Péṭros and Walatta Pēṭros. Her name is a compound name, meaning "Daughter of [St] Peter," and should not be improperly shortened from "Walatta Petros" to "Petros." Other spellings are Walata Petros, Wallatta Petros, Wallata Petros, Waleta Petros, Waletta Petros, Walete Petros, Walleta Petros, Welete Petros, Wolata Petros plus Walatta Pétros, Walatta Pietros, Walatta Petrus, and Wälätä P'ét'ros.

Life

Early life

Walatta Petros was born in into a noble family with hereditary rights to lands in southern Ethiopian Empire. Before her birth, it is said that her parents were told that she was fated to become an important and influential religious figure. Her father and brothers were officials at court. Walatta Petros was married at a young age to Malka Krestos, one of Susenyos's counselors. She gave birth to three children who all died in infancy and she decided to become a nun.

Becoming a nun

After Jesuit missionaries privately converted Emperor Susenyos from Ethiopian Orthodoxy to Roman Catholicism in , he called on Walatta Petros's husband to repress the anti-Catholic rebellion started in When Malka Krestos left to fight the rebellion, leading abbots in the Ethiopian monasteries on Lake Ṭana assisted Walatta Petros in leaving her husband and joining them. After arriving at a monastery on Lake Ṭana, she took a vow of celibacy and shaved her head to become a nun in th