Harp of Glory: Enzira Sebhat

Popular Patristics Series Volume 39

Harp of Glory is a major hymn sounding the praises of the Theotokos, from the heart of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in its Golden Age. It is a text hardly known in Eastern Orthodox or Western churches, even though it is truly a religious and literary treasure of world significance. It approaches closely to the character and genius of the Byzantine Akathist to the Mother of God (which it seems to know in part) but is so profoundly rooted in a different indigenous experience that it surely deserves the title of "An African Akathist."

This beautiful lyrical poem will be of interest to all who follow the rise of biblical exegesis in the ancient church, and forms of the great devotion to the Mother of God that is characteristic of the eastern churches. It is also an exquisitely crafted love song to the Virgin (troubadour style), from a monk scholar-musician wandering the highlands of Ethiopia.

 

About the Author: John A. McGuckin is a world-renowned scholar, the author of more than twenty-five books and over one hundred articles. He was Nielson Professor of Early Church History at Union Theological Seminary, and taught for over thirty years in numerous universities in Europe and America. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society of Great Britain, and is the recipient of honorary doctorates from St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary and Sibiu University. He is an archpriest of the Orthodox Church of Romania, and the recipient of the Romanian Order of St Stephen, the Gold Cross of Moldavia and Bukovina.

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