ETHIOPIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
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The church is located in the heart of an island of tranquility, at the southern end of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish quarter of Mea Shearim. It was built in 1893 on the orders of the Ethiopian Emperor Johannes I. The lion on the entrance gate is the symbol of this community of Christians, said to be descendants of the Queen of Sheba. During her visit to King Solomon, she is said to have given him a banner representing a lion of Judah. The Ethiopian Church is represented in Jerusalem by an archbishop under the authority of the Patriarch of Ethiopia. It conducts its liturgy and ritual celebrations in Guèze, an ancient Ethiopian language. The presence of Ethiopian monks and pilgrims in Jerusalem is mentioned by St. Jerome in the 4th century. By the 14th century, Ethiopians had acquired certain rights and privileges in the holy places, particularly in the Holy Sepulchre: the Deir es-Sultan Monastery of the Coptic Orthodox Church can be found on the roof of the Chapel of Saint Helena. In the 16th century, as a result of disastrous political circumstances, the Ethiopian Church lost most of its rights and properties in Jerusalem. In the 19th century, the Ethiopian government attempted to regain its privileges and built several buildings for the community outside the Old City walls. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which has historically been fairly isolated from the rest of the Christian world, has developed a theology and liturgical practices marked by the Old Testament.
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