ESTIFANOS MONASTERY

The sanctuary, located on a peninsula, is home to a community of around 30 monks and as many nuns, living in separate quarters. According to legend, the first church was founded here around 862, when local people honored the cult of the snake with animal sacrifices. It was the saintly Abouna Salama who had the sanctuary built. He is said to have convinced the locals to convert if he succeeded in killing the monster. Legend has it that he made the snake disappear by striking it with the cross. This storyline is widely shared by other accounts of church foundations, but the story becomes more specific from the ^13th century onwards. In 1240, the Estifanos monastery was founded under the auspices of the saintly Iyasus Mo'a, who made it one of the country's most renowned centers of monastic learning. He played an active part in the restoration of the Solomonic dynasty towards the end of the ^13th century. It was from here that Takla Haymanot, one of the most venerated saints of Orthodox liturgy, left to found the monastery of Dabra Libanos, after years of study under the guidance of his spiritual father. Like so many others, the monastery suffered from looting by the Gragn armies in the ^16th century. Not far from the church, a small hut serving as a museum houses precious manuscripts, the sacrificial stone that would have received pagan offerings, and heavy cross-shaped stones carried by the monks as a sign of self-sacrifice during their long prayers.