Introduction

You're in a 17th-century nunnery on Lake Tana in Ethiopia, founded by a cranky, feisty saint, Walatta Petros [="Daughter of St. Peter"]. Jesuits converted the previous king to Catholicism; he persecuted Tewahido [Coptic] Christians like Walatta Petros, exiling her for three years to Zhebey, the hot malarial borderland with Sudan. But the present king restored the traditional church, and after a decade of terror; the community is safe--well, except for famine, plague, and wild animal attacks, all duly recorded in Walatta Petros's biography. Along with odder things.

Ilarya is the monastery's cook, not a scholar or saint, but she was one of the saint's first and loyalest friends; despite (or because of?) her simplicity, she has her own spiritual power, a bit like St. Francis. An absent-minded St. Francis.

--Chris Wayan

Our Mother and the Miracle of the Righteous Nun Ilarya

Ilarya... is the one who had gone down to Zhebey with our holy mother Walatta Petros. There she had served her and done the cooking.

Now, Ilarya had developed a strong affection for Saint Fasiladas the Martyr, while living on Mitsilé Island with our holy mother Walatta Petros. Since that time, love for Saint Fasiladas had been instilled in her heart, and the chanting of his name had been written on her tongue so that she continually said, "Fasiladas!"

As for Saint Fasiladas, he never parted from Ilarya and gave her success in her work so that her dishes turned out delicious-smelling and tasty. All day long, Ilarya would stand [on the shore] opposite Mitsillé, tapping her feet and chanting [her song] out loud, "O Fasiladas the saint, Fasiladas the martyr, Fasiladas the strong, help me, come to him who is in need!"

Straightaway, Saint Fasiladas then would come to her, and she would be so happy when she saw him, frolicking like a child who sees the faces of his father and mother. While alone, Ilarya would laugh as though she were with other people. She behaved like this every day. The place where she would stand was [generally] known, next to the cliff on the lakeshore of Afer Faras.

Whenever the sisters looked for her, they would find Ilarya engaged in such activity. They would marvel at her and ask her, "What are you saying, and with whom are you speaking?" But Ilarya would then change the topic and with her words would artfully and cleverly deceive them.

[Meanwhile,] our holy mother Walatta Petros always said to Ilarya, when the latter did the kitchen work, "Ask Walatta Maryam whether she would like some stew, and do what she orders you to do!"

Every day Ilarya carried out Walatta Maryam's wishes. One day she was charged as usual by her, and so she prepared the stew that Walatta Maryam had ordered her to prepare. Then, when it had become evening, she presented the stew and placed it before Walatta Maryam. But when God wanted to reveal Ilarya's great power, he instilled depression into Walatta Maryam's heart so that she was disgusted by the stew and refused to eat it.

When our blessed mother Walatta Petros learned that Walatta Maryam had refused to eat [the stew], she said to Ilarya, "Why have you not cooked today as Walatta Maryam wishes? Look, she refuses to eat!"

Upper inscription: "How she [Ilarya] made the sun stand still"; Lower: "How she [the servant] cooked a stew."

Ilarya responded, "Perhaps I should hurry and bring her something else." She then left, went to her house, and said to the women who were with her in the kitchen, "You women, prepare [some fresh stew] right away, and liberally add salt and all the spices appropriate for fish! Meanwhile I will go to a fisherman and buy a fish.'

Then she took some grain, got a young servant girl to accompany her, and left in a hurry. Now she saw that the sun had begun to sink and was about to set. Therefore, she said to it, "You, Sun, I implore you by the Lord of Saint Fasiladas to stand still and wait for me until I return, having carried out what I wanted to do."

The servant girl said to Ilarya, "What are you saying? Are you really talking with the sun today?" However, she did not [really] comprehend what was going on because she was just a girl then.

Ilarya came to a fisherman then, bought a fish, and turned back in a hurry. Meanwhile the sun stood still as she had ordered it. After Ilarya had arrived at her house, she cooked that fish with great care, and taking it to the table, she put it before Walatta Maryam, who happily ate it.

Meanwhile, Ilarya had forgotten about the sun; she just did not think about it. Thus, it kept standing still for quite a long time. The sisters marveled [at this] and said among themselves, "What has happened to the sun today?"

Then Ilarya remembered, went outside, and saw the sun standing still. Now she said to it, "Be blessed, Sun, because you have waited for me! Now, however, you have done enough: continue on your way." Right away, then, the sun set and complete darkness reigned.

The servant girl heard this, as well as the sisters who were with Ilarya. At that time, however, they did not understand what it meant, but only after Ilarya's death.

The servant girl later told this episode to a priest, and he then told it to everybody.

EDITOR'S NOTE

This account is one of the oddest in an odd book. Joshua famously stopped the sun, to invade (and massacre) the oldest city on Earth, Jericho; and other Ethiopian accounts mention sun-halting miracles--by saints, for serious purposes. But here, a cook manages it... for a fish. And then forgets to tell the sun "Thank you, dear, you can set now."

The translator comments "Without timepieces, perceived time could be quite elastic", rather missing the point that everyone noticed the sun was stuck. Ilarya didn't just alter her own subjective timeflow (a handy shamanic trick to get the meals done on time), but that of an entire community. Impressive. If absent-minded.

--Chris Wayan

SOURCE: The Life & Struggles of Our Mother Walatta Petros by Gälawdewos [Claudius], 1672-73, translated by Wendy Laura Belcher & Michael Kleiner, 2015; pp.220-23. DATING: Afer Faras monastery was founded in 1638; the biography's chronological, and the famine of 1639 comes after Ilarya's tale.

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