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The Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion (Igziitne Maryam Siyon Yeityop'iya Ortodoks Baytekristiyan in the languages of Ethiopia) of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is the most important and one of the oldest churches of Ethiopia. The original church was built during the reign of Ezana/Abriha, the first Orthodox Christian emperor of Ethiopia, during the 300s AD.
The church, in the ancient town of Axum in Tigray Province, claims to possess the original Ark of the Covenant. According to tradition, Menelik I brought it to Ethiopia after visiting his father King Solomon. Only the head priest of the Church may view the Ark, in accordance with the Bible accounts of the dangers of doing so for non-Levites. This lack of accessibility has led foreign scholars to express doubt about the veracity of the claim.
Since its founding during the episcopacy of St. Frumentios (known in Ethiopia as "Abune Selama Kesatay Birhan" or "Our Father of Peace and Revealer of Light") the Church of Mary of Zion has been destroyed and rebuilt at least twice. Its first destruction occurred at the hands of the Felasha leader Gudit around the 11th century. Its second destruction occurred several centuries later at the hands of the great Muslim warrior of Harer Mehamed/Ahmed Gragn, after which it was rebuilt by the Emperor St. Fasiledes during the 1500s.
In the 1900s the Emperor Hailay Silasay built a new, much grander cathedral next to the original Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion that was open to both men and women (the old church remains accessible only to men, as Mary, symbolized by the Ark of the Covenant resting in its chapel, is the only woman allowed within its compound).
Reportedly, the Ark has been moved to the recently built Chapel of the Tablet adjacent to the old church because a divine 'heat' from the Tablets had cracked the stones of its previous sanctum. It remains a significant center of pilgrimage for Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, especially during the main Festival of Maryam Zion on 30 November (21 Hidar on the Ethiopian calendar).
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