Hagiographies of Ethiopian female saints: with special reference to Gädlä Krestos Sämra and Gädlä Feqertä Krestos

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to analyze Ethiopic hagiographies with female saints as their subjects. It attempts to show how women saints are portrayed in the hagiographies. The main hagiographies of female saints used for this discussion will be Gädlä Krestos Sämra and Gädlä Feqertä Krestos. The discussion of these texts is informed by the feminist literary approach to retrieve the representation of female voices from hagiographic literature, so heavily dominated by male authority and patriarchal values. I hope that examining the manuscripts will show the importance of reading religious texts for providing insights about gender relations as they are articulated today. I also believe that the hagiographies and their study provide new perspectives for the study of gender relations.