ABSTRACT
Täklä Haymanot, the most popular saint of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, flourished in the thirteenth century as a great evangelist. Täklä Haymanot’s greatness came not only from his hagiographer’s generosity in ascribing to him incredible miracles but also from his achievements in spreading Christianity in the south, which, as a result, became the center of the Christian kingdom from 1270 on. However, the political role he is believed to have played in creating this strong and vast Christian kingdom in the Horn of Africa has been questioned by some scholars because his hagiographer makes no reference to it and because of certain irreconcilable dates among the relevant sources. In fact, Kidanä Wäld Kefle, a respected native scholar, reconciles the discrepancy of the dates in the sources by suggesting two Täklä Haymanots, the saint who flourished in the seventh century and the politician in the thirteenth.
