Skip to main content
Princeton Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Egyptian Miracles of Mary (PEMM) project

Dabra Sehay Sellase Mekelle, Dabra Sehay Sellase Mekelle, Manuscript No. 681

This Geʿez language manuscript was created between 1800 and 1899. This date is estimated, based on paleography, a study of the manuscript's letter shapes, by Jeremy Brown and Stephen Delamarter.

This manuscript's last known location (i.e., where it was microfilmed or digitized at some point in the past forty years) is the repository of Dabra Sehay Selassie Mekelle in Mekelle, Tigray Province, Ethiopia.

This manuscript is digitized but not publicly available online as of September 2022.

This manuscript has a high number of Marian miracle stories: 177. Of these stories, 3 are unique, marked with a in the table below, under Other Aspects. Also, we are uncertain about the identification of 2 number of stories, marked with a [?] in the table below, under Other Aspects.

This manuscript has no paintings of Marian miracle stories, but it does have 1 painting of Mary and events in her life. To see the paintings in this manuscript, go to its PEMM Paintings by Manuscript page.

This manuscript has a total of 110 folios and 120 scans. It has 3 columns per page and approximately 26–27 lines per column.

The stories in this manuscript were cataloged by Jeremy R. Brown.

The PEMM abbreviation for this manuscript is DSS (Mekelle) 681.

Regarding this manuscript's repository:

This manuscript was digitized at Dabra Sehay Selassie Mekelle in the city of Mekelle, in Tigray Province, northern Ethiopia.

For more information about understanding this table, see Using This Site. If you think any of the information on this page is incorrect (e.g., the location, date, folios, story IDs), please use our PEMM Feedback Form to let us know. We depend on users like you to improve the site.

DSS (Mekelle) 681

Order in MS
Story Title
Location in MS
Paintings
Story Recension
Incipit
Other Aspects
Story ID
1Book of Ledata la-Maryam??: OldA: Part 01: Conception: The Virgin Mary is conceived and born (whole or opening)f. 5r-6r, col. 3 0---316-A
2Book of Ledata la-Maryam??: OldA: Part 01: Temple: The Virgin Mary stays in the Temple (315, 316-D, 447 similar)f. 6r-7v, col. 3 0---315
3Ephrem the Syrian Potter who composed the praise hymn called Weddase Maryam over seven daysf. 7v-9r, col. 2 0---14
4Book of Vision of Theophilus of Alexandria: Part 2: The Virgin Mary relates how Satan urged King Herod to pursue the Holy Familyf. 9r-11r, col. 2 0---2
5King of Rome: Part 3: King Masfeyanos's wife Sefengeya prays for a child to the Virgin Mary's icon and conceives Saint Yeshaq (Abba Garima)f. 11r-12r, col. 2 0---71
6Dabra Qalemon's Abbot Samuʾel instructs his disciples on his deathbed.f. 12r-12v, col. 1 0---274
7Emperor Theodosius of Constantinople's son, the Saint Alexius [Abd al-Masih], and the story of his lifef. 12v-13v, col. 3 0---130
8King of Rome: Part 1: King Mark (Mareqos) abandons his throne secretly to become a monkf. 13v-14r, col. 2 0---69
9Book of Felsata la-Maryam??: Dormition: Part 11: Christ, together with The Virgin Mary and the angels, appears to the Apostles and asks them to build churches in his name and hers throughout the world.f. 14r-15r, col. 3 0---254
10Book of Felsata la-Maryam??: Dormition: Part 12: Christ appears with his mother to the apostles and makes Saint Peter head of the Church.f. 15r-15r, col. 1 0---255
11Nekwal, the deacon from Marg and Kem near Cairo in Egypt, who spent his Muslim master’s money on the poorf. 15r-16r, col. 3 0---17
12Dabra Qalemon's icon of the Virgin Mary heals an Arab woman who had suffered from an issue of blood for many yearsf. 16r-17r, col. 3 0---20
13The priest who accidentally knocked down the lamp hanging before the icon of the Virgin Mary and yet it did not spill or go outf. 17r-18r, col. 3 0---22
14The Christians of Atrib, Egypt, who gathered for a feast of the Virgin Mary and were saved from Arab thievesf. 18r-19r, col. 1 0---24
15King Zara Yaqob (Zarʾa Yaʿeqob), the 15th c. Ethiopian monarch, institutes monthly feasts of the Virgin Mary.f. 19r-19v, col. 1 0-
ወካዕበ፡ ስምዑ፡ ዘገብረት፡ ሎቱ፡ እግዝእትነ፡ ለንጉሥነ፡ ናዖድ...
-558
16Rizqallah, a priest from Cairo, who vowed to the Virgin Mary that he would stop serving her if she did not help him recover, from Arab thieves, some pilgrims' stolen clothesf. 19v-20v, col. 3 0---44
17King Zara Yaqob's (Zarʾa Yaʿeqob) Enemy: Part 2: The Ethiopian king is given a sign of the fall of the king of Adal named Badlay ibn Sa'ad ad-Din II'sf. 21r-21v, col. 1 0---380
18King Zara Yaqob's (Zarʾa Yaʿeqob) Enemy: Part 3: In her church in Waybela, the Virgin Mary appears and tells the Ethiopian king about the fall of Badlay ibn Sa'ad ad-Din IIf. 21v-22r, col. 2 0---381
19The gardener named Absadi, of Saint Shenute's monastery, who gave the monks' vegetables away to the poor but was defended by Abba Shenoutef. 22r-23r, col. 2 0---96
20Thieves at the Spring: Part 1: The daughter of the chief of the thieves is cured of her leprosy at the miraculous spring.f. 23r-23v, col. 2 0---100
of 9
pricenton ethiopian eritrean & egyptian miracles of marry project

The Princeton Ethiopian, Eritrean, and Egyptian Miracles of Mary (PEMM) project is a comprehensive resource for the 1,000+ miracle stories written about and the 2,500+ images painted of the Virgin Mary in these African countries, and preserved in Geʿez between 1300 and the present.

Princeton Department of Comparative Literature 133 East Pyne, Princeton, NJ 08540

Princeton Department of African American Studies Morrison Hall, Princeton, NJ 08540

pemm@princeton.edu

© 2025 The Trustees of Princeton University