Yared
Amhara–Tigrinya highland folk religion · mortal · Amhara–Tigrinya highland folk religion traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
Yared is the legendary father of Ethiopian sacred music, a sixth-century deacon of Aksum whose Acts tell how three birds, angels sent from Paradise, bore him aloft and taught him the heavenly chant. He organised what he heard into three modes, Ge'ez, Ezl and Araray, understood to figure the persons of the Trinity, and devised the system of glyphs by which the chant is transmitted. In the best-loved episode he sings before the king so raptly that the monarch's spear pierces the saint's foot unnoticed by them both. The zema he founded remains the living liturgical music of the highland church.
Domains
- sacred music
- liturgical notation
Powers
- receives the three modes of chant from heaven
Epithets
- ማኅሌታይ ያሬድ — Yared the cantorEncyclopaedia Aethiopica, s.v. 'Yared' (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2010). (secondary)
Sources
- Yared, a sixth-century deacon of Aksum, is credited in hagiography with receiving the three modes of Ethiopian sacred chant from three heavenly birds and devising its notation.: Gädlä Yared (The Acts of Saint Yared). (primary); Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, s.v. 'Yared' (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2010). (secondary)