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.