1 - The Call

Summary

And all this comes to an end.
And is not again to be met with.
Ezra Pound, “Exile’s Letter” (after Rihaku)

Mother Walatta Petros, an Ethiopian noblewoman of the seventeenth century, had four children in a row who died shortly after childbirth. After that, writes her hagiographer, she “bore in mind the transience of the world.”¹ Her husband still loved her, but she no longer wanted to stay with him. She spent her days in prayer and fasting, and her nights in vigils. At holidays she threw banquets to which all were invited, the poor and the wretched along with the townspeople and the priests. When her husband left on a military campaign, she saw her chance. She gave away all her possessions, including all of her jewelry, “eighty ounces weight of gold,” and with two monks and three servants walked all through the night.² They traveled several days to the monastic settlement at Zade, where Walatta Petros shaved her head, took a nun’s cap, and swore to remain all her days.