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Abune Zena Markos passed away

Posted on , Updated on by EthiopianReview.com

His Holiness Abune Zena Markos
Ethiopian Review has been informed that His Holiness Abune Zena Markos passed away Saturday.

Abune Zena Markos has been the pillar of Ethiopian community in Seattle for the past several years. He is also one of the most revered figures in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

We are awaiting further information from the Holy Synod.

33 thoughts on “Abune Zena Markos passed away”

  8. Matebu said:
    “I have lost my own conscience and spiritual well being.”

    Your spiritual well being should be linked to God and God only. Human beings could lead you to God but cannot replace Him. Trust in Jesus and your spiritual well being will stay intact.

    Peace!

  10. The passing of His Holiness Abune Zena Markos is a very sad news for all followers of Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church in particular and all Ethiopian in general. May GOD bless his soul!

  11. Abatachen Abune Zena Markos was wonderful leader for our religion. He was nice father for all people. On my Christianity life, abatachen is everything for me, so right now I feel myself empty.

  14. His Holiness Abune Zena Markos may have been tired of seeing and hearing the injustices carried out everyday in our world and particularly in our country, Ethiopia, and regrettably in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church under the notorious Patriarch Aba Paulos, so this holy man, Abune Zena Markos, has finally said to himself and to his Ethiopian faithful communities in Seattle: “Let me die the death of the righteous, and may my end be like theirs.” (Numbers 23:10)

    Therefore, surrounded by some of the Ethiopian community in Seattle, he died the death of the righteous at his house, and as the Psalmist says: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints (116:15),” the death of Abune Zena Markos is precious indeed after he had served his flock remarkably, honestly, humbly, and graciously for so many years in a foreign country. He could have served thousands of more Ethiopians had he stayed in his homeland, Ethiopia, but the Spirit of the Lord who suddenly took Philip the Evangelist while he was interpreting Isaiah, Chapter 53, verses 2-12 to that Ethiopian man and discussing about baptism, took Abune Zena Markos and brought him to North America to serve the Ethiopian community in the Seattle area.

    Following the good steps of the Apostles of Jesus Christ, who, most of them died in foreign countries, teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the world, Abune Zena Markos also died thousands of miles away from his home land.

    For some Ethiopians to die in a foreign country, separated from family and friends, is a curse, but for the true believers in Jesus Christ, it is a blessing to die anywhere in the world, preaching and spreading the word of the Almighty God to his people wherever they might be.

    Whether someone dies at home surrounded by one’s own family and friends or dies alone abroad is not a big deal: death is the same for the lonely, the homeless, the wicked, the righteous, and the affluent, but it has been natural for us human beings when we see the sudden death of our loved ones, our friends, our teachers, our leaders, and our spiritual fathers that death is something foreign, something bizarre,, and something strange to us, and we are obliged to call such a bizarre thing an intruder instead of calling it our liberator, or our final surprise.

    One by one, each one of us, one day, will meet this intruder, this liberator we call ሞት (death); do you know there are some people among us who pray every day and every night to die, and there are others who pray never to die; therefore, the Amharic saying fits here: ኑሮ ኑሮ ከቤት ዙሮ ዙሮ ከሞት አይቀርም (If someone lives a number of years, he still has to die, and if someone goes from one place to another place and still to another place, at the end of the day he will come back to his house.) Of course, some may never go back to their home.

    However, one thing that never dies is good name or bad name, so let us strive to have good name like his holiness Abune Zena Markos, who successfully earned the respect of his faithful, the Ethiopian community in Seattle. It is not an easy matter to achieve such a high rank “Abune” and become the leader of a church.
    To be an “Abune,” one has to go through rigorous trainings, like a Spartan soldier, offered by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church and distinguish himself in one or two or more traditional learning, and then he has to remain a celibate until he dies if he wants to serve the Church as a bishop, archbishop or a patriarch. To finish most of the Ethiopian Theological training may be difficult but not impossible to do it; however, to remain a celibate throughout one’s entire life in this seductive world is not an easy task for a young theologian; nevertheless, guided by the Holy Spirit, Abune Zena Markos had accomplished the necessary requirements to become an Abune and to lead the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church in Seattle.

    It is true though good people like Abune Zena Markos don’t live longer on this earth, and their Lord doesn’t want them to suffer too much in this crooked world. The Prophet Isaiah who had meticulously observed the longevity of godly people has spoken clearly this way: “Good people pass away; the godly often die before their time. But no one seems to care or wonder why. No one seems to understand that God is protecting them from the evil to come. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death.” (57:1-2)

    May the precious soul of Abune Zena Markos join the lives of those godly people such as Moses, Aaron, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the other prophets and apostles who are in heaven under the protections of myriad of angles, and may the Almighty God comfort the Ethiopian community in Seattle who are spiritually hurt by the death of their spiritual father and leader, Abune Zena Markos, and may the Lord Jesus Christ give them a dedicated leader and a man of God to lead this beautiful Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church in Seattle.

  16. Abune Zena Marekos was truly a father to all. His sweet gentel voice has inspired people to listen to him, yet don’t get enough of him.He has finished the good fight of faith.It is time for him to rest in peace and accept the crown of righteousness from God.

  33. May the soul of our father rest in peace until the time of the blessed resurrection. I met His Holines once in Addis attending the Timkat celebrations. My son, Diakon Wolde Meskel, was studying at the time, and in the midst of that massive crowd Abatachin saw us, rather my son, and beckoned us to come to him, assistants cleared the crowd and my son, a son of a Caribbean, was blessed by His Holiness on that very blessed day in sight of all those fellow Christains. It is a day we have never forgetten. We pray that his passing will bear good fruit to the end that the division in our church will be healed. As we continue with the Great Lenten Fast might it not be a good thing for our fathers, Abune Makarious and Abune Paulos to set the example of forgiveness and extend a brotherly hand of peace and reconciliation to each other, so that our beloved motherland, the land where the gods loves to be, may be healed first in spirit and then as a united nation? Ehtiopians shall surely stretch forth their hands and hearts unto God. Rest in peace Abatachin.

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