the Tewahedo Churches. Taddesse Tamrat cites evidence that suggests that the interpretation of Ewostatewos regarding the Sabbath was not his own innovation, but had been practiced in the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria before his time and only declared heretical in Egypt a few centuries before. Influence on the Orthodox Tewahedo After his death, his students and disciples continued to advocate Ewostatewos' religious views. When Ewostatewos left Eritrea, he had entrusted his community to his senior disciple, Absadi, who had a difficult time keeping the community together until the other disciples returned to Eritrea after a 14-year absence. Together they helped him establish a community at Debre Mariam in Eritrea. His followers later spread across northern Ethiopia, founding new monasteries that not only promoted Ewostatewos' interpretation of the Sabbath but created a religious hierarchy that was independent of the Abuna. Their persistence eventually led to their success in 1450 at the Council of Debre Mitmaq in Tegulet, where Emperor Zara Yaqob was able to convince the Egyptian leadership to acquiesce to this local observance. James Bruce notes that the leader of this order, at the time of his visit to Ethiopia, was the abbot of Mahebar Selassie, in the northwestern corner of that country. Notes 1273 births 1352 deaths Ethiopian saints 14th-century Christian saints 13th-century Ethiopian people 14th-century Ethiopian people