The most important church in Ethiopia is the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion which was built during the reign of Ezana, the first Christian emperor of Ethiopia (or rather, the Axum Empire). The Ethiopian Orthodox Church sees itself as having 1,000 years of Judaism, following by 2,000 years of Christianity. They still follow the same dietary laws as Judaism, meaning that they keep kosher even though they are Christian. Baby boys are circumcised as a religious duty.
The first Church was a great five-aisled basilica. Parts of the design were borrowed from earlier, pre-Christian temples.
The actual church building has been destroyed and rebuilt twice. It was destroyed the first time by Queen Gudit during the 10th century. Gudit was a non-Christian queen who flourished about 960 CE and destroyed many churches and monuments in an attempt to exterminate the ruling Axumite dynasty. She is often portrayed as a warrior queen. Then in the 16th century it was destroyed by Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi, the Muslim general who invaded and conquered much of Ethiopia.
The church was rebuilt in 1635 by Emperor Fasiladas.
Traditionally, the Ethiopian emperors came to the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Axum to be crowned. If an emperor was not crowned here, or if he did not have his coronation ratified at a special service in the Church, he could not be referred to by the title of Atse.
The last Ethiopian emperor, Haile Salassie, built a new modern Cathedral next to the old Cathedral of our Lady of Mary of Zion in the 1950s. The new cathedral is open to both men and women while the old church had been open only to men. Mary, symbolized by the Ark of the Covenant, is the only woman allowed in.
According to tradition, the church contains the original Ark of the Covenant. It was into this Ark that Moses placed the stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments. The Ark and the stone tablets were brought to Ethiopia in the 10th century BCE by Menelik I after visiting his father King Solomon. According to the Ethiopian chronicle of its royal line, the Queen of Sheba, one of the first rulers of Ethiopia, had traveled to Jerusalem to partake of King Solomon’s wisdom. On her way home she gave birth to King Solomon’s son who became Menelik 1. Haile Salassie was the 225th Ethiopian monarch descended from Menelik.
Only the guardian monk is allowed to view the Ark as it is dangerous to view it. The guardian monk is appointed for life by his predecessor before the predecessor dies. The guardian is confined to the chapel of the Ark of the Covenant for the rest of his life. He spends his time praying before the Ark and offering incense.