September 23

Ewostatewos, Thecla, and Mary Church Terrell

Author

David Barnhart
September 23, 2025

Flasks with Saint Thecla and animals. Bode Museum, Berlin, 2022.

Icon of Saint Thecla by Angela Barnhart

Today marks the death, in 1352, of Ewostatewos, a monk in Ethiopian Christian history who emphasized observation of the sabbath. His followers observed both a Saturday and Sunday sabbath, which brought them into conflict with the church hierarchy. 

Today is also the feast day, in the Roman Catholic and Episcopal Churches, of Saint Thecla, who may have been considered by the early church to be an equal of Paul. She was one of Paul’s early converts and left her family to pursue a life of Christian asceticism. In one legend, she was thrown to the beasts but was protected by a lioness. 

Today is the birthday, in 1863, of early civil rights leader Mary Church Terrell, whose death we remembered on July 24.  

Reflection: 

Mary Church Terrell wrote: 

"Surely nowhere in the world do oppression and persecution based solely on the color of the skin appear more hateful and hideous than in the capital of the United States, because the chasm between the principles upon which this Government was founded, in which it still professes to believe, and those which are daily practiced under the protection of the flag, yawn so wide and deep."

and

"And so, lifting as we climb, onward and upward we go, struggling and striving, and hoping that the buds and blossoms of our desires will burst into glorious fruition 'ere long. With courage, born of success achieved in the past, with a keen sense of the responsibility which we shall continue to assume, we look forward to a future large with promise and hope. Seeking no favors because of our color, nor patronage because of our needs, we knock at the bar of justice, asking an equal chance."

Prayer: God, help us reach collective liberation. Amen.