I just discovered that I have an unexpected Name Day on May 19th. Catholics celebrate their Name Day as another birthday in honor of the patron saints on feast days of the one after whom they are named. There are a few St. Roberts, with Bellarmine being the most famous, but I don’t go by Robert–hence the R. at the beginning of my name. I go by Jared, my middle name, and it is the name I have been called since birth. It’s a Hebrew name derived from the word for “descent” and belonged to one of the early Patriarchs, the father of Enoch, who was taken to heaven.
When Jared had lived a hundred and sixty-two years he became the father of Enoch. Jared lived after the birth of Enoch eight hundred years, and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years; and he died.
Genesis 5:18-20
Ethiopia, of all the Christian Churches, bears the strongest ties to our Jewish heritage. It shouldn’t be surprising, therefore, that only there do we find a St. Jared, spelled Yared because of the proper pronunciation of the letter J in Hebrew names. I never thought that my name was connected to a saint under I discovered Yared a few years ago.
His feast day is May 19th, hence the new Name Day. He lived 505-71 (with his life overlapping with St. Benedict, 480-547), hailing from Axum the center of ancient Ethiopia, which embraced the faith in the early fourth century (between 324-330). Sent to study with a priest, he had difficulty learning, and even stopped trying until the persistence of a caterpillar in climbing a tree encouraged him to pick up back up. He succeeded well enough to become a teacher and priest associated with the Our Lady, Mary of Zion Church. He became close to Axumite King, Gebre Meskel (the son of King St. Kaleb, who is listed in the Roman martyrology), but was eventually given permission to retire from court to become a monk in the Semien Mountains. He cooperated with the Nine Saints, likely Syriac refugees during the Miaphysite controversies, to build up the Church in Ethiopia.
He is known most for his contributions to sacred music and the development of Ethiopian chant. He created a form of musical notation with 10 tones, while also composing hymns and the Book of Deggua (Lamentations). His biographies credit a mystic vision of heaven as his musical inspiration:
This Acta Yārēd . . . credits to Yared the introduction of chanting hymns (text as well as melody) in church services—the maḫlet vigils, on holy days, and in three types of melodies: gǝ‛ǝz, ‛ǝzl, and araray. According to the Acta, he learned the melodies from the Twenty-Four Elders of Heaven when he was transported to heaven where the Elders glorify the Lord of Hosts in singing. The sources state that “at that time, there was no church service conducted by singing loudly with larynges, but only through whispering, like the Egyptians.”
Getatchew Haile, “Some Notes on Priest Yared and His Contributions,” https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324832314_Some_Notes_on_Priest_and_His_Contributions
Here’s a selection of one of his his hymns, “Gate of Light,” that clearly reflects his connection to the Church of Our Lady, Mary of Zion, which claims to contain the Ark of the Covenant:
Holy and happy, glorious and blessed, honoured and exalted, Gate of Light, Ladder of Life and Dwelling-Place of the Godhead; Holy of Holies you are, Our lady and God-bearer, Mary Virgin. You are named the Good-pleasure of the Father, the Dwelling-Place of the Son and the Shade of the Holy Spirit. O blessed above every creature, you replaced the heights of heaven for you were the heights [of heaven] on earth. In your likeness the holy prophets, priests and kings made for themselves the Holy of Holies and within it the Tables of the Covenant. May your Son grant us his mercy! Pray for us, holy one.
Ezra Gebremedhin, “Yaredian Patterns in the Hymns of Aläqa Tayyä,” https://brill.com/display/book/9789004522053/BP000020.xml?body=fullhtml-60832
St. Yared, pray for us!
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