From the Patriarchal Holy Mary Monastery, The welcoming ceremony of Abune Mathias. The Oriental Orthodox Churches adhere to a miaphysite Christological view followed by Cyril of Alexandria, the leading protagonist in the Christological debates of the 4th and 5th centuries, who advocated mia physis tou theou logou sesarkōmenē, or “one (mia) nature of the Word of God incarnate” and a hypostatic union. The distinction of this stance was that the incarnate Christ has one nature, but that one nature is of the two natures, divine, and human, and retains all the characteristics of both after the union. Midst all the months within an annual year, the thirteenth month Pagumen is unique as it has only a few days but not thirty days alike the others. It has only six days in the Year of John and five days in the Year of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Accord our Ethiopian Orthodox Incarnation Church, this month is an extra month of a year and it is considered the last month in our country. However, the western countries considered it additional days and divided it into January, March, May, July, August, October, and December, each with 31 days. The Amharic word Pagumen comes from the term Greek word ‘Apagumene’ to mean “additional.” It is the time which we leave behind last year and enrich to the new year passing the season of summer and reaching spring; so it is the resemblance of Judgment day.
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