Abuna Takla Haymanot

There are reports, that there was a final rupture between President Mengistu Haile Mariam and the Patriarch following the napalm and cluster bombing of rebel held areas of Eritrea and the Tigray Region in the north in 1988. It is said that the Patriarch had protested against such measures being carried out on innocent civilian populations, and that Col. Mengistu had angrily demanded that he stop interfering in state affairs. The Patriarch, already in poor health and a weakened state thanks to his constant fasting and penance, then began an even more rigorous fast (basically a hunger strike in protest) and refused to make any more public appearances other than to attend the Divine Liturgy at the church within the Patriarchate. He made one final public appearance at the inauguration of a new church in Wollaita, and visited the cave where he had once lived. He returned to Addis Ababa and was almost immediately admitted to the hospital, where he died.

Abba Melaku was enthroned as Patriarch of Ethiopia following the forcible removal from the Patriarchal throne of the previous Patriarch, Abuna Theophilos (aka Abuna Tewophilos) by the Marxist Derg regime in May 1976. Following the Patriarch's arrest, the Derg ordered that an assembly of clergy and laity of the church along with the Holy Synod elect a new Patriarch to replace the arrested Abuna Tewophilos. All Archbishops were disqualified from being elected for having been too close to the recently deposed Ethiopian monarchy. The Assembly of the Church met on July 7, 1976, and under the leadership of the Locum Tenens (Acting Patriarch) Archbishop Abune Yohannes, was made to elect a hermit bahitawi by the name of Melaku Wolde Mikael as the new Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The new Patriarch-elect of the Orthodox Church was elevated to the rank of bishop with the name Takla Haymanot on July 18, 1976, and then enthroned as Patriarch of Ethiopia on August 29. With little formal education, and little exposure to temporal affairs, Abba Melaku had spent the bulk of his life as a hermit praying in a cave, and preaching to the people of Wollaita district, helping to build numerous churches and church schools in the area. It is believed that the Derg hoped that such simple rural man would be easy to control. Indeed, Abune Takla Haymanot's reaction to the news that he was to be enthroned as Patriarch of the Church was extreme distress, and he was reduced to bitter weeping. He was enthroned, and within a year, he was made to appoint 14 new bishops to replace the old ones who were deemed to have been close to the government of Emperor Haile Selassie. A government appointed administrator was put in place to place the church under the tutelage of the Derg.

Abuna Takla Haymanot or Abune Takla Haymanot (1918 – May 1988) was the third Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.

Abune Takla Haymanot was born in 1918, the son of a simple soldier, Wolde Mikael Adamu in southern Begemder province. As a young boy, he left home to study at the Zerzer St. Michael Church School in Bitchena, Gojjam Province where he studied advanced Bible commentary and "Kine" (ecclesiastic poetry). He was ordained a deacon by the then Coptic Archbishop of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Abune Mattewos. In 1934, just before the Italian occupation, he traveled to Addis Ababa and was ordained a priest by Abune Kerlos, the last Coptic Archbishop of Ethiopia. He then went on to Sodo town, then a very small village in Wolaitta district of Sidamo Province to serve at the Debre Menkirat St. Takla Haymanot Monastery. Abba Melaku Wolde Mikael is believed to have had a transformative religious revelation during his service there, and he became a "bahitawi" or hermit monk. Although he played a significant role in preaching to the people of the district and helping to found and build schools, orphanages and churches, he spent the majority of his time sequestered alone in a cave praying and mortifying his flesh by severe penance and self-denial. He ate only the simplest foods (mostly boiled grains) and wore simple yellow robes of the lowest quality.