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Emperor Susenyos and Ethiopia's Catholic Experiment
Description
In the early 17th century, Emperor Susenyos I shocked Ethiopia by converting to Catholicism and proclaiming it the state religion, ending nearly a thousand years of Orthodox Tewahedo tradition. This episode explores the rise and fall of that experiment: how Portuguese Jesuit missionaries like Pedro Páez arrived at the Solomonic court, the theological debates that split the realm, the 1622 Council of Derssanie that affirmed papal supremacy, and the brutal rebellions that followed—especially the 1632 peasant uprising at Dembiya. Lucas and Luna examine the political calculus behind Susenyos's conversion, the cultural cost of aligning with Rome, and how his own son Fasilides eventually restored Orthodoxy, expelling the Jesuits and closing a turbulent chapter. With details from Ge'ez chronicles and Jesuit letters, they reveal a moment when Ethiopia nearly joined the Catholic world, and why it ultimately pulled back.