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Félix Lope de Vega was a famous poet and playwright of the Spanish Golden Age, most well-renowned for his sonnets.  Among his prolific works (Cervantes called him "Monster of Nature" for the sheer volume of them) are many religious poems.  Below is one such poem, which Spanish-speakers sometimes use as a Lenten hymn. "Soliloquio - III -" Manso Cordero ofendido,  puesto en una cruz por mí,   que mil veces os vendí  después que fuiste vendido.  Dadme licencia, Señor,  para que, deshecho en llanto,  pueda en vuestro rostro santo  llorar lágrimas de amor.  ¿Es posible, vida mía,  que tanto mal os causé,  que os dejé, que os olvidé,  ya que vuestro amor sabía?   Tengo por dolor más fuerte  que el veros muerto por mí  el saber que os ofendí,  cuando supe vuestra muerte.  Yo os amo, Dios soberano,  no como Vos merecéis,  pero cuanto Vos sabéis  que cabe en sentido humano.  Toda el alma de Vos llena  me saca d

Like almost any product of man, icons contain differences depending on the culture in which they were made (besides even more differences from individual artists).  Thus among icons, there are different styles relating to the different cultures of origin: Greek (Byzantine), Russian, Coptic, Ethiopian, etc.  Usually in my posts, I include and discuss Byzantine icons, though Russian icons are also involved often.  In this post, I wish to give a brief overview of another style of icons: Ethiopian iconography. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church began when Christianity was first widely spread to Ethiopia (discounting the Ethiopian eunuch converted by St. Philip in Acts 8) in the 5th century by a group of missionaries known now as the Nine Saints: Abba Aftse, Abba Alef, Abba Aragawi, Abba Garima (Isaac/Yeshaq), Abba Guba, Abba Liqanos, Abba Pantelewon, Abba Sehma, and Abba Yem'ata.  It is conjectured that they were possibly refugees from persecutions after the Council of Chalcedon: this Co