In what is being described as an unprecedented event in the history of Ethiopian cultural repatriation, 17 Ethiopian manuscripts were formally returned to Ethiopia during the week of September 14 – 19, 2026, through a series of ceremonies and events across Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Two members of the Sankt Ignatios community, Dr Ralph Lee (Associate Senior Lecturer) and Rev. Dr Calum Samuelson (Postdoctoral Research Fellow), were two key members of the delegation that carried out the return.
A Stolen Treasure
At the heart of the story is a single manuscript: a large, 10kg Miracles of Mary text (ተአምረ ማርያም), richly significant within Eastern Christian tradition. Manuscripts of this kind are never privately owned — they belong only to churches — so when the manuscript appeared for sale in the United States, it raised immediate concern. It was recognized by Dr Jeremy Brown, Curator of Eastern Christian Manuscripts at the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library (HMML) in Collegeville, who had worked closely with digital images of the manuscript taken in the early 1970s, in situ, at the church that owned it. An inscription confirmed the church’s ownership beyond doubt. It had in fact been stolen.
The manuscript had been purchased by the late Gerald Weiner, a Vice President at Morgan Stanley Bank with a deep love of Ethiopian manuscript art. Working closely with Prof. Steve Delamarter, Emeritus Professor of Hebrew at George Fox University, Weiner had helped identify which manuscripts in his collection should be regarded as national treasures and returned to Ethiopia. Weiner died last year; his wife, Barbara Weiner, carried that commitment forward, supporting the events that took place last week. The wider project was directed by Prof. Delamarter, in close partnership with Barbara Weiner and with support from Dr Alula Pankhurst, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Addis Ababa University and son of the distinguished historian Prof Richard Pankhurst.
A week of ceremony and welcome
The delegation’s week began on Monday 14th September at Mekane Yesus Seminary — belonging to the largest Lutheran church in the world — where a donation was made in memory of the Orthodox scholar Meseret Sebhat Le-Ab, whose collection of 54 Ge’ez manuscripts was the very first to be digitized under the Ethiopian Manuscript Imaging Project (EMIP), directed by Prof Delamarter and Dr Jeremy Brown.
The central ceremony followed on Tuesday 15th September at the Ethiopian Heritage Authority’s National Museum Hall, led by the Authority’s Director, Dr Abebaw Ayalew Gella. Among the guests was Ras Mengasha, the great-great-grandson of Emperor Yohannes, whose family psalter was one of the 17 manuscripts returned.
The event was broadcast across Ethiopia’s national media. ”I am not aware of so many manuscripts being returned to Ethiopia in one go like this on any other occasion,” said Dr Ralph Lee. ”There is a lot of international tension over the possession of majority-world cultural heritage in western museums. The returning of these manuscripts will contribute to developing strong arguments for the return of similar artifacts from many museums around the world.” That afternoon, the delegation visited the Patriarch’s library and museum, where the largest single portion of the collection — seven manuscripts, including the Miracles of Mary and several Synaxarion texts (ስንክሳር) — was received.
On Wednesday, the group was welcomed by Mahibere Kidusan, the influential student and young professionals’ movement of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, represented by its Chief Executive, Wasihun Belay. Prof Delamarter was honored with a royal robe in recognition of the manuscripts’ return, and each delegate received a copy of the New Gǝʿǝz Bible. The group later returned to the National Museum, where they also viewed the original Lucy skeleton.
Thursday brought a visit to the National Archive and Library Agency, followed by a major public presentation hosted by the Society of Friends of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies (SOFIES) at Addis Ababa University’s Ras Mekonnen Hall. They were welcomed by Dr Yohannes Adigeh Gelaw, Director of the Institute — itself founded by Prof Richard Pankhurst, and each person in the group gave a presentation on how they have been using Ethiopian manuscripts in their professional work.
On Friday, the delegation travelled to the Haile Minas Academy in Debre Berhan, founded by the daughter of the renowned scholar Getachew Haile, who mentored both Prof Delamarter and Dr Jeremy Brown in Ethiopian manuscript studies. The week closed on Saturday at the Tebeb Research Center, under the Roman Catholic Church in Ethiopia, where director Dr Daniel Assefa — a longtime collaborator with Prof Delamarter on the Textual History of the Ethiopic Old Testament (THEOT) Project — hosted the group alongside Cardinal Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel, C.M. and Abune Tesfaye Tadesse Gebresilasie, Metropolitan Archbishop of Addis Ababa. The delegation also donated photographic equipment to establish two new manuscript digitization stations at the center.
Amidst all these landmark activities, Dr Lee and Dr Samuelson delivered multiple presentations alongside other experts in digitization and digital humanities, with the goal of ethically enhancing the accessibility and stewardship of Ethiopic manuscripts in the future.
A moment of global significance
Beyond the ceremonies themselves, the return of these 17 manuscripts carries weight far beyond Ethiopia. As debates continue worldwide over the presence of majority-world cultural heritage in Western museums and private collections, this repatriation stands as a rare, concrete example that may help establish a precedent for further returns elsewhere. Sankt Ignatios is proud that Dr Ralph Lee and Dr Calum Samuelson were part of this historic week.
