Abune Mathias

His Holiness Abune Mathias
Patriarch and Catholicos of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
OCP Secretary George Alexander with Patriarch Abune Mathias of Ethiopia, Abune Thimotheos (Dean of Holy Trinity University College)and Fr. Dr. Jossi Jacob (IMOC Delegate and Faculty at Holy Trinity College)
Church	Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
Appointed	28 February 2013
Predecessor	Abune Paulos
Personal details
Birth name	Teklemariam Asrat
Born	1941/1942 (age 74–75) Agame District Tigray Province
Nationality	Ethiopian
Denomination	Ethiopian Orthodox
Residence	Addis Ababa

Abune Mathias (also sometimes Mattias) is the Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. His full title is "His Holiness Abune Mathias I, Sixth Patriarch and Catholicos of Ethiopia, Archbishop of Axum and Ichege of the See of Saint Taklehaimanot."

Abune Mathias was born Teklemariam Asrat in 1934 Ethiopian calendar (1941/42 Western calendar) in Tigray province, in the district of Agame, in Sebuha county.

Teklemariam was ordained as deacon in 1954 by Abune Markos, the then Archbishop of Eritrea. The then Deacon Teklemariam served in several capacities at the Chohé monastery, in Tembien district of Tigray, where he stayed for most of the subsequent 14 years. In 1963, he was ordained as a priest and monk at Chohé. Now known as Abba Teklemariam, he left the monastery to further his education in Addis Ababa, and served in the Holy Trinity Cathedral from 1971 to 1976. During this time, the government of Emperor Haile Selassie was overthrown, and the then Patriarch Abune Tewophilos was arrested and subsequently executed by the Derg military regime.

Following the enthronement of Patriarch Teklehaimanot to replace Patriarch Tewophilos, Abba Teklemariam was appointed to serve as the Patriarchal Vicar to the new Patriarch, and functioned as his closest aide. In 1978, as the Derg identified the senior Archbishops and Bishops with the fallen Imperial government, it ordered that all the senior hierarchs go into retirement. As a result, Patriarch Abune Tekle Haimanot had to anoint 14 new bishops to fill the vacancies left by the retiring hierarchs. Abba Teklemariam was thus anointed as the new bishop of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Jerusalem and the Holy Land in 1978 and adopted the new episcopal name and title of Abune Mathias. While serving in Jerusalem he was elevated from Bishop to Archbishop.