Walatta Petros

Walatta Petros (also Wälättä Peṭros; Walata Péṭros; Walatta Pietros) (1592–1642) was an Ethiopian Christian noblewoman who resisted attempts by Jesuit missionaries to establish Roman Catholicism as the official religion of the empire. Recognized as a saint by the Ethiopian Orthodox Täwaḥǝdo Church (EOTC), Walatta Petros defied male authority figures, including her husband, the emperor, and the Jesuits, to become a nun and preserve the independence of Ethiopian Christianity. Despite facing persecution and exile, she encouraged anti-Catholic opposition among both the clergy and laity. In 1632, in part due to the efforts of noblewomen like Walatta Petros, the emperor expelled the Jesuits from Ethiopia. Her commitment to the EOTC earned her recognition as a holy woman, and she established and led numerous monastic communities until her death. Although she did not author any extant texts, Ethiopians remember Walatta Petros as one of the most significant seventeenth-century religious figures.