Kristos Samra

Kristos Samra (, 15th century) was an Ethiopian female saint who founded an eponym monastery in Lake Tana.

She is one of Ethiopians over two-hundred indigenous saints and the earliest of about fourteen Ethiopian female saints.

She is venerated by both the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, and the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, with her feast day on 30 August.

The main source on her life is the Gadle Kristos Samra (The Life of Kristos Samra), a hagiography written in Ethiopic by a scribe named Filippos about her around 1508. Before she died, she told Filippos her biography and thirty of her visions. He wrote her hagiography at the monastery of Debre Libanos sometime between 1450 and 1508. A translation of two portions of the hagiography are available in English; Then Kristos Samra felt terrible and guilty and prayed for God to restore the life of the maidservant. Fortunately, her prayer was answered and the maid was brought back to life. Kristos Samra, amazed by what happened, ansked herself "if God hears my prayer while I'm in this worldly life, how much will he answer my prayer in a monastery?"

She decided to be a nun and started her journey to a spiritual life. But when she arrived at the monastery with her infant son, they told her that no males were allowed into the nunnery. She was traveling with that maidservant, who was carrying her baby son and insisted on being with Kristos Samra when she headed to the monastery. Then she left the child outside and by God's will another nun came and saved the boy and raised him.

A monk named Yishaq helped her by building a church, training female novices, and celebrating the liturgy. Eventually, she withdrew once again into solitude, standing in a pit for three years and in the lake for another three years. Her contemporary, Zara Yacob of 17th century Ethiopia is also seen as the first philosopher of Ethiopia, and Africa.

One scholar has stated that her hagiography is one of only "ten known biographies of African women written by Africans before the nineteenth century." Additionally, due to it is an "as-told-to" biography, "it is more of an intellectual autobiography, the narrative of one woman’s philosophy and her belief in the possibilities for healing a broken world".

Kristos Samra is such visionary medieval women saints as Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe, Rabia of Basri and Lalla Aziza, and Mirabai.

In modern times, Kristos Samra is the most venerated saint in Ethiopia. With feast day of 30 August, her pilgrimage attracts thousand travellers in Lake Tana.