Hope vs Justice II – the case of Kristos Samra

 

Hope vs Justice II – the case of Kristos Samra

In a previous post[1], I presented evidence that some early Christians believed that intercessions could save some people – and, indeed, some believed all human beings – from their deserved condemnation in hell. Indeed, there is an apparent ‘tension’ between the Christian teachings that encourage to desire/hope for the salvation not only for oneself but all others (enemies included) and the teachings that seem to imply that some – or in some accounts, many – people will be irremediably lost.

While not an ‘ancient’ figure, I found interesting the case of an important Ethiopian Christian figure, Kristos Samra[2] (fl. around the 15th century), venerated in some Oriental Orthodox Churches. To her, it is attributed a tale in which she recounts a ‘journey’ to the hell in order to attempt to save human beings trapped there. There are two available English translations online[3], one of which is part of an academic article available with a registration on Academia[4] (which contains scholarly footnotes).

The tale starts with a prayer of Kristos that she herself was ‘afraid to make’:

“I replied, “If you permit your maidservant [to ask], tell me why you created our father Adam in your image and likeness, and why you were crucified on the wood of the cross. Was it not for the sake of Adam and his offspring?”

Christ replied, “Yes, I was crucified for their sake.”” (transl. Micheal Kleiner, Wendy Laura Belcher)

Given this reply, she then asks to pardon all human beings to which Christ replies that, however that the suffering that experienced by Him was ‘heavier’ than the sins to be pardoned:

“So I said to him, “If your crucifixion happened for their sake, pardon [all] those who have died, from Abel up to now and in eternity, O Lord! Truly, you are merciful, slow to be angered, given to compassion, and righteous. There is no other God than you, you are all-powerful, and nothing is impossible for you; the entire earth does not [even] fill your hands.”

Now Christ replied to me with these words, “Please judge [for yourself], my dear Kristos Samra. [Weigh] the sins that Adam and his offspring have committed [against] the cross that I, your creator, carried in the court of Caiaphas and Annas with Pontius Pilate as their superior: If they are weighed on the scales, which one is heavier? Does not my suffering [in human hands], which I received on [Good] Friday, weigh heavier?”” (ibid.)

In other words, those trapped in hell experience what they deserve. They are justly condemned and suffer for their sins.  

Then there is a bit of dialogue between Kristos Samra and Christ, which culminates in a request from the former to pardon all human beings because there is none that doesn’t sin, so in this sense nobody deserves salvation! (Kristos asks: “Is there any wood that doesn’t smoke [when burned], are there humans who don’t sin?”) and even to pardon the Devil, because, according to Kristos, if the Devil is pardoned, all human beings will then be saved and God doesn’t want the perdition of sinners but their conversion (Kristos to Christ: “…Truly, you don’t desire the sinner’s death, but rather his turning back [from sin]!”). To this Christ replies with a laugh because nobody asked to do that.

Hence, the story goes, Christ summons the Angel Michael to bring Kristos to the realm of the Dead (Sheol, which in the story appears to be conflated with Gehenna[5]). In the realm of the dead, she saw people that were “biting each other like dogs” and she then has a dialogue with the Devil:

“So I called out for him, in the language of the angels, “Satan!”

Instantly, Satan shouted [back], in a loud voice, “Who calls out for me, in the place where I am Lord God of many hosts?”

After Satan had said this, he came to me and told me, “I‘ve been looking for you for a long time. Today you have finally come to my home.”

At this point, I replied to him, “Come out quickly! Our Lord has pardoned you, as well as those who are yours.”

When I said this to him, he became enraged. He seized my left hand and dragged me down to the lowest level of She‘ol.” (ibid.)

Notably, here Satan is depicted as choosing to remain in hell by rejecting God’s pardon. This is consistent with the view that the cause of hell is one’s own obstinate will to reject God’s love. Fortunately, Michael intervenes and saves both Kristos and, with her, all the trapped human beings that manage to cling to the wings of Michael and Kristos:

“My brothers, what can I tell you about the wailing that arose in that hour! All the [captive] souls swarmed me like bees. [Fortunately], the number of souls who escaped from [hell] on the wings of Saint Michael and on my own wings was something like 100,000. I was delighted when I saw how happy those souls were. I frolicked among them just like a young calf; I was like a horse that races in the king’s presence.” (ibid.)

While the 100000 number is perhaps purely symbolic (the other translation has 10000[6]), i.e. a way to indicate ‘many’, it is significant that the story depicts a striking example of the power of intercession. These people are dead but contrary to a widespread view among Christians here we have a tale of post-mortem salvation.

So here we have a depiction of the tension between ‘mercy’ and ‘justice’, the desire for repentance/salvation and the need to satisfy the demands of ‘justice’, with, however, I believe a note of hope. For at least some of the condemned, there is still hope via intercession[7].

 

  


[3] The first can be found here: https://www.scribd.com/document/68019468/Saint-Kirstos-Semra-s-Hagiography-2011-de-Birhan ; the second here: https://wendybelcher.com/african-literature/the-life-of-kristos-samra/ . I’ll use this latter translation which also appears in a paper (see the following footnote).

[5] The translators use the word ‘hell’ to translate the word 'gähännäm', footnote 70, p. 21 of the pdf file.

[6] Note that the word ‘myriad’ derives from the number 10000 in ancient Greek language.

[7] It should be noted that the Churches that venerated Kristos Samra (Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church,  Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria) never, to my knowledge, accepted the Fifth Ecumenical Council of 553 (accepted by the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches) which is assumed to have condemned ‘universalism’ (there is controversy about this, but I don’t want to address the debate here). This perhaps explains why in the time of Kristos Samra and the immediate following centuries this tale was never seen as endorsing a ‘heretical’ teaching. So, perhaps, in these Churches it was easier to accept or even speak of chances of post-mortem salvation, just like in the East-Syrian Church (see: https://ancientafterlifebelifs.blogspot.com/2026/01/on-presence-of-universalism-in-east.html )  

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