Sister Abraham z”l

Sister Abraham, born in 1932 in Denmark into a Lutheran family was a friend of the kehilla, an activist in the ecumenical movement, a teacher of iconography and a leading expert in the history and life of the Ethiopian Church.

Kirsten Pedersen moved to Jerusalem in after some years as a Roman Catholic Brigittine nun in Sweden and Denmark in 1965. In 1970, she officially joined the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, taking the name Abraham. She received a BA, MA and PhD from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, specializing in the study of the history of the Ethiopian Church in Jerusalem. Her doctoral thesis presented traditional Ethiopian exegesis of the Book of Psalms.

A polyglot, fluent in about twelve languages, Sister Abraham retired to the Benedictine convent on the Mount of Olives, where she spent her last years in Jerusalem.

May her memory be a source of blessing!