CLAUDIO (Ethiopian Galāxodēnos). — Sovereign of Ethiopia. At the age of eighteen, he succeeded his father Lebna Denghel (David II) in September 1540. Very little then remained of Christian Ethiopia, invaded and for the most part occupied by the Muslims led by the “Lame One,” imām Ahmed ibn Ibrahim. C. wrote to Pope Paolo III asking for help against the Muslims. A Portuguese expedition, under the command of Cristoforo da Gama, landed at Massaua in 1541 to assist the negus. In 1543 the Ethiopians and the Portuguese defeated the “Lame One,” who died in the battle. Another appeal to the Pope, conveyed by the abbot Paolo, head of the Ethiopian community in Jerusalem, received a response in Paolo III’s letter to C. of 23 May 1545. These contacts gave rise to the hope of a union between the Ethiopian Church and the See of Rome, despite
the fact that C. had asked the patriarch of Alexandria for and obtained a new (Monophysite) metropolitan, abuna Josèf. In such difficult circumstances, it was decided to entrust the Catholic mission in Ethiopia, established for the first time, to the Society of Jesus. Thus, on 17 May 1555, Fr. Gonzalo Rodriguez arrived at C.’s court and began the work, as he deemed necessary, with great caution. Two years later, Fr. Andrea de Oviedo, a Spaniard appointed coadjutor to the titular patriarch of Ethiopia, Nunhes Barreto (who was never able to reach his see), in turn arrived at C.’s court and worked actively to organize the mission and establish good relations with C. Discussions took place with the clergy of the court, and the sovereign himself took part in them personally.
It was during this period that the Confessio Claudii was composed, in which C. sets forth the dogmas of the Ethiopian Church, skillfully passing over the Christological questions that were fundamental to the controversy of the time, and instead dwelling at length on the accusations made against the Ethiopians that they had accepted Jewish practices. C., moreover, pursued a policy of solidarity with the Ethiopian Church and maintained close contacts with the eččagē Johannēs, head of the monks most opposed to union with Rome.
C. died in 1559 in battle against the Muslims, on Good Friday, and is regarded by the Ethiopians as one of their greatest sovereigns and a martyr.