NOVE SANTI. — Called Romans (= Constantinopolitans), they were Monophysite monks who arrived in Ethiopia, according to the legend, in 454, coming from Syria, whence the anti-Monophysite persecution that followed in the Byzantine Empire after the condemnation of Eutyches issued by the Council of Chalcedon (451) had driven them away. Their names are: 1. Za Mikā' el 'Arāgawi; 2. Panālewon; 3. Ishaq Garimā; 4. Afsē; 5. Gubā; 6. Alēf; 7. Yem'ata; 8. Liqānos; 9. Sehma.
They settled in the ancient Kingdom of Axum, where they founded flourishing monasteries. Tradition attributes to them the version in the ge'ez language (ancient Ethiopian, now used only in ecclesiastical and learned contexts) of the Old Testament from the Greek of the Septuagint. This version appears to have been based on the text in use in the Church of Antioch (the text of St Lucian, or Western Syriac), and not on the Alexandrian text. This version marks the beginning of Ethiopian literature.