"When my mother has said so, I cannot say no anymore"

Ethopian Christians believe that Christ once gave the Negus's empire of Abyssinia (former name of the country) to his Mother as the tithe of the universe. In a special sense every Abyssinian feels that he is a child of Mary.

On account of this tradition, after the defeat of Adoua (city of northern Ethiopia) inflicted on the Italians in 1896, the Negus Menelick, king of Ethiopia, received this letter from Italy:

"I am a poor Italian mother whose son you hold prisoner. O great Emperor, have pity on an unfortunate woman and return her child to her! I ask you in the name of the Madonna!"

After reading this letter, Menelick immediately sent for the soldier in question. He said to him: "I give you your freedom. But you will say to your mother: ‘it was not Menelick who liberated me, but Our Lady Mary.’ You see, Mary is really my mother, and when my mother has said so, I cannot say no anymore. Go, and may Our Lady protect you!"

Encyclopédie Maria, volume V

Beauchesne 1956 - p.36