Abba Sabra was an Ethiopian Orthodox monk, and the teacher of the children of Emperor Zara Yaqob

Zara Yaqob

Zar'a Ya`qob or Zera Yacob was of Ethiopia , and a member of the Solomonic dynasty...

 of Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

. Abba Sabra tried to convert the Beta Israel

Beta Israel

Beta Israel Israel, Ge'ez: ቤተ እስራኤል - Bēta 'Isrā'ēl, modern Bēte 'Isrā'ēl, EAE: "Betä Ǝsraʾel", "Community of Israel" also known as Ethiopian Jews , are the names of Jewish communities which lived in the area of Aksumite and Ethiopian Empires , nowadays divided between Amhara and Tigray...

 (Ethiopian Jews), but was instead converted by them to Judaism. He is best known for introducing monasticism

Monasticism

Monasticism is a religious way of life characterized by the practice of renouncing worldly pursuits to fully devote one's self to spiritual work...

 to the Beta Israel, and the tradition of Jewish monks continued down the centuries until the Great Famine of the 1890s decimated their monasteries in Lay Armachiho

Lay Armachiho

Lay Armachiho is one of the 105 woredas in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. This woreda is named after "Armachiho", a province in northwestern northwestern Ethiopia along the border with Sudan and south of the Tekezé River...

.

He then later converted the son of king Zara Yaqob, Saga-Amlak, who adopted the religious name Abba Saga.

Later Abba Sabra and Abba Saga established a separate kingdom in modern day Ethiopia in which Jews were not persecuted.