Abuna Dioskoros also called Aba Woldetensae, was the bishop of the dioceses of South West Shewa

Shewa

Shewa is a historical region of Ethiopia, formerly an autonomous kingdom within the Ethiopian Empire...

 and Chebona Gurage diocese of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church

Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is the predominant Oriental Orthodox Christian church in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Church was administratively part of the Coptic Orthodox Church until 1959, when it was granted its own Patriarch by Coptic Orthodox Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of All...

.

He was born Woldetensae Gizaw in March, 1919 near the monastery of Itisa Debre Tsilalsh, Tegulet and Bulga Awraja, Shewa to a clerical family. His father, a married priest, was named Abba Gizaw Zeyohnes and his mother was Woizero Zenebech Yeshi. His family claimed decent from the same family that produced the deeply revered Ethiopian Saint Abuna

Abuna

Also see Leaders of ChristianityAbun is the honorific title used for any bishop of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church as well as of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church...

 Tekle Haymanot

Tekle Haymanot

Tekle Haymanot or Takla Haymanot was an Ethiopian monk who founded a major monastery in his native province of Shewa...

. Young Woldetensae was ordained a deacon by the Coptic Archbishop of Ethiopia, Abuna Qerellos in 1929. He later joined the resistance against the Italian occupation for five years from 1936 to 1941. Upon the liberation of Ethiopia and the restoration of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1941, Woldetensae entered the Debre Libanos

Debre Libanos

Debre Libanos is a monastery in Ethiopia, lying northwest of Addis Ababa in the Oromia Region. Founded in the thirteenth century by Saint Tekle Haymanot, the monastery's chief abbot, called the Ichege, was the second most powerful official in the Ethiopian Church after the Abuna.The monastery...

 Monastery and took monastic vows becoming a monk priest.

He also served as a priest in Harar

Harar

Harar is an eastern city in Ethiopia, and the capital of the modern Harari ethno-political division of Ethiopia...

, Dire Dawa

Dire Dawa

Dire Dawa is one of two chartered cities in Ethiopia . This chartered city is divided administratively into two woredas, the city proper and the non-urban woreda of Gurgura....

, Ogaden

Ogaden

Ogaden is the name of a territory comprising the southeastern portion of the Somali Regional State in Ethiopia. The inhabitants are predominantly ethnic Somali and Muslim. The title "Somali Galbeed", which means "Western Somalia," is often preferred by Somali irredentists.The region, which is...

 and Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia...

.
In 1954, he went to Woliso, then called Ghion, where he began preaching to the local population. Abba Woldetensae's reputation as a healer and an exorciser of evil spirits through prayer and holy water spread, and pilgrims flocked to him from around Ethiopia and indeed from outside the country as well. He established the Bethesaida Kidist Mariam (St. Mary of Bethesda) Church and Monastery at Woliso. This church has since become a popular place of pilgrimage for Ethiopian Christians as well as people from other religions.
Abba Woldetensae was made a bishop of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in 1976, taking the name of Dioskoros. Abuna Dioskoros served as Bishop of the West Shoa and Gurage Diocese in Central 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...

. After he died, his body was interred in the church and his statue stands in the compound. Many pilgrims still travel to his church seeking cure and religious blessings. The church claims that over 9 million people have been treated with its holy water since it was established, miraculously curing many illnesses which range from blindness, paralysis, to the evil eye and demonic possession.