Abune Mathias (born Teklemariam Asrat; 1941) is an Ethiopian patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church since 2013.His full title is "His Holiness Abune Mathias I", "Sixth Patriarch and Catholicos of Ethiopia", "Archbishop of Axum" and "Ichege of the See of Saint Taklehaimanot".

Teklemariam Asrat was born in 1941 in Tigray province, in the district of Agame, in Sebuha county.Teklemariam was ordained as deacon in 1954 by Abune Markos, the then Archbishop of Eritrea. Deacon Teklemariam served in several capacities at the Chohé monastery, in Tembien district of Tigray, where he stayed for most of the subsequent 14 years. In 1963, he was ordained as a priest and monk at Chohé. Now known as Abba Teklemariam, he left the monastery to further his education in Addis Ababa, and served in the Holy Trinity Cathedral from 1971 to 1976. During this time, the government of Emperor Haile Selassiewas overthrown, and the then Patriarch Abune Tewophilos was arrested and subsequently executed by the Derg military regime.

Following the enthronement of Patriarch Teklehaimanot to replace Patriarch Tewophilos, Abba Teklemariam was appointed to serve as the Patriarchal Vicar to the new Patriarch, and functioned as his closest aide. In 1978, as the Derg identified the senior Archbishops and Bishops with the fallen Imperial government, it ordered that all the senior hierarchs go into retirement. As a result, Patriarch Abune Tekle Haimanot had to anoint 14 new bishops to fill the vacancies left by the retiring hierarchs. Abba Teklemariam was thus anointed as the new bishop of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Jerusalem and the Holy Land in 1978 and adopted the new episcopal name and title of Abune Mathias. While serving in Jerusalem he was elevated from Bishop to Archbishop.

In early 1980, Abune Mathias became the first leader of the church to issue a denunciation of the rule of the communist Derg. Consequently, he lived abroad for more than thirty years. He pronounced an anathema against Mengistu Haile Mariam and the members of the regime, and then went into exile. Abune Mathias eventually settled in Washington, D.C., where he presided over an Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church made up of exiles who had fled the Ethiopian revolution, and continued to broadcast messages against the Derg regime on Voice of America.

In 1992, Abune Mathias returned to Ethiopia following the fall of the Derg and of Patriarch Abuna Merkorios to retake his seat in the Holy Synod. Following the enthronement of Patriarch Abune Paulos, Abune Mathias was named Archbishop of North America. Later, the Archdiocese was divided and Abune Mattias served as Archbishop of the United States, when Canada became a separate archdiocese. In 2009, the Archdiocese of the United States was divided again into three new Archdioceses, and Abune Mathias was asked to return to take up his former Archdiocese of Jerusalem. Before departing for the Holy Land, Abune Mathias played a key role in initiating attempts to reach a reconciliation between the Holy Synod in Addis Ababa, and the exiled Synod in the United States headed by former Patriarch Abune Merkorios

Abune Mathias became the 6th Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church in the election held on 28 February 2013 where he received 500 of the 806 the votes cast by a college of electors representing various sections of the Church. He was enthroned at Holy Trinity Cathedral on 3 March 2013, in the presence of the hierarchs of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria in Egypt, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church in India and many other representatives of other churches.Following an agreement made on July 27, 2018, the previously exiled Abune Merkorios was reinstated and now serves as co-patriarch with Abune Mathias.

Abune Merkorios (Patriarch and Catholicos of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church) is the fourth Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church , elected after the deathof Abuna Takla Haymanot in May 1988.

Known before his elevation to the episcopacy as Abba (Father) Ze-Libanos Fanta, he wasborn into the minor nobility of Begemder Province . He was considered something of a liturgical expert, and served for many years at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Addis Ababa. AbbaZe-Libanos was raised to the rank of Bishop by Patriarch Abuna Takla Haymanot in 1976 over his home province of Beghemidir (then known as Gondar Province), taking the name Merkorios.

Abba Merkorios served as Archbishop of Gondar until he became Patriarch of Ethiopia in 1988. In 1986, Abune Merkorios was appointed as one of a very small and select group of clergy to serve as a member of the Shengo, the national parliament set up by theDerg when it proclaimed the Peoples' Democratic Republic of Ethiopia that year. Heremained a member of the parliament until his enthronement as Patriarch. Whenthe Ethiopian People is Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) came to power in 1991 Abune Merkorios stepped down as Patriarch. He was followed on the throne of the Ethiopian Church by Abune Paulos , the fifth official patriarch of the church, although many Ethiopian churches in the diaspora continue to recognize Abune Merkorios as Patriarch in opposition to Paulos.

The following year he fled to Kenya, later relocating to the United
States in 1997, where churches had begun to secede from the synod in Ethiopia following the leadership of Abuna Yesehaq . These churches formed a synod in exile and eventually both synods were mutually excommunicated.

In 2011, a Wikileaks cable was released in which former Prime Minister Tamirat Layne , during a 5 January 2009 meeting with U.S. ambassador Donald Yamamoto , revealed that he wants to assist in the reconciliation of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church based in America, because he signed the order that removed the original patriarch and bifurcated the church.

Efforts to heal the threatened schism had shown promising results through late 2011 and early 2012. However, the sudden deaths of both Patriarch Abune Paulos and Prime
Minister Meles Zenawi caused efforts to slow down as the synod in Ethiopia went through a leadership transition. During the reconciliation negotiations, the synod in exile insisted that Abune Merkorios be allowed to resume the Patriarchal throne, something that neither the synod in Ethiopia nor the Ethiopian government was willing to consider. With the election of Abune Mathias as the 6th Patriarch of Ethiopia on February 28, 2013, reconciliation talks were ended for the time being.

With the encouragement of the newly elected Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed reconciliation talks between the two rival synods began anew, and on July 27, 2018 representatives from both synods reached an agreement. According to the terms of the agreement, Abune Merkorios was reinstated as Patriarch alongside Abune Mathias, who will continue to be responsible for administrative duties, and the two synods were merged into one synod, with any excommunications between them lifted. On August 1, 2018, Abune Merkorios entered Ethiopia for the first time in 26 years, flying together with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.