Portrait of an Orthodox priest reading a holy book written in geʽez alphabet (Ethiopia).

Geʽez, sometimes referred to in scholarly literature as Classical Ethiopic, is an ancient Ethiopian language.

The language originates from what is now northern Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Today, geʽez is used only in prayer and in scheduled public celebrations as the liturgical language of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox and Catholic Church.

Ge‘ez already disappeared as a spoken language almost 1 thousand years ago.

Nowadays even the written language is going to disappear since fewer and fewer people are able to read and write this language and the new generations are less and less interested in learning it.