St. Lalibela was a member of Ethiopia's [[Zagwe ]] dynasty born in the 1150s to Zan Siyum, a brother of Emperor [[Yimrihanne Kristos]]. At the time of his birth Harbay, his half-brother, was emperor, but the Saint's mother named him Lalibela ('the bees acknowledge his supremacy' in Agew) because after his birth a swarm of bees surrounded him, signifying in that time that he would become a ruler. In part because of this prophecy, which made his brother Harbay jealous of him, when St. Lalibela matured he left the world to become a hermit in the mountainous northern region of Tigre.

In his relations with Egypt St. Lalibela sought to maintain peace between the two countries, a policy which paid off after Saladdin's reconquest of [[Jerusalem ]] when the sultan intervened in a dispute in favor of the Ethiopian monks in the city. The positive relations established between Ethiopia and Egypt enabled the Coptic and Ethiopian Orthodox Churches to maintain closer communication and also allowed the new metropolitan appointed during St. Lalibela's reign to leave for Ethiopia without any interference from the Egyptian government.