MANASSEH, SAINT

A sixth-century archimandrite. The SYNAXARION is silent about Manasseh, who was a relative of ABRAHAM OF FARSHUT. We possess the remnants (about forty pages) of a Coptic Encomium of this saint (Campagnano, 1978, pp. 230, 238).

It seems that Manasseh was an Alexandrian. He was, first of all, a monk in the community of Saint PACHOMIUS. He founded a monastery to the south of Farshut, “opposite a village called perpe (Perpe), a village burnt by Cambyses.” We do not know at what age Manasseh became a monk, but he had lost his mother six years before. The text relates that he often went north to see his kinsman Abraham. The bishop of Diospolis Parva (Hiw) came to consecrate the church, and delivered a sermon on this occasion.

Manasseh received some nuns from a convent of Pachomius, that they might place themselves under the protection of his prayer. He built for them a convent equipped with a tower.

We do not know at what date Manasseh died, but the Coptic encomium is important for knowing what Egyptian monasticism was like at the beginning of the sixth century.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Campagnano, A. “Monaci egiziani fra V e VI secolo.” Vetera Christianorum 15 (1978):223-46.

RENÉ-GEORGES COQUIN