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The prayer Stages… (1) Forcing stage (21)

The prayer Stages… (1) Forcing stage (21) Introduction Many complain that they are unable to sustain the same feelings and depth that they began with, in their spiritual lives in prayer, so they soon feel pixels and slacken, and if they overcome it, they get bored. Frankly, all of this is perfectly normal, […]

The churches of old cairo

The churches of old Cairo INTRODUCTION Cairo has been the capital of Egypt for more than one thousand years, but the actual city and history of Cairo are the legacy of many previous capitals of Egypt, of great cultural centers and successive civilizations founded there. The earliest was a predynastic settlement dating from the 4th […]

Figures in the Carpet and Monastic Spirituality in the Wadi al-Natrun (Scetis)

Figures in the Carpet: Macarius the Great, Isaiah of Scetis, Daniel of Scetis, and Monastic Spirituality in the Wadi al-Natrun (Scetis) From the Fourth to the Sixth Century Not many years ago I read a very good scholarly book on Palestinian monasticism in Late Antiquity. In my review of that book I observed, however, that […]

The Relationship of St. Shenoute of Atripe with His Contemporary Patriarchs of Alexandria

The Relationship of St. Shenoute of Atripe with His Contemporary Patriarchs of Alexandria WHEN WE SPEAK about the relationship of St. Shenoute with the Alexandrian patriarchs, we speak indeed about a traditional relationship between Coptic monasticism and the official church of Egypt. The basis of this relationship was already established at the dawn of Coptic […]

Copto-Arabic Studies Bibliography

COPTO-ARABIC STUDIES BIBLIOGRAPHY General References (Referred to Below in Abbreviated Fashion) Atiya, Aziz Suryal, ed. The Coptic Encyclopedia, 8 vols. New York: Macmillan, 1991. A standard tool in English. (CE) Gibb, H. A. R. et al., eds. The Encyclopaedia of Islam, new ed., 11 vols. Leiden: Brill, 1954-. Some articles are of importance to Copto-Arabic […]

Shenoute’s Place in the History of Monasticism

Shenoute’s Place in the History of Monasticism A LITTLE MORE than 1,500 years ago, inside the massive church whose ruined hulk has come to be known as the White Monastery (Arabic Dayr al-Abyad), on an occasion near the middle of the fifth century when the monastery’s longtime leader Shenoute was about one hundred years old, […]

Manichaeism and Gnosticism in the Panopolitan Region between Lykopolis and Nag Hammadi

Manichaeism and Gnosticism in the Panopolitan Region between Lykopolis and Nag Hammadi TO DEAL WITH the religious movements of Manichaeism and Gnosticism in the area of Sohag presents a good many problems and raises several questions that will perhaps never be answered. This fact depends on our lack of evidence concerning these two strong ‘enemies’ […]

Liturgy in the White Monastery

Liturgy in the White Monastery Liturgy is an essential part of the life of a monastery, and we can hardly feel an interest for the White Monastery without being interested in its liturgical life as well.[1] Unfortunately we still know little about this subject, as recently stated by Heinzgerd Brakmann, a most distinguished scholar in […]

The Art of Coptic Churches

The Art of Coptic Churches WE WENT TO THE CHURCH while the elders of the monastery went with us. There were pictures of monks on the wall of the place, representing our monastic fathers: Antony the Great and Apa Pachom and Apa Paule and Apa Makarios.21 These were on one side and the archbishops of […]

The apostles in the apse of the central haykal on both sides of a window with stucco tracery

The Monastery of the Archangel Gabriel (FAYYUM)

The Monastery of the Archangel Gabriel (FAYYUM) The saintly bishop AUR OF NAQLUN, the legendary founder of the monastery, was the secret son of a princess and a magician living somewhere in the East. His mother died when he was three years old. When he was eight years old, the king, the father of the […]