Spoken Coptic Language

Leave a Comment / History / By Arsanious Adel

SPOKEN COPTIC LANGUAGE Coptic was the spoken language of ancient Egypt until the ARAB CONQUEST OF EGYPT in the seventh century. It was recorded first in the hieroglyphic (sacred) script, the earliest form of Egyptian pictorial writing, and succeeded by the hieratic (priestly), which was the simplified running script, and the demotic (from “demos,” meaning …

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Laying The Cornerstone Of Church

Leave a Comment / Culture / By Arsanious Adel

LAYING THE CORNERSTONE OF CHURCH At the ceremony held to celebrate the founding of a church, the following items are placed in a receptacle: a Bible, a cross, coins in current circulation, newspapers of the day, and a document with the name of the patron saint to whom the church is dedicated, the name of …

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Butrus Al-Sidmanti

Leave a Comment / Eminent / By Arsanious Adel

BUTRUS AL-SIDMANTI A monastic writer in Arabic during the eleventh century. But<rus came from the village ofSidmant in the district of Bani Suef. The village is known as Sidmant al-Jabal; E. AMÉLINEAU records it as Posotoment. The precise dates of birth and death of Butrus are unknown beyond the fact that he lived around the …

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Dayr Al-‘Azab (Fayyum)

Leave a Comment / Places / By Armia FAYEZ

DAYR AL-‘AZAB (Fayyum) History The monastery of Dayr al-‘Azab does not seem to have been mentioned, at least under this name, by any author before the traveler J. M. Vansleb in 1672, who placed it halfway between Madinat al-Fayyum and the DAYR AL-NAQLUN (1677, p. 274; 1678, p. 166). In fact, it is about 4 …

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CYRIL V

Leave a Comment / Eminent / By Arsanious Adel

CYRIL V The 112th patriarch of the See of Saint Mark (1874-1927). He was born at the village of Tizmant in Bani Suef Province, in 1824, and was known as Hanna al-Nasikh (the calligrapher) because of his beautiful handwriting. At the age of twenty he entered DAYR AL- BARAMUS in Wadi al-Natrun. He was elevated …

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Women’s Religious Communities

Leave a Comment / History / By Armia FAYEZ

WOMEN’S RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES From the earliest years in the history of Christianity, there have existed communities of virgins, who dedicated their lives to the service of the Lord, free from all family ties. However, in Egypt, some young women preferred to remain with their families while performing such sacred duties toward others. One of the …

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Aqfahs

Leave a Comment / Places / By Arsanious Adel

AQFAHS A village to the southwest of the markaz (district) of al-Fashn on the left bank of the Nile about 25 miles (40 km) south of Bani Suef, celebrated as the birthplace of Julius of Aqfahs, biographer of the martyrs and himself a martyr (see MARTYRS, COPTIC). E. Amélineau (1893, pp. 56-58) fully established the …

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Theophilos I

Leave a Comment / Eminent / By Armia FAYEZ

THEOPHILOS I The Coptic archbishop of Jerusalem (1935-1945). He was born in 1893 in the village of al-Matahrah, Egypt. He joined the Monastery of Saint Antony (DAYR ANBA ANTUNIYUS) in the Eastern Desert, becoming a monk in 1910 and adopting the name Butrus. In 1915 he was ordained and then appointed HEGUMENOS. After serving as …

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Bush

Leave a Comment / Places / By Arsanious Adel

BUSH A town situated on the left bank of the Nile about 4 miles (7 km) north of Bani Suef. Nearby are the estates that supply the food for the monasteries of Saint Antony and Saint Paul (DAYR ANBA ANTUNIYUS and DAYR ANBA BULA) near the Red Sea. These two estates appear to be relatively …

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Bulus Al-Bushi (Paul Of Bush)

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BULUS AL-BUSHI (Paul of Bush) An Arab regarded as one of the most significant personalities in the Coptic hierarchy during the Middle Ages. There is no precise information about his birth date or his secular life as a young man before he took the monastic vow. It is possible that he was born between 1170 …

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