bishops – Coptic Wiki

The prayer Stages… (2) The Habituation stage (22)

The prayer Stages… (2) The Habituation stage (22) Introduction Prayer stages are like the stages of study, there is the nursery, then the primary and middle school, and so on… Also, in the spiritual way, prayer are stages, the first stage is the stage of forcing, its war “laziness, boredom and boredom, and also […]

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 […]

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 […]

Anba Isaac, Bishop of the Fayoum, al-Bahnasa, and Giza, 1834-81

Anba Isaac, Bishop of the Fayoum, al-Bahnasa, and Giza, 1834-81 Anba Isaac, the bishop of the Fayoum, holds a unique place in the history of the Coptic Church during the mid-nineteenth century. This standing is due, in part, to his massive diocese, which included three Egyptian governorates: Giza, the Fayoum, and Beni Suef. It is […]

John of Shmoun and Coptic Identity

John of Shmoun and Coptic Identity After the Council of Chalcedon in ad 451 and in particular after the Arab conquest of Egypt in ad 641, the need to demonstrate Coptic self identification became more important than before.[1] Usually, there is the need to stress one’s identity and define or form its features when one […]

Egyptian Gnosticism from Its Cradle in the Alexandrian Quarters of the Second Century

Egyptian Gnosticism from Its Cradle in the Alexandrian Quarters of the Second Century to Its Jar Tomb in the Upper Egyptian Town of Nag’ Hammadi Introduction The aim of this study is to try to interpret the fate of Gnosticism in Egypt through a simple investigation of places where texts were found and the historical […]

Christianity and Monasticism in al-Bahnasa according to Arabic Sources

Christianity and Monasticism in al-Bahnasa according to Arabic Sources LOCATED ABOUT two hundred kilometers south of Cairo on the western bank of Bahr Yusuf (literally, the Sea of Joseph, but actually a canal running off from the Nile), in Minya governorate, about sixteen kilometers northwest of the district of Bani Mazar, al-Bahnasa (Oxyrhynchos, or the […]

Liturgy of the Monastery of al-Muharraq

Liturgy of the Monastery of al-Muharraq The Monastery of al-Muharraq has special peculiarities in its liturgical practice.[1] For example, the term used there for ‘hymn’ is different from all other manuscripts: luhunat, rather than alhan. There are even differences in the musical instruments, as the monks of the Monastery of al-Muharraq use, in addition to […]