RENÉ-GEORGES COQUIN – Coptic Wiki

Seven Ascetics Of Tunah

SEVEN ASCETICS OF TUNAH This is a classic story concerning martyr hermits. No details are given about their ascetic life except that they lived near Tunah. It seems, moreover, that only five of them were ascetics, and that Anba Psate (or Basidi) and Anba Kutilus, who was a priest, joined the ascetics in their confession […]

Seth

SETH A eighth-century archimandrite of Apa Shenute. Both the HISTORY OF THE PATRIARCHS and the SYNAXARION of the Copts tell us very little about Seth. We know only that he was archimandrite of the White Monastery (DAYR ANBA SHINUDAH) at the beginning of the eighth century. The Synaxarion calls him “the greatest of the abbots […]

Cyriacus

CYRIACUS A Bishop of al-Bahnasa (Oxyrhynchus), assumed author of eight homilies. We have no historical evidence of either the existence of this person or the period in which he lived. On the latter, opinions greatly diverge: G. Graf (1944-1953, Vol. 1, p. 475) thinks that if one accepts what is said by the Ethiopian Book […]

Clysma

CLYSMA An ancient town a few miles north of modern-day Suez and known for its ruins. They were excavated by B. Bruyère (1966). The site (which some texts call the isle of Clysma) appears to have been inhabited by anchorites very early. It is not known exactly where these anchorites lived. The Mountain of Antony […]

Cell

CELL The word cell is very common in monastic texts, but it does not always have the sense given it in Western languages. Because monks inhabited various places, such as tombs, caves, or constructed hermitages, it is necessary to distinguish between them. We find in Greek the words kella (derived from Latin) and its common […]

Canons Of Hippolytus

CANONS OF HIPPOLYTUS A series of thirty-eight canons peculiar to the Copts and certainly only a reworking of the famous Apostolic Tradition attributed, rightly or wrongly, to the antipope Hippolytus (Geerard, 1974-1987, Vol. 1, no. 1737; see also no. 1742). It would be helpful to know who the author is, an Alexandrian or a Roman, […]

Canons Of Saint John Chrysostom

CANONS OF SAINT JOHN CHRYSOSTOM Twelve ordered extracts from the second and, especially, the third of the six books of the treatise On the Priesthood, by JOHN CHRYSOSTOM. This collection is peculiar to the Copts. It is not known at what date the Copts inserted the canons into their canonical collections. These may be divided […]

Canons Of Saint Basil

CANONS OF SAINT BASIL One of the sources of Coptic church law. They appear in two series. The first, containing thirteen canons, is shared with the Melchites; the second, of 105 or 106 canons, is peculiar to the Copts. The first series includes disciplinary sanctions with regard to priests or deacons and the prohibition against […]

Canons Of Pseudo-Athanasius

CANONS OF PSEUDO-ATHANASIUS A name used to describe a canonical collection of various prescriptions touching the faithful or the clergy. The great Saint Athanasius cannot have been its author. The absence of mention of Christmas, which was introduced into Egypt among the great festivals in the middle of the fifth century, obliges one to set […]

Canons Of Gregory Of Nyssa

CANONS OF GREGORY OF NYSSA Two series of canons under the name GREGORY OF NYSSA, although we have no arguments for or against this attribution. The first series appears in the chronological collection of MACARIUS, in an anonymous chronological collection (now in Berlin), and in the systematic collection of al-SAFI IBN AL-‘ASSAL, of which IBN […]