Widespread - Coptic Wiki

AGABUS (Ἄγαβος, a word of uncertain derivation)

AGABUS (Ἄγαβος, a word of uncertain derivation) The bearer of this name is mentioned on two separate occasions in the Acts (11:27–30; 21:10–11) and also by Eusebius (HE ii. 3). He is described as a prophet who resided in Jerusalem, and we find him in a.d. 44 at Antioch, where he predicted that a great …

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Coptic art in the Coptic museum

Culture, Heritage / By Armia FAYEZ

Coptic art in the Coptic museum Coptic art began to emerge in Egypt around 300 A.D. In form, style, and content it was quite different from the art of Pharaonic Egypt. How’ did this come about? Broadly speaking, there were two causes. The first is that indigenous Egyptian art had been in contact with the …

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The Triconch Sanctuaries of Sohag

Places / By Armia FAYEZ

The Triconch Sanctuaries of Sohag “Le probleme de I’abside treflee, de son origine, de son developpement, I’histoire enfin de ce type de structure, a ete dans ces dernieres annees 1’argument de bien de travaux; mais, malgre cela, je crois que l’etude peut donner encore quelque resultat si on voudra profiter d’une documentation bien precise et …

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Notes on the Arabic Life of Ibrahim al-Fani: A Coptic Saint of the Fourteenth Century

History / By Armia FAYEZ

Notes on the Arabic Life of Ibrahim al-Fani: A Coptic Saint of the Fourteenth Century The Lives of Coptic saints in the later Islamic era fall into the category of sacred biographies that have not attracted much study until recently.[1] This observation does not imply that these Lives have little or no historical or literary …

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Full Of Grace

Liturgy / By Armia FAYEZ

FULL OF GRACE Mystery of Rejoice: On the Annunciation the angel Gabriel greeted St. Mary with the words: “Hail full of grace, the Lord is within you, blessed are you among women”. It was not an ordinary greeting, i.e., “Good Day”, nor did it mean “peace” or “shalom”, but had the full meaning of “rejoice”. …

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Toward an Understanding of the ‘Akhmim Style’ Icons and Ciboria: the Indigenous and the Foreign[1]

Heritage / By Armia FAYEZ

Toward an Understanding of the ‘Akhmim Style’ Icons and Ciboria: the Indigenous and the Foreign[1] THE LATE FOURTEENTH-century painting by Gherardo Starnina, La Tebaide in Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence, provides perhaps the last medieval visualized memory of the (ideal) Christian sacred landscape along the Nile in Upper Egypt, densely inhabited by hermits tending their …

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Greek Transcriptions

Heritage, History / By Armia FAYEZ

GREEK TRANSCRIPTIONS The rendering of Egyptian proper names into Greek characters was a first step toward the writing of Egyptian in an alphabetical script, that is, toward the creation of the Coptic script (see PRE-COPTIC). These proper names are mainly thousands of Egyptian anthroponyms, toponyms, and temple names, as well as names of gods, divine …

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Gallery – Architectural Elements Of Churches

System / By Youssef Matta

Gallery In church architecture, a gallery is an upper story over an aisle or ambulatory. It is normally open onto the nave through rows of supporting columns, just as the aisles are on the ground floor. In the East, the gallery was reserved for women, as its Greek name (hyperoon gnaikonitidos, “women’s gallery”) implies. It …

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Crypt – Architectural Elements Of Churches

System / By Youssef Matta

Crypt A crypt is a partly or entirely underground room, usually under a church. In ancient times a crypt was simply an underground vaulted room or passage (cryptoporticus), and in early Christian times, it was a subterranean burial chamber. In the Greek-speaking Eastern Roman Empire, such a chamber was called a taphos (Arabic, tafus). Since …

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Elements – Architectural Elements Of Churches

System / By Youssef Matta

Elements Base and Pedestal. The base consisted of circles of moldings superimposed on a plinth (a square floor slab), fashioned out of a single block of stone. As a rule, the plinth remained without ornament. The circular element was normally developed as an Attic base, that is, with the following sequence of shapes: the upper …

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