About the Coptic Orthodox Church
By Fr. Marcos Marcos
St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church -
Toronto, Canada
Name and Origin:
The Copts are the original Egyptians,
and the word "Copt" itself is derived from the Greek word
"Aegyptus" which means Egypt. The Copts are the descendants of the
ancient Egyptians. They are considered one of the most anthropologically pure
races in the world.
The Coptic Era:
When people think of Egypt, they usually
think of ancient Egypt with its pyramids. Then they jump over to the Islamic
period represented by the
forest of minarets, which a person sees in Cairo today. However,
in between these two extremes, there is a modest bridge. This bridge does not pass over a valley of
darkness where the Copts resided in complete isolation. On the contrary, this
era is considered one of the luminous periods in the national and
ecclesiastical history of Egypt.
Strictly speaking, the purely Coptic
Christian period extends for about six centuries at the dawn of the Christian
era. In Egyptian history, this is a tiny fraction but not at all insignificant.
From the cultural standpoint, that short span was epoch-making in the
development of Egyptian ideas and ideals. Indeed it stands for what is rightly
called "Coptic Civilization".
THE COPTIC ORTHODOX CHURCH
The Founder:
St. Mark, a disciple of African origin
and the writer of the earliest Gospel, came to Egypt ushering in the dawn of
Christian faith. The year of his
arrival in the famous Capital of Egypt, Alexandria, cannot be established with
certainty. Some sources put his entry in Egypt as early as 48 AD. Others put it
in 55, 58 and even as late as 61 AD However, the
consensus of opinion puts the date of
his martyrdom in Alexandria in 68 AD. In that short period St. Mark was able to
win many converts and to found the Church in Egypt. Since that time,
Christianity spread like fire throughout the country. The main reason for this
was the fact that the Egyptian has always been religiously minded. The ancient Egyptian searching mind was always exploring the domain of religion, and
ultimately arrived at certain tenets and beliefs, which were later identified
with the theory and sublime teachings of the Christian religion.
Church Identity through Persecution:
The Egyptians or the Copts accepted
Christianity so very rapidly to the
extent that the Romans had to exercise a series of persecutions in an
attempt to suppress the growth of a religion, which openly defied the divinity
of the Emperor. The edict of 202 AD decreed that Christian conversion should be stopped at all
costs. The edict of 250 AD decreed that every citizen should carry at all times
a certificate issued by the local authorities testifying that he had offered
sacrifice to the gods. Those who refused to conform were tortured with
unprecedented ferocity. Some were beheaded, others were thrown to the lions and
others were burnt alive. All were subjected to even innovated
veracious torture regardless of age or sex. The Catechetical School of
Alexandria was closed by order of the authorities, though its members continued
to meet in other secret places. At one time, the number of bishops was
restricted by the State to three. The consummation of the age of persecution is
considered by the Copts to be during the reign of Emperor Diocletian (284-305).
So severe was the mass execution and the savage torture of the Copts that they
took the day of Diocletian's military election as Emperor to mark the beginning
of the era of the Coptic martyrs. That very day marked the start of the Coptic
Calendar known in the Western world as Anno Martyrum (A.M.) or the year of the
Martyrs.
It was in the midst of this ruthless
execution and torture that Egypt's
Church flourished beyond recognition until it assumed its definitive
form in the course of the second century. In other words, the third century saw
the Coptic Church with a great hierarchy ranging from the Patriarch in
Alexandria down to the modest priest and the monks who lived out in the Eastern
and Western Deserts. The rise of this great hierarchy conterminously with the
Roman persecution resulted in the identification of the Coptic people with
their own Church in Alexandria. This tradition persisted and even became more
prominent when, in a subsequent age and for other reasons, the Byzantines
resuscitated Coptic persecution.
The Coptic Church in History:
All through history and particularly
during the Coptic Era, the Coptic Church played quite a significant role in
shaping and defining Christian drought and doctrines. The contribution of the
Coptic Church to world Christianity can be briefly summarized in the following
four movements:
(1) Theological Scholarship and the
Catechetical School:
Before Christianity, Alexandria was
famous for having the largest library and museum in the world. That compound
was actually the headquarters of the well-known School of Alexandria. It housed
millions of scrolls of papyrus, which were said to have held all the knowledge
of ancient scholarship. It was established by Ptolemy Soter in 323 BC. In that
school, seventy legendary scholars from the Jewish community translated the Old
Testament from Hebrew to Greek in 270 BC. It was a monumental work that stood
the test of time and is known as the "Septuagint." Those scholars also
established the order in which the books of the O.T., including the
"Apocrypha", are arranged.
The school started as a predominantly
scientific and literary institution. It then developed into a philosophical and
theological university. The Catechetical School of Alexandria came in direct
succession to it. This was
the earliest important institution for theological education in
Christian antiquity. Its deans, teachers, and graduates were responsible for
what could be called the
philosophisation of Christian creed and for the most monumental works of
exegesis. They defined Christianity in its final form for all generations to
come.
The first known dean of the school was
Pantaenus (died 190 AD), followed by
Clement of Alexandria who made a real effort to successfully convert educated
Greeks to Christianity. Next came Origen (about 215
AD) who was a biblical scholar and philosopher. He wrote lengthy commentaries
on almost every book in the Old and New Testaments. His homilies are known to
be the most ancient example of
Christian preaching. Origen was succeeded by Dionysius of Alexandria (The
Great) who later became the Patriarch of the Church (246-264 AD). Another
distinguished dean of the School was Didymus the Blind. He lost his sight when
he was four years old. However, this handicap did not deter him from acquiring
the vision of the mind and the soul. He mastered grammar, rhetoric,
poetry, philosophy, mathematics and music. He knew by heart both the Old and
the New Testaments. Among his pupils were St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Jerome,
Palladius and Rufinus the historian. In his care for educating the blind, he
became the first one in history to devise a system of engraved writing. By the
fourth century, Coptic Alexandria had indeed become the seat of Christian Learning
for the whole world.
(2) The Ecumenical Movement:
Early in the fourth century, and amid
the fierce storm of persecution of the Copts by Diocletian, the Coptic Church
was subjected to another storm rising from within. This storm was more dangerous
to the Church than the first. It was the Arian heresy. The
Coptic Patriarchs ex-communicated Arius successively stripping him from his
priestly office. However, he continued preaching his heresy and, through
his eloquence, he won many converts including two Libyan bishops and the
Nicomedian bishop Eusebius.
The Arian heresy spread throughout all
Egypt, Libya, Palestine and Asia Minor, and reached the ears of
Constantine. The quarrel between the old patriarch and Arius was blazing
furiously to the extent that there was bloodshed in the streets of Alexandria
and Nicomedia. The Emperor summoned all of the bishops (about 1800) to meet in
Nicea, Asia Minor to discuss the dispute and settle it once- and-for-all. It
was the first Ecclesiastical Council with imperial authority and sanction.
Because the heresy had not yet reached Europe, only six bishops represented
the Western Church. The rest of the 318
bishops came from the East including the Metropolitan of India, which was
outside the Empire. It was difficult to overlook the signs of disfigurement and
mutilation in many of these bishops who had been victims of the persecution of
Diocletian, the predecessor of Constantine. The bishops of the Council
represented all the varying traditions of Christianity.
The first order of business was to reach
a verdict in the conflict between Abba Alexandros and Arius. Therefore
Arius was called to present the nature of his beliefs. Having set them into
chants and music, he unexpectedly started chanting accompanied by music and
Alexandrian dance bands. Athanasius in turn, who was chosen by the Coptic
Patriarch to reply, presented a close-knit argument, and in great eloquence
stated step by step all the follies that result from the Arian folkloric lyric:
"There was a time
when the Son was not." Athanasius' argument swayed the
Council members to
the Orthodox position including the Emperor who commended him for the way he
marshaled all his forces to present the Apostolic faith and to refute Arius'
argument. After that heated debate a creed was called for. It was Athanasius
again who formulated the text of the creed, which was accepted unanimously by
the Council.
The Council of Nicea (325 AD) was the
beginning of an era in the history of the Church that could be defined as the
age of the Ecumenical Councils. As mentioned earlier, those Councils set the
basis of the Christian Creed. In all of them, the role of the Copts was supreme
and their theological and philosophical contribution to Christian doctrine and
dogma was unsurpassed. The Ecumenical Movement ended with the Council of
Chalcedon (451 AD).
(3) The Monastic Movement:
This particular movement is going to be
dealt with in some detail as the general populace has very little knowledge of
the roots of monasticism. Besides, there are some misconceptions about it in
this day and age, especially in the Western world. Egypt is known to be the
Motherland of Christian Monasticism. As Professor Atiya calls it "It is
truly the gift of Egypt to Christendom." Monasticism sprang into existence
in Egypt as early as the second half of the third century. In a few decades, it
spread over the whole Christian world. The characteristics which shaped Coptic
monasticism are:
a) The urge to pray without ceasing,
b) The hunger to meditate on the word of
God, and
c) The disciplining of one's self by
fasting, vigils, celibacy, the subduing of fleshly desires, willful poverty and
the renunciation of worldly concerns.
Most historians consider St. Antony
(251-356) to be the first to renounce the world and retire to the eastern
desert of Egypt. It is true that, as a movement, monasticism was started by St.
Antony. However, long before that, organized flights to the deserts of Egypt
took place. Just as an
example, "Acta Sanctorum" tells us that in the second
century, a wealthy Alexandrian Christian called Frantonius decided to reject
the world. He was able to persuade seventy others to accompany him. They all
went to the Nytria desert and there they led a life of prayer and
contemplation.
The main motive behind Coptic
monasticism could be summarized in one word "LOVE". When a person
loves God with all his heart, he wants to be alone with him all the time. He
would not concern himself with anything or anyone but Him (I Corinthians 7:32 -
35), In his love, he sacrifices all to enjoy his
oneness with God, to attain the purity of heart and thus to reach perfection in
God.
For some others, there might have been
another motive, namely to suffer with Christ and for His sake. St. Paul taught:
"for to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe
in Him, but also suffer for His sake." (Phil. 1:29). As he retires to the
desert, the monk seems to be saying: "that I may know Him and the power of His
resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His
death." (Phil. 3:10).
Before the conversion of the Roman
Empire to Christianity, Christians were fought against, severely tortured and
mass martyred for their faith. Now, after the issuing of the Edict of
Milan in 313 AD, the Christians took on the fight themselves. The monks,
torturing their bodies in the burning heat of the desert, and practicing severe
ascetic disciplines, became the successors of the martyrs. One can almost hear
them saying: "For your sake, we are killed all day long." (Rom.
8:56). In this regard, St. John Chrysostom says that the "martyr is
tortured for few days to win the crown of martyrdom, but the monk suffers
severely from his self-inflicted ascetic torture all his life."
The Development of Coptic Monasticism:
There are three stages in the
development of Coptic monasticism:
a) Antonian Monasticism: This is the
first stage whereby a pious Christian lives in seclusion, a life of asceticism
and austerity, disciplining the body to elevate the soul.
There must have lived many hermits in
the deserts of Egypt before St. Antony. However, the one that is well known is
St. Paul of Thebes (Lurer)
who entered the desert in about 218 AD. In a miraculous way, God
fed him by
means of a raven which brought him half a loaf of bread daily. St. Paul the hermit died a natural death at the age
of 113 shortly after St. Antony met with him. This is a well-known
story in monastic history. Nevertheless, the most defined monasticism is that
of St. Antony whose biography St. Athanasius wrote himself. While still a young
man of 19 years of age, Antony took to
heart the words of our Lord to the rich young man: "If you want to be
perfect, go sell what you have and give to the poor and come follow Me." (Matthew 19:21). He sold all his inheritance
giving some to his sister and the rest to the poor. He then went to the eastern
desert to attain perfection through a life of asceticism in complete seclusion.
He kept pushing further and further
into the desert with greater austerity and longer fasting. According to St.
Athanasius, Antony's combat with demons grew more spectacular. All through his life
in the desert, he descended to the Nile Valley only twice. The first time was
in 311 AD. It was enough for him to appear with his long beard and illuminated
face among the tortured
Christians during the time of Maximinus' persecution to
strengthen their faith and vanquish their fear. The second time was in 338 AD,
to fight the remnants of the Arian heresy. St. Antony's fame spread far and
wide. This brought him many disciples who sought his spiritual guidance, and it
led to the second stage of development of the monastic life.
b) Collective Hermitism or
Semi-Anchoritism: St. Antony's disciples continued to lead solitary lives in
the neighborhood of his cave. As their number grew larger, there was a great
necessity to have many settlements of anchorites in that area of the
desert. Each settlement congregated around one of those great and rare holy
masters for reasons of security both spiritual and physical. These
settlements multiplied not only to cover a large area in the eastern desert
toward the Red Sea, but they also spread westward and southward. However, the
largest of them was the one around the cave of St. Antony who had attained the
summits of personal holiness. In this
development, the solitary and communal lives balanced one another. During the
week, each monk lived alone in his cave or cell. On Saturdays and Sundays, they all congregated in the
church for common prayers,
vespers, Eucharistic liturgy, agape and lessons in spiritual
life. This type of monasticism allowed for personal prayers, meditations and
exercises in austerity, as well as corporate prayers and worship.
c) Pachomian Koinonia or Cenobitism: The
third stage of development was not a natural evolvement from the second. While
the second stage was progressing, and the number of settlements was being
multiplied, a new chapter in the history of monasticism was being written by
St. Pachomius (290-346). His life story is a most fascinating one. He was born
a pagan and as a young man, he served in the army of Constantine. During his
combats, he was deeply touched by the communities of Christians. They, in
dedication and love, served the soldiers, washed their feet and gave them food
in spite of the harshness with which they were treated by them. The goodness of
those Christians won Pachomius to Christianity. He himself became an anchorite,
a disciple of the famous hermit Palamon. This abbot trained Pachomius
vigorously in the art of self-inflicted torture of the body to attain the
purity of heart. The combination of his training in army discipline and in
spiritual austerity, coupled with his belief that the aim of a monk is continual prayer, were the factors which
collectively led him to inaugurate the
third and last stage in the development of Coptic monasticism, namely, the
Pachomian Cenobitism.
By the time St. Pachomius died (346 AD),
a large number of monasteries had been
established accommodating communities of monks spreading to all other monastic centers and following
the Pachomian rule. Hardy the historian estimates conservatively the number of
monks in the Egyptian deserts at the end of the fourth century to be between
100,000 and 200,000 out of a population not exceeding 7.5 million inhabitants.
The rule of St. Pachomius is indeed a landmark in the history of Christian
monasticism. Professor Atiya, a distinguished historian writes in his book
"History of Eastern Christianity" :
"The general trend of the Pachomian
system showed the soldier and the holy man combined in one person. Every detail
of the monk's activity by day or night was prescribed by the legislator: the
brother's dress, his food, the hours and manner of his sleep, his travels, his
hours of worship and a penal code to be rigorously enforced against the
defaulters. Yet Pachomius was no inhuman giant who imposed a merciless regime
on his followers. A monk must curb the
body, but it was unnecessary for him to destroy it in pursuit of heaven."
Coptic monasticism became known all over
the world mainly because of the biography that St. Athanasius wrote about St.
Antony. As a result, pious men from
many parts of the world flocked to these cenobite monasteries to sit at the
feet of those great spiritual giants and learn from them the art of
monasticism. Among those were Greeks, Romans, Cappadocians, Libyans, Nubians,
Ethiopians and many others. Each nationality was designated a special quarter
in each monastery with a fellow citizen as an abbot guide. There were no
barriers based on race, culture, color or language. The vastness of the Egyptian desert became
but one school of Coptic spirituality and mysticism for the entire world. Some
of the greatest personalities of that
era were attracted to the Egyptian deserts to see these terrestrial saints and to follow in their
footsteps. Among these were St. John Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople, Sts.
Jerome and Rufinus the Italians, the Cappadocian father St. Basil the Great who
introduced monasticism into Byzantia, St. John Cassian who carried Coptic
Monasticism in France, and many others.
Someone said that monasticism for the
Church is like the foundation for the building. The deeper and stronger the
foundation is, the more the building can rise high and solid.
Ecclesiastical history attests to this reality when it tells us that at times
of monastic strength in Egypt, the Church was strong. Through their continual
prayers, devotions and mediations, the monks make of their monasteries the
powerhouse of the Church. It is a fact that the Coptic Church has suffered a great
deal throughout its long history at the hands of Greeks, Romans, Muslims and
western missionaries, but through God's grace, the strength of Coptic monasticism
has kept the Church still standing as a monument to original Apostolic Orthodox
Christianity.
(4) Coptic Mission:
In contrast to Judaism, Christianity is
a missionary religion. The example and
teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ, the preaching of the Disciples to Jews and Gentiles and the mere fact of St.
Mark's preaching in Egypt spoke to the
Copts very emphatically about the missionary character of the Church.
Therefore, the missionary movement began in Egypt early in the first steps of Christianity through the first converts.
It followed three channels simultaneously:
a) Individual and Group Witnesses and
Missionaries: Here the Copts excelled. The accounts of such individuals from
St. Athanasius the Apostolic to the simple nurse accompanying the Roman Legions
attest to the zeal and dedication of the Copts to spread the good news.
St. Athanasius, the Pope of Alexandria,
was exiled five times because of his adamant opposition to the Arian heresy.
Two of his exiles were in Europe, one began in Constantinople and ended
in Trier and the second was in Rome. In each exile he preached Orthodox
Christianity to both Christians and Gentiles, and he introduced to the West the
highly developed monastic rule as well as the spirituality of the Fathers of
the Egyptian deserts.
The story of the Theban legion (from
Thebes, present day Lurer in Upper Egypt) is a spectacular example of
witnessing to the Christian faith. Maximian, the second in command to Emperor
Diocletian, ordered the legion to camp at the border of Gaul (France) in
preparation to crush a rebellion there (285 AD). The legion camped in present
day Switzerland. The night before the attack, Maximian ordered the legion to
accompany him to the pagan temple to pray to the gods. The Coptic soldiers
unanimously refused to
obey and declared that they were Christians, a declaration that angered
Maximian. He stood them in file and had them decimated (i.e. every tenth man
killed) hoping to intimidate the rest. The remaining soldiers met together and
wrote a letter to him, which they all signed. They wrote:
"Great Caesar - we are your
soldiers, and at the same time we are God's slaves. We owe you our military
service, but our prime allegiance we owe to God. From you we receive our daily
wages; from Him our eternal reward.
Great Caesar, we cannot obey any order if it rum counter
to God's commands. If your orders coincide with God's commands we will
certainly obey; if not,
'we ought to obey God rather than man.' (Act 5:29) for our
loyalty to Him surpasses all other loyalties. We are not rebels; if we were, we
would defend ourselves for we have our
weapons. But we prefer to die upright than to live stained. As Christians we
will serve you. But we will not relinquish
our faith in our Lord, and this we openly declare. "
This steadfastness of the whole legion
infuriated Caesar and he ordered the Roman soldiers to wipe out the whole
legion, which they did. Pere Cheneau the historian described the event in this
way:
"Thus they were martyred.... It was
a mighty holocaust; an unparalleled massacre, the plains were drunk with blood
and the bodies strewn to the winds. But by being willing to make the supreme
sacrifice, the men of the Theban Legion proved that their faithfulness to their
Heavenly Lord and King surpassed their valor as soldiers in the army of the
temporal ruler."
An accompanying nurse named Verena
witnessed all this. After a few days of prayers and meditation, she came to the
realization that God, in His wisdom, had spared her to do His work as a
missionary to those pagans. Therefore, she spent the rest of her life preaching
Christ to the people of Switzerland. In addition, she taught them basic
hygiene. To this day she is portrayed in her icon as having a water jug in one
hand and a comb in the other.
Coptic missionaries reached as far as
the British Isles long before the arrival of St. Augustine of Canterbury in 597
AD. Stanley Lane-Poole, the well-known historian, wrote:
"We do not know yet how much we in
the British Isles owe to these remote hermits. It is more than probable that to
them we are indebted for the first preaching of the Gospel in England, where,
till the coming of Augustine, the Egyptian monastic rule prevailed. But more
important is the belief that Irish Christianity, the great civilizing agent of
the early Middle Ages among the northern nations, was
the child of the Egyptian Church. Seven Egyptian monks are buried at Desert Uldith, and
there is much in the ceremonies and architecture of Ireland in the earliest
time that reminds one of still earlier Christian remains in Egypt. Every one
knows that the handicraft of the Irish monks in the ninth and tenth centuries
far excelled anything that could be found elsewhere in Europe; and if the
Byzantine-looking decoration can be traced to the influence of Egyptian
missionaries, we have more to thank the Copts for than has been imagined.
Ecclesiastical history is impregnated
with captivating accounts of Coptic Christians who preached Christianity in
north, west and south Africa, Arabia, Persia, India,
and Europe. Archaeological findings support these accounts which were thought
to be legendary tales by early historians.
b) Missionaries Appointed to
Mission-Fields: Since the Church's inception in Egypt, some early Coptic Christian
converts were commissioned to mission fields. Tradition tells us that St. Mark,
in his missionary trip from Alexandria to Pentapolis (the five northwestern
nations of Africa), took with him some Copts to help him preach to the people
of those nations.
Through the writings of the
ecclesiastical historian Eusebins, bishop of Caesurae (260-340 AD) it becomes
clear that missionary work was an organized movement in the Church and its
Catechetical school. Missionaries were appointed and mission fields were assigned
to them. He wrote:
"Now at that time there was a man
of great zeal for learning named Pantaenus. He displayed such ardent love and
zeal for the divine word that
he was appointed as herald of the Gospel of Christ to the nations
of the East."
In the course of the third and fourth
centuries, and with the rise of monasticism, many Pachomian monks in the
southern parts of Egypt were sent to Nubia as missionaries. Those, along with
some Coptic Christians who fled from
the Roman persecution, went southward up the Nile Valley to win converts to
Christ. It is intriguing to know that the whole kingdom was officially
converted to Orthodox Christianity in 559 AD
However, the most spectacular event in
Coptic mission work was the Christianization of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) at the
hands of Frumentius. He and his brother Aedesius were Coptic Christians
residing in Tyre. On one of their trading trips to India, they had a shipwreck
near Axoum, the Capital of Abyssinia. They were taken to the king who appointed
Aedesius as his cupbearer and Frumentius as his personal secretary and the
tutor of the young
crown prince Aeizanas. Frumentius taught Aeizanas the four R's (reading,
writing, arithmetic and religion- Christianity). When Aeizanas became king, he
was converted to Christianity and decreed Christianity as the official religion of the land.
Immediately Frumentius went to Alexandria, to St. Athanasius the Patriarch
asking him to send a bishop to establish the Church there. St. Athanasius chose
Frumentius and ordained him, giving him the name of Bishop Salama. Since then,
the Ethiopian Church looks at the Coptic Church as its Mother Church.
c) Pilgrims to the Alexandrian Church:
As mentioned earlier, Christians from almost all the nations of the
known world at that time, came to Egypt either to study or to sit at the feet
of those spiritual giants, the Fathers of the Egyptian deserts. On returning to
their lands, those students and pilgrims imported the spirituality,
thought, dogma, practice and monastic
rule of the Orthodox Alexandrine Church. There, they wrote books (like
John Cassian) and established monasteries, churches, dioceses and even
theological schools. In other words, those pilgrims became indigenous
missionaries of the Coptic Church in their nations and among their people.
The Copts Under
the Arab Rule
a) Between Chalcedon (451) and the Arab
Conquest (642): The first schism in the Apostolic Church occurred at the
Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD. The schism appeared to be the result of a
theological dispute between the Eastern Churches (Orthodox) and the Western
Churches (Roman Catholic) regarding the
Nature of Christ. The Copts were branded as "Monophysites", Rome and
Constantinople as "Diophysites. " However,
the real reason behind the dispute was more of a political nature rather than a
theological one. The concealed reason was for the Western Church to transfer the Papacy from Alexandria to Rome.
To be sure, the present dialogue between the Roman Catholics and the Orthodox
resulted in the agreement of the two Churches regarding the nature of Christ;
although other theological developments
are still being discussed (i.e. Purgatory, Immaculate Conceptions, etc.).
The aftermath of Chalcedon was one of
the saddest periods in the history of Coptic Christian antiquity. The Orthodox
Patriarch of Alexandria was deposed and exiled by the Western civil and
ecclesiastical authorities. The Byzantines installed an Imperial Byzantine
Patriarch for the See of Alexandria. This infuriated the Copts and they
retaliated by electing a native rival Orthodox Patriarch. Consequently, the See
of Alexandria was split between two Patriarchs, the Melkite or the Royalist
Chalcedonian from Constantinople, and the native Jacobite or Monophysite who
does not recognize Chalcedon. The Byzantines, aided by the civil authorities,
persecuted the Copts very severely massacring them even as they worshiped
inside their churches. All attempts to reconcile the two lines failed until the
Arab invasion of Egypt when a new chapter in the history of the Copts'
oppression was about to be written.
b) The Arab Conquest (642 AD): Amr ibn
al-A,. the general of the
Arab army during the Caliphate of Umar
ibn al-Khattab, after conquering Persia
and taking over Syria in 636 and seizing Jerusalem in 638, turned toward
Egypt to invade it. With 20,000 Arab horsemen, he was able to take over the eastern cities and the Byzantine
strongholds in the Delta reaching to
the fortress of Babylon. At that time Byzantia had appointed a man
called Cyrus to be both civil governor and a Melkite (Royalist) Patriarch. He took over the Patriarchate from the Orthodox Patriarch Anba
Benjamin who fled to the desert. When
Cyrus heard of the Muslim capture of the eastern cities and found that the
siege of Babylon was prolonged, he surrendered the fortress in 641. Shortly thereafter, the Arabs
moved to the capital city of Alexandria. Cyrus was reinstated by Byzantia as
governor of Alexandria. Through treachery, he surrendered that city as well to
the Arabs hoping that he would be rewarded and be instated by the Arabs as
Patriarch of the Coptic Church of
Egypt. His dream did not come true.
By 642, Egypt had passed from the hands
of the Constantinople Emperors, into the hands of the Arab Muslims, neither was
Egyptian. The city of Alexandria with its 4,000 palaces, 4,000 public baths,
400 theaters and 40,000 rich Jewish settlers, was briefly recaptured by
Byzantia from the Mediterranean Sea, but then taken back by the Arabs. To avoid
such incidents
in the future, Amr moved his capital from Alexandria to al-Fustat (Old Cairo)
and ordered the city of Alexandria to be burnt. With it, the great library and
Museum of Alexandria went into flames. It is fair to say that this particular
incident is a controversial subject among historians.
Throughout these thirteen centuries, the
Copts had survived under Arab rule all kinds of treatment, from considerable
tolerance to severe persecution, depending on the ruler at the time. In the
beginning of the Muslim rule and for many centuries afterwards, Coptic
Christians were given the choice of either adopting Islam, or unconditional
surrender and payment of tribute, or the sword (i.e. to be killed). The Copts
had seen many of their own being martyred, or converting to Islam. Still
however, by divine grace they
overcame their tribulations with a strong faith and a zeal for
spirituality and the service of God. The twentieth century has seen quite a
renaissance in all aspects of Church ministry.
c) The Coptic Church at Present: Today,
the Copts number about six million, and the Coptic liturgy is still celebrated
in its original form. Three liturgies are used in the Coptic Church, the
Liturgy of St. Cyril, the Liturgy of St. Basil and the Liturgy of St. Gregory.
According to tradition, the Liturgy of St. Cyril is originally that of St.
Mark. It was transmitted orally to the following generations and finally
recorded by St. Cyril the Great in the Fifth Century. It is regarded as the
greatest, the oldest and the most complete liturgical text in existence. As a
work of religious literature, it is supreme.
The Coptic Church is experiencing this
century quite a significant revival in many aspects of its life: in its
ministry both at home and abroad, in education, and in ecumenism. Institutions
have been erected in Egypt to present to the world facilities for research in
the Science of Coptology. Youth movement and Sunday Schools have been working
with great zeal to help both children and their parents to live in the world
but not to be of the world. Two new bishoprics were established for these
ministries, one for the youth, the other for religious and theological
education. The number of the theological seminaries has increased tremendously
all over Egypt and the curricula has been highly developed to reflect the
advancement of research in the fields of Patristics, Religious Education, etc.
and to discuss the new trends in today's theology. St. Didymus Institute for
the Blind prepares chanters who constitute an important ministry in the celebration
of the Liturgy. Moreover, other Coptic Orthodox theological seminaries were
established in the USA and Australia. New ministries such as the
"Diaconia" project have been introduced to cater to the needs of
people in rural areas.
The Coptic Church's missionaries were
sent in the past few decades to many African countries and a bishop was
ordained to look after this ministry. It is noticeable that, with the fall of
colonialism, the Africans look to Egypt for religious leadership and spiritual
guidance, since it is the only indigenous African Church. Other churches are
established in Kuwait, Libya, Lebanon, Europe, England, North and South
America, the Caribbean Islands and Australia. At home new churches have been
built and new monasteries and convents have been established. The number of
monks and nuns has been on the increase in the past fifty years. The Church has
come out of isolation to meet with other churches, both Catholic and Protestant
in Ecumenical Councils. Dialogues between the Coptic Church and other Churches
have been initiated and carried out by
the Coptic Patriarch himself in brotherly
love to work towards the achievement of the oneness of faith.
In conclusion, it is gratifying to note
that many of the greatest universities of Europe and the USA have undertaken
the study of many aspects of Coptic Civilization.
|| Pope Shenouda || Father Matta || Bishop Mattaous || Fr. Tadros Malaty || Bishop Moussa || Bishop Alexander || Habib Gerguis || Bishop Angealos || Metropolitan Bishoy ||
|| The Orthodox Faith (Dogma) || Family and Youth || Sermons || Bible Study || Devotional || Spirituals || Fasts & Feasts || Coptics || Religious Education || Monasticism || Seasons || Missiology || Ethics || Ecumenical Relations || Church Music || Pentecost || Miscellaneous || Saints || Church History || Pope Shenouda || Patrology || Canon Law || Lent || Pastoral Theology || Father Matta || Bibles || Iconography || Liturgics || Orthodox Biblical topics || Orthodox articles || St Chrysostom ||
|| Bible Study || Biblical topics || Bibles || Orthodox Bible Study || Coptic Bible Study || King James Version || New King James Version || Scripture Nuggets || Index of the Parables and Metaphors of Jesus || Index of the Miracles of Jesus || Index of Doctrines || Index of Charts || Index of Maps || Index of Topical Essays || Index of Word Studies || Colored Maps || Index of Biblical names Notes || Old Testament activities for Sunday School kids || New Testament activities for Sunday School kids || Bible Illustrations || Bible short notes|| Pope Shenouda || Father Matta || Bishop Mattaous || Fr. Tadros Malaty || Bishop Moussa || Bishop Alexander || Habib Gerguis || Bishop Angealos || Metropolitan Bishoy ||
|| Prayer of the First Hour || Third Hour || Sixth Hour || Ninth Hour || Vespers (Eleventh Hour) || Compline (Twelfth Hour) || The First Watch of the midnight prayers || The Second Watch of the midnight prayers || The Third Watch of the midnight prayers || The Prayer of the Veil || Various Prayers from the Agbia || Synaxarium