Christianity and Monasticism in Alexandria and the Egyptian Deserts

By The American University in Cairo Press

The legacies of the Coptic Christian presence in Alexandria and the Egyptian Deserts from the fourth century to the present day

The great city of Alexandria is undoubtedly the cradle of Egyptian Christianity, where the Catechetical School was established in the second century and became a leading center in the study of biblical exegesis and theology. According to tradition St. Mark the Evangelist brought Christianity to Alexandria in the middle of the first century and was martyred in that city, which was to become the residence of Egypt’s Coptic patriarchs for nearly eleven centuries. By the fourth century Egyptian monasticism had begun to flourish in the Egyptian deserts and countryside. The contributors to this volume, international specialists in Coptology from around the world, examine the various aspects of Coptic civilization in Alexandria and its environs and in the Egyptian deserts over the past two millennia. The contributions explore Coptic art, archaeology, architecture, language, and literature. The impact of Alexandrian theology and its cultural heritage as well as the archaeology of its university are highlighted. Christian epigraphy in the Kharga Oasis, the art and architecture of the Bagawat cemetery, and the archaeological site of Kellis (Ismant al-Kharab) with its Manichaean texts are also discussed.

Contributors Elizabeth Agaiby, Fr. Anthony, David Brakke, Jan Ciglenečki , Jean-Daniel Dubois, Bishop Epiphanius, Lois M. Farag, Frank Feder, Cäcilia Fluck, Sherin Sadek El Gendi, Mary Ghattas, Gisèle Hadji-Minaglou, Intisar Hazawi, Karel Innemée, Mary Kupelian, Grzegorz Majcherek, Bishop Martyros, Samuel Moawad, Ashraf Nageh, Adel F. Sadek, Ashraf Alexander Sadek, Ibrahim Saweros, Mark Sheridan, Fr. Bigoul al-Suriany, Hany Takla, Gertrud J.M. van Loon, Jacques van der Vliet, Youhanna Nessim Youssef, Ewa D. Zakrzewska, Nader Alfy Zekry

• Language: English
• Publisher: The American University in Cairo Press
• Release date: Oct 6, 2020
• ISBN: 9781649030214

Book preview

Introduction

THIS VOLUME, Christianity and Monasticism in Alexandria and the Egyptian Deserts, contains the papers that were presented at the eighth international symposium of the St. Mark Foundation for Coptic History Studies and the St. Shenouda the Archimandrite Coptic Society. The symposium was held at the Logos Center in the papal residence in Wadi al-Natrun, February 12–15, 2017. The volume is arranged in three categories: language and literature; art, archaeology, and material culture; and preservation. The chapters within each category are arranged alphabetically by the author’s last name. The twenty-nine chapters of this volume cover Alexandria, the great city that played an instrumental role in shaping early Christianity in Egypt and the world, as well as Egypt’s two largest regions, the Eastern and Western Deserts. Taken together, these chapters contain significant contributions on various aspects of Coptic civilization and provide an up-to-date treatment of Christianity and monasticism in Alexandria and the Egyptian deserts. The time span they cover ranges from the early centuries of Christianity to the present time.

Fifteen chapters are related to Alexandria and its environs. Samuel Moawad analyzes Greek, Coptic, and Arabic texts that refer to St. Mark as apostle, evangelist, and founder of the Church of Alexandria—its first saint, patriarch, and martyr. A number of these texts represent St. Mark as a key figure who guarantees the legitimacy of every Coptic patriarch. The visit of Coptic patriarchs to the relics of St. Mark after their ordination continues to be a part of the consecration rite. The commemoration of St. Mark is one of the great occasions in the Coptic Church. Nader Alfy Zekry introduces the representations of St. Mark in ivory, icons, wall paintings, and manuscripts before the Mamluk and Ottoman periods. He explores the iconography of St. Mark, which is limited to manuscripts and icons during these two periods, and classifies them into three categories: patriarch and founder of the Coptic Church, one of the four evangelists, and martyr. Fr. Bigoul al-Suriany examines the History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria attributed to Yusab, bishop of Fuwwa, Tarikh al-aba’ al-batarika, and discusses the sources and methodology of its compilers. The late Bishop Epiphanius provided an overview of the relationship of the patriarchs of Alexandria and the Monastery of St. Macarius. He focused on the relationship between the See of Alexandria and the desert elders, the selection of the patriarchs from among the monks, especially from the Monastery of St. Macarius, the visits paid by the patriarchs to St. Macarius Monastery as part of their ordination, the consecration of the church and sanctuaries of St. Macarius Monastery, and the preparation of the Holy Chrism at that monastery.

David Brakke explores Athanasius’s impact on the Alexandrian church and the community of Alexandria and its environs in worship, pedagogy, spiritual practice, theology, and asceticism and monasticism. Lois Farag proposes three distinctive phases of the gradual development of methods of Alexandrian biblical interpretation. She introduces briefly the methods of Clement of Alexandria and Origen in the practice of exegesis, and discusses in detail the great efforts of Athanasius and Cyril of Alexandria in the continuity of the Alexandrian legacy of literal exegesis as well as in its development of theological principles. Mark Sheridan deals with the Scriptures in the works of great figures of the Theological School of Alexandria: Origen as a most important commentator of the Scriptures; Eusebius of Caesarea, who wrote commentaries on the Psalms and other biblical books; Didymus of Alexandria, who was one of the most knowledgeable teachers of the Church; and others. Sheridan deals also with Rufus, bishop of Shotep in Upper Egypt at the end of the sixth century, who showed great knowledge of the rules of interpretation that had been developed over many centuries. Ibrahim Saweros surveys the available catalogues and lists of the collections of manuscripts that contain Arabic texts attributed to St. Athanasius the Apostolic. He discusses the contents of a few selected examples of this corpus as a preliminary step in editing it: The Testament of Abraham, The Letter Fallen from Heaven, and two Arabic homilies on Pentecost. Saweros concludes his chapter with a valuable table showing the works attributed to Athanasius and the scholars who dealt with them. Youhanna Nessim Youssef briefly introduces the literary structure of a martyrdom and discusses Alexandria as birthplace of the martyr, a transit place before the final execution, a final destination for the execution, and a place of veneration for the martyr. Ewa Zakrzewska analyzes selected aspects of polyphony in the Bohairic Acts of the Martyrs, edited by Henri Hyvernat (1977 [1886]), whose text corpus was produced under the auspices of the Patriarchate of Alexandria about the tenth–eleventh century. She concentrates on forms and functions of the direct reported speech that is typically introduced by dedicated expressions called quotative indexes.

Grzegorz Majcherek describes the architecture of a complex of auditoria dated to the fifth through seventh centuries that has been discovered by the University of Warsaw’s expedition at the Kom al-Dikka site in Alexandria. He discusses this unique complex in late antiquity in the light of the literary sources and shows that this university complex is material proof of the continuation and vitality of the intellectual and academic traditions of Alexandria. Cäcilia Fluck focuses on the rediscovery of the Carl Maria Kaufmann collection of objects from Abu Mina in the Museum of Byzantine Art, Berlin. She reviews the published research on that collection and points out that a contextualizing study of that collection is still lacking. Fluck concludes her chapter with a valuable table of the main publications of objects from Kaufmann’s excavations in Abu Mina in the Early Christian and Byzantine Collection, Berlin. Gertrud van Loon explores the sophisticated and almost complete iconographic program of wall paintings of the small church at Karm al-Ahbariya in the area of Mareotis. She discusses in more detail the scenes from the life of Emperor Constantine the Great. Van Loon emphasizes the importance of a comprehensive study to put the remaining wall paintings and architectural decoration from Mareotis into context.

Mary Ghattas explores the Christian history of Alexandria from the time of Muhammad Ali (1805–48) to the present. She analyzes the situation of Christianity and the attitudes of several groups of Christians when Alexandria was a cosmopolitan city (1805–1952). Then she focuses on the developments that led to Alexandria’s changing landscape as it became a center of Islamist movements (1952–present). She attempts to locate Copts within that period. Mary Kupelian introduces the Armenians of Alexandria from the early nineteenth century to present. She deals with their religious and cultural legacy as well as their contributions to that city as a vibrant community. She touches on their churches, schools, clubs, publishing and printing establishments, and the important personalities of the Armenian community there.

As we venture away from Alexandria to the west and south, we see the evidence of Christianity and its monastic tradition in both Libya and the Western Desert of Egypt. This volume includes seven chapters dealing with these regions. Frank Feder explores one of the main literary Coptic dialects that was recently discovered in archaeological excavations in the Kellis area, the Lycopolitan dialect. These texts were found in the Dakhla Oasis area, produced by a Manichaean community there. This is the same dialect, with its associated subdialects, that dominated both the Gnostic texts of Nag Hammadi to the south and the Manichaean texts of Madinat Madi to the north. The archaeology of the Kellis site is further investigated by Jean-Daniel Dubois. In this chapter he deals more extensively with the subject matter of the manuscripts discovered in that region, both Greek and Coptic. Such manuscripts with their archaeological context give a better understanding of how this rather short-lived community lived and functioned in the fourth century.

There are three chapters dealing with subjects related to the Kharga Oasis to the east. The first is by Jacques van der Vliet, who explores the history of the region through the inscriptions left by the various groups that inhabited the area over time. Although the area is presumed to be nomadic in nature, with groups that tended to be relocating all the time, there were places that left permanent archeological remains, in particular the Bagawat necropolis and its Christian pilgrimage or monastic sites. The next two chapters deal specifically with Bagawat. The first of these is by Gisèle Hadji-Minaglou, in which she investigates the archaeology of the cemetery found there. The second, by Karel Innemée, deals with monastic features found in the architecture of the site. More specifically, he deals with the types of meals and food storage that can be interpreted from the archeological remains excavated there. He further draws contrasts and comparisons with practices found in the monasteries of Wadi al-Natrun to the north.

The remaining two chapters dealing with this region deal with both the ancient and modern history of the area. In the first, Intisar Hazawi surveys the relationship between the Cyrenaican monks of the Pentapolis region of eastern Libya and the Egyptian monks of the fourth and fifth centuries. She explores the monastic life there primarily through the letters of Synesius, the bishop of Ptolemais from this period. In the absence of archaeological evidence, the literary evidences allude to monastic settlements being established in places that once served a different function in the mountains or pagan establishments. Also, on the basis of the literary evidence she shows that both the monks of the Wadi al-Natrun and those of Cyrene may have encountered each other in the common desert between them. On the basis of the same literary sources, the Berber nomadic tribes were a constant and grave threat to the Cyrenaican area, much like what happened in Wadi al-Natrun and with similar devastating outcomes. The other chapter, by Adel F. Sadek, deals primarily with the modern state of Christianity in the Western Desert in general and the pastoral care provided by the Coptic Church to its inhabitants. He begins with a historical survey of Christianity there as found in Church sources. He then explores the Christian churches and monasteries that were recently established there and the type of pastoral care that the Coptic Church is providing in the region.

Turning our attention to the Eastern Desert, this volume contains four chapters dealing with the region. We begin with the chapter by Elizabeth Agaiby about her work on the Pseudo-Serapionic Life of St. Antony, which dominated the monastic and literary conversation about St. Antony from the thirteenth to the early twentieth centuries. This previously unpublished Arabic work deals in detail with his struggles with demons in the desert. The author surveyed all the manuscripts of that vita found in the libraries of both of the Red Sea monasteries, St. Antony and St. Paul. She summarizes her exhaustive research on the codicological feature of the manuscripts, the contents, and the possible dating of this vita. The next chapter in this category, by Bishop Martyros, explores the relationship between the Red Sea monasteries and those of Wadi al-Natrun. He begins with the relationship between St. Macarius and St. Antony and the movement of monks between the two regions in the fourth and fifth centuries. He further investigates this relationship in the fourteenth–fifteenth centuries and later. He concludes with the efforts of Pope Shenouda III in the modern era in revitalizing the monastic life in St. Paul Monastery. The chapter by Hany N. Takla deals with a preliminary survey of the manuscripts that were once the property of the Red Sea monasteries but are now found in libraries and monasteries outside of Egypt. Thirty-two manuscripts were investigated to discover how they ended up where they are now. The final chapter in this group, by Jan Ciglenečki, deals with the ancient monastic laura Wadi Naqqat. This site was excavated as early as 1823 by John Gardner Wilkinson. The author explores the archaeology, the architecture, and the literary sources of both the church and the monastic laura there. He also contrasts this site to another monastic site in the mountains there, the laura of Wadi Abu Darag. In conclusion he draws attention to the constant threat to the safety of the monuments in Egypt following the 2011 Revolution.

The last category of chapters includes three dealing with differing topics related to important aspects of Christianity and monasticism in Coptic Egypt as a whole. Ashraf Alexander Sadek reviews the textual evidence of the Coptic tradition regarding the Holy Family’s journey from Palestine to Egypt. In particular, he explores the lasting influence of their presence on the great Christian spiritual tradition that grew strong in the Egyptian deserts centuries later and continues to the present day. Fr. Antony St. Shenouda explores the ancient Christian practice of the Arrow Prayer and its use in monastic circles. He emphasizes its use as a weapon in spiritual warfare among the monks of the desert, especially as found in our sources about St. Antony of Egypt. The last of these chapters is by Ashraf Nageh, who discusses the new trends in preservation of Coptic monuments over the past three decades. These trends emphasize the materials used in the building of these monuments and restoring their integrity without trying to artificially cover the building material in accordance with what restorers of the past thought they should look like. Thus, the imperfections become a history to be preserved and documented, rather than to arbitrarily cover up.

As this volume represents the last of the series of the systematic regional treatment of Christianity and monasticism in Egypt, we are looking forward to a final volume that will provide a general index to all of the eight volumes. This volume will further enhance the value of this already essential and unique scholarly resource for the study of the Coptic heritage.

Our heartfelt thanks are due to all the contributors for their valuable contributions to this volume. Our thanks go first to H.H. Pope Tawadros II for hosting the Symposium at the distinguished Logos Center at the papal residence in Wadi al-Natrun. His physical presence and hospitable nature made the symposium an unforgettable event. Our thanks go also to Dr. Fawzy Estafanous, president of the St. Mark Foundation, for supporting the symposium and its proceedings. We would like to express our thanks to the staff of the American University in Cairo Press for their interest and professionalism in publishing the proceedings of the symposia on Christianity and Monasticism in Egypt, and especially to Nigel Fletcher-Jones, Neil Hewison, Nadia Naqib, and Johanna Baboukis.

Finally, it is our pleasure and honor to dedicate this volume to Dr. Fawzy Estafanous in acknowledgment of his great devotion and tireless work in promoting the Coptic heritage through the many activities he has directed within the work of the St. Mark Foundation for the past nearly quarter century.

1Synopsis of the Arabic Pseudo-Serapionic Life of Antony

Elizabeth Agaiby

THE LIFE OF ANTONY attributed to Athanasius of Alexandria, and existing in various textual traditions and linguistic manifestations, is considered the authoritative history on Antony and his community,¹ and also the reference on ascetic discipline that would be read and emulated across generations, thus testifying to the influence the text has had across both chronological and cultural divides.

Antony has another Life, however, attributed to his disciple, Serapion the bishop of Thmuis.² It appears this version was originally written in Arabic, and circumstantial evidence suggests that it was composed sometime in the thirteenth century, because by the fourteenth century it was incorporated in liturgical texts of the Coptic and Ethiopian churches.³

This chapter will provide a high-level overview of the following:

1.The manuscripts containing a Life of Antony in Arabic

2.A synoptic overview of the Pseudo-Serapionic Life

3.Possible dating and motives behind the composition of the text

The Manuscripts

There are three different vitae of Antony in Arabic: (1) a translation of the Greek Life of Antony attributed to Athanasius (or its Sahidic version);⁴ (2) a redacted version attributed to Serapion of Thmuis (the Pseudo-Serapionic Life);⁵ and (3) an abridged version of the Pseudo-Serapionic Life contained in the Bustan al-ruhban.

The extant manuscripts containing a version of the Life of Antony in Arabic date from the thirteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries, and several copies are preserved in both Egyptian monasteries and libraries outside of Egypt.⁶

To date seventy-nine manuscripts containing a Life of Antony in Arabic have been located:⁷ forty-eight manuscripts inside of Egypt⁸ and thirty-one manuscripts outside of Egypt.⁹ Of all seventy-nine manuscripts, thirteen contain the Life attributed to Athanasius, and sixty-six manuscripts contain a recension of the Pseudo-Serapionic Life.

The following table lists the number of manuscripts containing a Life of Antony in Arabic by location, version, and century.

Table 1. Manuscript of Life of Antony

This table reveals a number of interesting points, the most important being that the Pseudo-Serapionic Life enjoyed more popularity than the Life attributed to Athanasius, not just in the Red Sea monasteries, but throughout Egypt,¹⁰ and the rich manuscript tradition is a clear indicator of a sizable readership. Secondly, the majority of the texts were transcribed between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, a period in which fifteen monks from the Red Sea monasteries were patriarchs of the Coptic Church in unbroken succession.¹¹

Furthermore, information provided in colophons and endowment statements reveals that some of these patriarchs commissioned the copying and endowment of several manuscripts.¹² Thus, one may assume that some Antonian patriarchs chose to propagate the Pseudo-Serapionic Life above that of the Life attributed to Athanasius, and if this was the case, then the text survived as much by public demand as by the important role that ecclesiastical politics and networks played in disseminating the text (Grig 2004: 95). Thirdly, the Pseudo-Serapionic Life began achieving momentum from the fourteenth century, shortly after its composition. And finally, with the exception of one manuscript,¹³ all texts of the Life of Antony in the Wadi al-Natrun monasteries of St. Macarius and the Baramus contain the Life attributed to Athanasius. The Wadi al-Natrun is the only region in Egypt in which the Athanasian prevailed over the Pseudo-Serapionic.

And yet, while the Life attributed to Athanasius is today considered the authentic account in the Coptic Church,¹⁴ the Bustan, which continues to be reprinted¹⁵ and read in monasteries throughout Egypt, still contains many Pseudo-Serapionic elements.

Synoptic Overview

In considering the Pseudo-Serapionic Life, one finds that the text exhibits many of the attributes that are considered typical of a saint’s vita, and of Antony’s in particular:¹⁶ a description of the saint’s origins, parents, and mature childhood; his adoption of ascetic discipline and embracing of the monastic life; his struggle against temptations, often in the form of demonic warfare; his withdrawal to a place of greater solitude; his control over wild animals; and the exorcism of demons, miracles of healing, clairvoyance, and prediction of his death (Talbot 2008: 863). In fact, all of these features are present in both the Pseudo-Serapionic and Athanasian Lives, but the accounts are quite different.

Furthermore, scenes presented as prominent in the Life attributed to Athanasius,¹⁷ such as Antony’s lengthy sermon to his disciples on the ascetical life and demonology, his traveling to Alexandria to support the martyrs, his encounter with Arians and Meletians, and his long, rhetorical debate with philosophers, are all absent from the Pseudo-Serapionic version.

The affirmed purpose of Athanasius’s Life was to present Antony as a model of Christian living worthy of emulation,¹⁸ as a martyr type in his ascetical practice,¹⁹ and as subordinate to the ecclesiastical hierarchy.²⁰ In the Pseudo-Serapionic account, however, the attested purpose of the author is to first

explain [Antony’s] virtues and to tell of a few of [his] miracles [in order] to make the joy of the attendants complete and [so that they may] rejoice over the astounding signs, and victorious wonders.²¹

Secondly, Antony is not like a martyr in his ascetical life, but he is greater than the martyrs because

This saint’s fighting, my beloved, was not like the fighting of the martyrs. For their enemies had bodies like them fighting against them, but this saint fought against spirits and principalities of the pit, for in the words of our teacher Paul [the Apostle]: For our fighting is not with flesh and blood.²²

And instead of being subordinate to the church hierarchy, [Antony is] exalted above . . . all the ranks of the patriarchs in their entirety.²³

We may consider that the text of the Pseudo-Serapionic Life was based mainly on a primary text—the Life attributed to Athanasius—and was complemented by episodes from secondary sources including Jerome’s Life of Paul the Hermit,²⁴ Palladius’s Lausiac History,²⁵ the Apophthegmata Patrum,²⁶ the History of the Patriarchs,²⁷ and the Coptic Life of St. Macarius the Great attributed to Serapion of Thmuis.²⁸ But a substantial portion of the text contains scenes that are unattested in any historical source.

The following table provides a high-level synopsis of some of the scenes in the Pseudo-Serapionic Life that are both attested in historical sources (indicated with an X) and unattested. Unattested scenes are marked with three asterisks (***). Those also marked with a double asterisk (**) are unattested stories that were incorporated in the Bustan up until the nineteenth century, and unattested stories that are still incorporated in the latest reprint of the Bustan (al-Makary 2014) are marked with one asterisk (*).

Possible Dating and Motives Behind the Composition

As noted earlier, circumstantial evidence indicates that the Pseudo-Serapionic Life was probably composed sometime in the thirteenth century.

Numerous scholars have noted that a major stimulus for the composition of a hagiographical work was to increase the renown of a saint or a religious institution (e.g., Orlandi 1991b: 1450–60; Talbot 1991: 24; Høgel 2002: 30; Papaconstantinou 2007: 364; Armanios 2011: 69; Zakrzewska 2011: 500). But there was a different motivation behind rewriting a hagiographical work, and a key impetus was to mark a consecration or reconsecration of a new or restored monastery or church (Talbot 1991: 17–19).

Table 2. Synopsis of scenes in Pseudo-Serapionic Life of Antony

Seen from this perspective, it is possible that the composition of the Pseudo-Serapionic Life reflected a new phase in the history of St. Antony’s Monastery. If one accepts the assumption that the text was composed sometime in the thirteenth century, the incentive to write a new Life may have been provided by the then recent restoration and expansion of the ancient church (Jones 2002: 21–30) and completion of the decorative program in 1232/1233 (Bolman 2002b: 78). All of these events most likely invigorated Antony’s monastic community.

Internal textual evidence may help to validate this hypothesis. The first evidence relates to the church building. There are quite a few statements in the text (made by both Christ and Antony) relating to church building activities and the rewards that are heaped upon those who contribute, either financially or with their time.

I say to you [Antony] that he who builds a house for you I will build for him in recompense luminous new houses . . . he who has toiled in your house and cared for it and helped in its building, I am the one who will reward him in the next world.³⁰

The second piece of evidence relates to the iconographic program and its significance in perpetuating the memory of Antony. In the text, Antony promises to perform a miracle as long as the supplicant

builds for me a house in which he will make an image of me [emphasis mine] so that my name will not perish.³¹

Furthermore, every new or restored church or decorative program in a Coptic church or monastery must be consecrated by a bishop or patriarch.³² There is an entry in the Copto-Arabic Synaxarium on 4 Misra (10 August) that simply states:

On this day also was the consecration of the Church of the great saint Antony. May his blessing be with us and glory be to God forever, amen.³³

Unfortunately, no further information is provided regarding when the consecration took place. However, given the reference in the Pseudo-Serapionic Life to Christ personally consecrat[ing Antony’s church] with the great thrones of [His] glory,³⁴ could it be that the Synaxarium entry refers to a consecration event that occurred sometime following the church’s expansion and completion of the wall paintings?³⁵ In any case, the assumed composition of the redacted account in the thirteenth century, together with the enlargement of the church and its impressive iconographic program, all provide crucial elements for the revival and continued renown of Antony’s monastic community.

Conclusion

Research on narrative psychology suggests that, based on how well the audience responded to stories, storytellers dropped certain stories and refined the plots of others (Polkinghorne 2005: 12). Across the generations, what was not meaningful or no longer relevant in the collective memories was forgone (Kilani 1992: 45, 297), stories that were significant were retained, and accounts of what seemed appropriate at that point in time were inserted.

As early as the eighth century in Egypt,³⁶ hagiographical texts were susceptible to redactions and adjustments,³⁷ and often redacting was done not only to produce a new and improved substitution for the old text (Høgel 2002: 57), but to make it more suitable for the current social, liturgical, linguistic, and political contexts and needs.³⁸

The Pseudo-Serapionic Life is a redaction of the Life of Antony attributed to Athanasius, in which the emphasis and content of the original Athanasian account was transformed to make it more appealing and more familiar to contemporary Egyptians.

The fact that the majority of the texts containing a recension of the Pseudo-Serapionic Life were transcribed between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries—the time during which an unbroken chain of Antonian patriarchs determined the history of the Coptic Church (Meinardus 2000: 260)—is not coincidental. Although this period, especially the eighteenth century, was one in which a cultural and educational revival was taking place in Egypt, the important role that ecclesiastical politics played in championing and disseminating the text throughout Egypt cannot be underestimated. For more than six hundred years there was a sustained interest in the literary and scribal production of this Life that commanded the authority of liturgical texts, and has remained relevant in the Coptic Church even to the present day. Furthermore, the assumed circumstances surrounding the original composition of the Pseudo-Serapionic Life would have served as an important cultural vehicle for the renewal of devotion to Antony and his monastery.

Notes

1Rubenson 1995: 126. In addition to the Vita Antonii, references to Antony are also contained in the Apophthegmata Patrum, a letter by Serapion of Thmuis to Antony’s disciples, in the Pachomian literature, in the writings of Jerome and Rufinus, in the Historia Monachorum in Aegypto, in Palladius’s Historia Lausiaca, and in the historical works—Historia Ecclesiastica—by Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret.

2For information on the Pseudo-Serapionic Life of Antony, see Agaiby 2018.

3E.g., the entry on Antony in the Ethiopian Synaxarium closely follows the Pseudo-Serapionic Life.

4Hereafter abbreviated as VA.

5Hereafter abbreviated as PSL.

6See Clavis Patrum Graecorum (CPG): 2502; Graf 1944: 459; Khater and Burmester 1973: no. 118/(Hag.) 1; Simaika and ‘Abd al-Masih 1939: no. 114/48; Simaika and ‘Abd al-Masih 1942: nos. 625/49, 633/52, 638/44, 660/58; Troupeau 1972: no. 257; Troupeau 1974: nos. 4781, 4782, 4788, 4791, 4883, 4884. See also Samir 1977: 186; Sauget 1987: 201; Zanetti 1986: nos. (Hag.) 31, 20; Zanetti 2006: 158.

7Excluding the abridged Pseudo-Serapionic Life contained in the Bustan.

8This list is not exhaustive as I was unable, for example, to access the monastery library at Dayr al-Suryan in Wadi al-Natrun, and various monasteries in Upper Egypt.

9Mss Paris Arab 257 and 4884 are incomplete or unfinished texts. See Graf 1944: 459; Troupeau 1972: no. 257 and 1974: no. 4884. Halkin noted fifteen manuscripts in Europe containing fragments of the Pseudo-Serapionic Life: Halkin 1942: 143–56.

10Among the several manuscripts Émile Amélineau acquired in 1887 were the Paris Arabe manuscripts containing a Life of Antony in Arabic (nos. 4781, 4782, 4788, 4791, and 4883). These manuscripts came from Upper Egypt, and information contained in the catalogue of the Paris Bibliothèque Nationale states that Amélineau both commissioned the copying of various manuscripts that were housed in the Monastery of St. Antony in Luxor and brought them back to Paris. Thus, one may assume that the manuscripts in the Paris BN containing an Arabic Life of Antony may have originated in the Monastery of St. Antony in Luxor. See Troupeau 1974: 5, 47; Swanson 2008: 144.

11This period of time, in particular the eighteenth century in which most of our manuscripts were transcribed, was a period in which something of a cultural and educational awakening was taking place in Egypt, not only in the restoration of churches and revival in the arts, but a revival in patronage and literary production. Magdi Guirguis observes that around 50 percent of all extant Coptic–Arabic manuscripts were transcribed in the eighteenth century (Guirguis and Van Doorn-Harder 2011: 46, 221). Nelly Hanna explains that the proliferation of manuscripts produced from the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries was due to a significant change in attitude in that people wanted not only to hear tales narrated but also to read them (Hanna 2003: 105). On the other hand, to understand the limitation of texts produced between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, one must consider the events that took place in Egypt during this time. Apart from the fact that the Red Sea monasteries suffered destruction in the late fifteenth century, according to historical sources, the Mamluk period in Egypt (1250–1517) experienced calamities of various kinds, from the bubonic plague in 1347–49 that destroyed about a third of the Egyptian population, to periodic outbreaks of pneumonic plague. In fact, between 1347 and 1517 there were about twenty major epidemics. There were also natural disasters such as earthquakes and insufficient flooding of the Nile (in 1295, 1374, and 1403) that led to inflation and famine. And finally there were military threats from the Crusaders, the Mongols, Timur-Lenk, the Portuguese, and the Ottomans. For a good overview of this period, see Swanson 2010: 100–102. See also Mikhail 2014: 174, who states that the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries were a period of monastic, literary, and demographic decline for the Coptic community as a whole.

12In particular, Yuannis XVII (1726–45) and Butrus VII (1809–52).

13It is important to note, however, that Ms Hagiography 84 was acquired by the Monastery of St. Macarius in 2005.

14For example, it was only from 1950 onward that the Monastery of St. Antony began publishing books of the Life of Antony that were based on the Athanasian account. The following titles are a translated list of all the publications to date produced by the Monastery on the Life of Antony: The Story of the Christian Lights in the Ascetical Life; A Religious Story That Represents the Life of the Great Saint Anba Antuniyus. The 1914 Life is a mix of versions but predominantly Athanasian: Translation of the [Life-Stories of the] Two Great Saints and Shining Stars Anba Antuniyus and Anba Bula the Egyptians. The 1920 Life is the Athanasian version: Star of the Wilderness, the Saint Anba Antuniyus. The 1950 Life is a mix of versions but predominantly Pseudo-Serapionic. However, the story of Antony in Frankish countries, and the account of the Devil disguised as a queen tempting Antony to marry her, are omitted: Life of the Saint Anba Antuniyus, Translated from the Book by the Saint Athanasius. The 1950 Life is the Athanasian version, translated from an English edition: Monasticism and the Great Saints Anba Antuniyus and Anba Bula. The 2010 Life is the Athanasian version: St. Antony the Great, His Life and Sayings (English).

15Reprinted in 2014. See al-Makary 2014. The 2014 edition of the Bustan tabulates comparative Sayings between the Greek, Syriac, Armenian, and Ethiopic versions with those contained in the Arabic Bustan. On the comparative Sayings on Antony, see al-Makary 2014: 500–501.

16Based on the Athanasian Life.

17Prominent in terms of the number of paragraphs in the Life.

18VA Prologue, 94.1, in Vivian and Athanassakis 2003: 52, 259.

19VA 47.1, in Vivian and Athanassakis 2003: 161.

20VA 67.2, in Vivian and Athanassakis 2003: 201.

21PSL 1.1, in Agaiby 2018: 125.

22PSL 1.1, in Agaiby 2018: 125. Ephesians 6:12. Similar to themes in Coptic martyrologies, after Antony’s tortures by the demons, he is comforted by Christ, who appears to him on six occasions, and on one occasion Christ also sends the Archangel Michael to console him. Cf., e.g., Martyrdom of Victor in Naguib 1994: 233, 237, 242.

23PSL 2.1, in Agaiby 2018: 131. It is important to note that while Athanasius portrays Antony as a layman and subordinate to ecclesiastical hierarchy, the author of the PSL has Antony ordained as a priest and hegumen, and he possesses authority even greater than a patriarch.

24PSL 2.8, in Agaiby 2018: 159: a summarized version of the meeting between Antony and Paul the Hermit. Cf. Jerome, Life of Paul the Hermit (VP). The PSL states that Antony met Paul the Hermit when he was forty-nine years old, whereas in the VP he was ninety years old. See VP 7 in Deferrari 1964: 229.

25PSL 3, in Agaiby 2018: 159–61, an embellished account of Paul the Simple. Cf. Historia Lausiaca (HL) XXII in Meyer 1964: 76–81.

26PSL 2.1, in Agaiby 2018: 135, an abbreviated version of Apophthegmata Patrum (AP) Antony 1 in Ward 1984: 1–2.

27PSL 1.1–2.1, in Agaiby 2018: 127–31: the redactor models the account of Antony’s origins and childhood on that of Peter I in History of the Patriarchs (HP) I/6, in Evetts 1904: 207–209.

28PSL 12, in Agaiby 2018: 213: the story of Antony bequeathing his staff to Macarius is taken from the Coptic Life of Macarius (VM) 19, in Vivian 2004: 176–77.

29VA = Vita Antonii; AP = Apophthegmata Patrum; HL = Historia Lausiaca; VP = Vita Pauli; HP = History of the Patriarchs; VM = Coptic Life of Macarius.

30PSL 8.12 and 11.15, in Agaiby 2018: 189–91 and 207–209.

31PSL 11.15, in Agaiby 2018: 207–209. See also 11.16 where it states that Paul the Simple drew an image of Antony, in Agaiby 2018: 211.

32Gabra 2008: 61–62. See also Horner 1902: 1–31; Khs-Burmester 1967: 236–50. For example, Shenouda III, the 117th patriarch (r. 1971–2012), reconsecrated the ancient church at St. Antony’s Monastery in 2003, following the cleaning of the wall paintings and restoration of the building by the American Research Center in Egypt in 1999. See Jones 2002: 21.

33See Forget 1905–26: 2:256. See also Evetts 1895: 225. There are three manuscripts in the Monastery of St. Antony containing an entry on the consecration of the monastery’s ancient church: (1) Liturgical 333, dated AM 1101 = AD 1384/5 (ff. 120r–123r): the Difnar containing two expositions in Coptic and Arabic (Tarh Adam and Tarh Watus) for the Consecration of the Church at the Monastery; (2) History 69, dated 13 Tut AM 1417 = 23 September AD 1700 (ff. 97r–98r): containing two expositions in Arabic (Tarh Adam and Tarh Watus); these two expositions are the same ones contained in the Difnar; (3) Liturgical 344, dated 13 Misra AM 1435 = 18 August AD 1719 (f. 174v): the Synaxarium entry for 4 Misra, which states, On this day also was the consecration of the Church of the great Saint Antony. The entry in this manuscript differs from other Synaxarium entries in that this standard statement is followed by in Dayr al-Araba in the mountain of Qalzam, followed by the first two lines of the Tarh Adam: May God who was with our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob while they were standing before him, be with us today, through the blessing of this saint, amen.

34PSL 8.12, in Agaiby 2018: 189.

35Stephen Davis states that the production of hagiographical literature was closely linked to both liturgy and church patronage (Davis 2015: 13).

36Papaconstantinou 2011: 333; 2006: 67. See also Orlandi 1991a: 1191–97. Cf. Naguib 1994: 227–28.

37Metaphrasis—the process of "rewr[iting] ancient Lives according to contemporary literary taste"—acquired a high status in Byzantium in the eleventh century; between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, 80 percent of hagiography is considered metaphrastic. See Talbot 1991: 16; Høgel 2002: 150–51. Jean-Yves Tilliette also observed a marked concentration of the production of saint biographies in the tenth and eleventh centuries that were reworkings of earlier texts, almost exclusively dealing with monastic founders from the fourth to the seventh centuries (Tilliette 1988: 387–88, 389–97).

38See Høgel 2002: 56; Lifshitz 1994: 100. On reworked hagiographic texts, see also De Gaiffier 1970: 17–42; Naguib 1994: n. 100; Efthymiadis 2011: 163.

2The Arrow Prayer as a Weapon of Warfare

Fr. Anthony

THE ARROW PRAYER IS THE PRACTICE of continuous prayer that was developed in the early church and was later formulated and regularly practiced by the desert monks in Egypt. The prayer itself consisted of a repeated Psalm, a short prayer, or a Bible verse. In short, I define the Arrow Prayer as:

a short prayer that is prayed by monks and laity, whose content may be inspired by a verse from the Bible or a personal prayer that is repeated throughout the day in the course of daily activities.

The Name

There is no direct reference to where the name ‘Arrow Prayer’ originated, but we know that as early as the beginning of the third century, Origen refers to continuous prayer: It goes forth from the soul of the one praying like an arrow shot from the saint by knowledge and reason and faith. And it wounds the spirits hostile to God to destroy and overthrow them (Greer 1979: 104, On Prayer xii,1). Abba Palamon is said to have taught St. Pachomius according to what he learned from those who went before us to pray the rule of the synaxis not counting the ejaculatory [prayers] we make so as not to be defaulters, since we are commanded to pray without ceasing (Veilleux 1980: 31). In the sayings, Abba Paphnutius was said to recourse to short prayers (Ward 1984: 193, Poemen 190). Evagrius also taught that in times of temptation, use a short and intense prayer.¹ St. Augustine refers to the monks of Egypt this way: The brethren in Egypt are reported to have very frequent prayers . . . very brief and as it were, sudden and ejaculatory (Augustine, n.d.). In the seventh century, St. John of Scetis saw a vision in which his short and intense prayers were like arrows that wound the devil (Zanetti 1996).

It is not until the twentieth century, in a study by Kari Vogt, that a clear reference to the name of the