Vol.I - The Coptic Orthodox Church

CH. vi.] Churches in Cairo. 283
Dimianah between
proceed to the church of Lady
the rivers Balkas and Nabru, in the north of the
Delta. There, once a year, a great festival is held in
the church, and while the possessed are being exorcised,
a shadow-play of departing devils exhibited on
the interior of a large dome confirms the belief of
which it is
the superstitious : and the contrivances by
produced are so cunningly hidden as to completely
puzzle those who have no faith in miracle-working.
Even the priests of Mari Girgis seem scarcely to
have abandoned their powers or their claims. On
one of my visits to the church, when I wished to
enter the haikal, I was not allowed to pass
the thresh-
hold until the priest had given me a solemn censing,
and signed my forehead with the sign of the cross.
So the evil spirits were exorcised.
HISTORICAL NOTES ON THE CHURCHES IN CAIRO.
Though very little is known about the history of
the church in Harat-az-Zuailah or Harat-ar-Rum,
yet there is enough direct mention to establish their
claim to a great antiquity. The former is a patriarchal
church, the latter episcopal. Soon after 1 100
A.D. the bishop of Masr who succeeded Sanutius was
proclaimed in the Harat-az-Zuailah, though elected
and ordained at Abu Sargah 1 . With this church,
too, the notorious Cyril, LXXV patriarch, was closely
associated. It was here that a council of bishops
met to protest against his barefaced simony and ex-
tortion about 1 250 A. D., and Cyril resided in the
1
Renaudot, Hist. Pat. Alex., p. 492.