Vol.I - The Coptic Orthodox Church

CH. vii.] Desert Monasteries. 307
Of the subsequent history of the monastery, next
to nothing is known. It was repaired and strength-
ened about the year 880 by Sanutius the patriarch,
whose body may be one of the sixteen mummies.
About the year IOOOA.D. one Joseph, a deacon of
Abu Makar, complains that this is the only place
where Christians 'come to the throne with confidence,'
i. e. during the great persecution. Abu-'l-Farag mentions
it in his book of the Christian convents : and
Abu-'l-Birkat relates that in his day the Coptic
liturgy was used without Arabic at Dair Macarius,
implying
that the monks still understood the ancient
language of their ritual. Quatremere 1
, remarking on
this statement, is anxious to know whether it still
holds good but observes that travellers who have
;
visited the place since, are silent : and Sonnini, who
testifies to the use of both Coptic and Arabic at
Al Baramus, did not even visit Dair Macarius 2 .
Of course there is not a grain of truth in the statement
as applied to ; present day practice and I very
much doubt whether it was true when Abu-'l-Birkat
wrote it.
At the time of my visit the number of monks at the
convent of Abu Makar was twenty, of whom twelve
were in
priest's orders. They are allowed sometimes
to visit the patriarch, and even to see friends living
but they must return
in Cairo, by special permission :
to live and to die in the desert.
1 Recherches Critiques et Historiques sur la Langue et la Litte'r-
ature de 1'Egypte ; par Etienne Quatremere. Paris, 1808.
2 It was the sudden abandonment of his proposed visit to Abu
Makar, where an ambush of Beduins awaited him,
Sonnini owed his life.
X 2
to which