Vol.I - The Coptic Orthodox Church

342 Ancient Coptic Churches. [CH. vm.
been prodigious. Rufinus relates that in the region
about Arsinoe he found ten thousand monks : at
Oxyrynchus the bishop estimated his monks at ten
thousand, and his nuns at twenty thousand, while the
city
itself contained no less than twelve churches.
had been turned to
Pagan temples and buildings
monastic uses : the hermitages outnumbered the
1 houses : in fact the land 'so swarmed with
dwelling
monks, that their chaunts and hymns by day and by
night made the whole country one church of God.'
If one can believe these and the like stories, Egypt
at this time was one vast convent ; and the wonder
is that the nation was not extinguished by universal
celibacy. But, with all due allowance for oriental
weakness in arithmetic, it is certain that every town
of importance along the valley of the Nile had its
churches and friars, while many parts both of the
country and the desert were occupied by vast monastic
settlements.
Among the earliest and most interesting of these,
though unfortunately also the most inaccessible,
must be counted the monasteries of St. Anthony and
St. Paul in the eastern desert by the Red Sea.
St. Anthony is generally called the first monk, but St.
Ammon, or Piammon, as he is often called in Coptic,
was contemporary, if not earlier. It is Piammon of
whom the legend is told that he saw an angel stand-
ing at the altar, and recording the names of such
among the monks as received the eucharist worthily,
1 See Rosweyde, pp. 350, 363, especially the passage '
aedes
publicae et templa superstitionis antiquae habitationes mine erant
monachorum, ct per totam civitatem plura monasteria quam domus
videbantiv.'