Vol.I - The Coptic Orthodox Church

CH. i.] General Strnctiive. 45
walls in the choir : no doubt by reason of the
special sanctity of the fountain that gave water to
the Holy Family. It is however curious to remark
that a sacred well is also mentioned by Paul the
Silentiary as lying near the ambon in the church
of St. Sophia, and its is coping said to have been
brought from Samaria. In the Jewish synagogue
at Old Cairo, the ancient Christian well is situated
at the eastern end, almost behind the apse, and from
its size resembles rather a tank.
The Copts now usually bury their dead in ceme-
teries, but some of the ancient churches, such as
Mari Mina, have separate churchyards not unlike
our own, but outside the dair walls and not acces-
sible directly from the church, though they adjoin
the sacred enclosure. The practice of burying within
the church is not unknown, but the honour was always
reserved for patriarchs or persons of great distinction
: thus within Abu-'s-Sifain, Al Mu'allakah, and
St. Stephen by the cathedral, spots are pointed out
as the tombs of patriarchs. Yet there is no single
instance of any inscription or monument to mark the
resting-place of great men buried within the church.
So too when a rich man has given a vessel to the
altar, it is inscribed as a gift and a short prayer is
lettered upon it, but the donor's name is almost
invariably
unrecorded. This is the silence that is
golden, and full of golden lessons.
To the same right oblivion are consigned the
bodies of such as were honoured with burial within
the enclosure about the church, as at Anba Shanudah.
In vaults beneath the dark rooms which adjoin the
western end of that church many great worthies are
buried without a line to perpetuate any remembrance