the coptic contribution to christian civilisation - Fatherjacob.org

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fathers of the desert, we must begin with St. Jerome (ca. 342-420), who translated the Regula Sancti Pachomii into Latin,which must have been used by St. Benedict of Nursia (ca. 480-550) in composing his famous Rule. Others included St. JohnChrysostom (ca. 347-407); Rufinus (ca. 345-410), therenowned ecclesiastical historian; St. Basil (ca. 330-79), theCappadocian author of the great Eastern liturgy used to this dayand the founder of a Byzantine monastic order on the model ofthe Rule of St. Pachoniius; St. John Cassian 23 (ca. 360-435), thefather of monasticism in Gaul, who is known to have spentseven years in the Thebaid and Nitrea, Palladius 24 (ca. 365-425),Bishop of Helenopolis in Bithynia, who complied the lives ofthe desert fathers in "The Lausiac History"; St. Augen orEugenius of Clysma (d. ca. 363), the father of Syrian asceticism;and many more from other parts of Europe in addition to somelesser known persons from Ethiopia, Nubia, and North Africa.In reality, the Rule of St. Pachomius continued to influenceEuropean monasticism beyond the Middle Ages. St. Benedictfailed to incorporate in his rule the Pachomian system ofunifying the convents into clans with annual meetings for mutualsurveillance of their activities. It is known that independentBenedictine houses became very rich in the long run, and thatthe Benedictine monks decided to discard toil and liveluxuriously on the hired labor of local farmers, thus losing thevirtue of the Pachomian system of surveillance by othermembers of the brotherhood. Only the Cluniac reform of thetenth century was able to remedy that rising evil by reverting tothe spirit of the Pachomian rule. Subsequently most newerEuropean orders of religion observed the same cooperativesystem. The Carthusians and the Cistercians in the eleventh andtwelfth centuries as well as the Franciscans and the Dominicanswere founded on the basis of union among their convents underthe authority of a central government. Even the Jesuits in the17
sixteenth century appear unwittingly to have fallen under thespell of Pachomian dictates. It becomes quite obvious that thecontribution of the Copts in the field of monasticism persisteduntil the modern age.MISSIONARY ENTERPRISEA by-product of historic significance to the monastic movementamong the Copts was their early missionary endeavour. All theaforementioned renowned names who spent years of their livesin the monasteries of Nitrea and the Thebaid must be regardedas unchartered ambassadors and missionaries of that CopticChristianity which they had experienced among Coptic religiousleaders. Meanwhile, the Copts themselves, at least in the firstfour or five centuries of our era, proved to be extremely activein the spreading of the faith beyond their frontiers in practicallyevery direction.It is not inconceivable that Coptic relations with North Africa,notably with Cyrenaica or the Pentapolis, took place with theintroduction of Christianity. In his visitations from Alexandria,St. Mark must have been accompanied to the Pentapolis byAlexandrine helpers. Educationally, the natives of thePentapolis looked toward Egypt. Synesius of Cyrene (ca. 370-414), bishop of Ptolemais, received his instruction at Alexandriain both the Catechetical School and the Museion, and heentertained a great deal of reverence and affection for Hypatia,the last of the pagan Neoplatonists, whose classes he hadattended. Synesius was raised to the episcopate by Theophilus,patriarch of Alexandria, in 410. Since the Council of Nicea in325, Cyrenaica had been recognized as an ecclesiasticalprovince of the See of Alexandria, in accordance with the rulingof the Nicaean Fathers. The patriarch of the Coptic Church to18
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Page 7 and 8: largest religious units in Eastern
Page 9 and 10: Epiphanius of Salamis in Cyprus, th
Page 11 and 12: followers of Arius and Athanasius,
Page 13 and 14: Church. What matters here is the qu
Page 15 and 16: monasticism was the Antonian way of
Page 17: fortification.To preserve good gove
Page 21 and 22: Theodora, and in defiance of court
Page 23 and 24: founder of monasticism in Mesopotam
Page 25 and 26: followed by Christian missionaries.
Page 27 and 28: that the followers of Arius or thei
Page 29 and 30: or a little earlier, by Christian t
Page 31 and 32: inescapable conclusion that these a
Page 33 and 34: egan the process of removing the ba
Page 35 and 36: Christendom, the Copts seem to be a
Page 37 and 38: corner of a most ancient Christiani
Page 39: appearing in translation and in sev

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