How Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep Founded Christianity and Why It Became the Perfect Meme

Demographics[edit]

The vast majority of Egyptian Christians are Copts. The word "Coptic" indirectly comes from the Greek Αἰγύπτιος Aigýptios, which simply means "Egyptian".

Over 92% of Egyptian Christians belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church in Alexandria, [1] [2] the Eastern Orthodox Church. The Coptic Church constitutes the largest Christian community in the Middle East with approximately 10 million members, including a global diaspora of approximately 1 million. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] The Coptic Orthodox Church is led by the Pope of Alexandria and the Patriarch of All Africa of the Holy See Saint Mark, currently Pope Tawardos II. Daughter sister churches are located in Armenia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, India, Lebanon and Syria.

Other native Egyptian Christians are adherents of the Coptic Catholic Church, the Coptic Evangelical Church and various Coptic Protestant denominations. Non-native Christian communities are located primarily in the urban areas of Alexandria and Cairo, and are members of the Greek Orthodox Church in Alexandria, the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Latin Catholic Church, the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, Maronite church, Armenian Catholic Church, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Catholic Church or Syriac Orthodox Church. There are several believers in Christ of Muslim origin scattered across different churches. According to a 2015 study, there are about 14,000 such believers in Egypt. [8]

In Egypt, Copts have a relatively higher level of education, a relatively higher wealth index, and a stronger representation as white-collar workers, but limited representation in the security establishment. Most demographic, socioeconomic and health indicators of Copts and Muslims are similar. [9]

Christian denominations in Egypt by number of adherents[edit]

Gallery

• Monastery of St. Anthony. III-XVI centuries
• 10th century fresco
• Monastery of Macarius the Great. 360-860
• Monastery of the Virgin Mary. 5th century
• Monastery of Paul of Thebes. 5th century
• Cave temple complex of the monastery of St. Simeon the Shoemaker in Cairo. 10th century
• Meeting at the Sinai Monastery of the embassy of Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible in 1559
• Mount Sinai and the Monastery of St. Catherine in Egypt (El Greco, 1560-1565)
• Monastery of St. Catherine in Sinai. IV-VI centuries
• Church of Saint Mary (Cairo). VII-IX centuries
• Cathedral of Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus
• Armenian Apostolic Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Cairo. 1885
• Cathedral of the Archangel Michael in Aswan
• Courtyard of the White Monastery
• View of the White Monastery from the east.
• Interior of the Church of St. Mark
• Coptic temple in Tanta
• Deir Suriani Monastery
• Coptic Church of St. Mark in Alexandria
• Annunciation Cathedral in Alexandria

History[edit]

Further information: Roman Egypt and Coptic history

Diocese of Egypt (c. 400 AD)

Egyptian Christians believe that the Patriarchate of Alexandria was founded by the Evangelist Mark around 33 AD, and Christianity entered Egypt thanks to the Apostle Mark.

By 300 it became clear [ why?

] that Alexandria was one of the great Christian centers.
Christian apologists Clement of Alexandria and Origen both lived part or all of their lives in this city, where they wrote, taught and debated. [ citation needed
]

With the Edict of Milan in 313, Constantine I ended the persecution of Christians. As the poet Palladas noted bitterly, during the 4th century paganism was suppressed and lost its followers. Graffiti at Philae in Upper Egypt proves why?

] the worship of Isis continued in his temples until the 5th century.

Alexandria became the center of the first great schism in Christendom between the Arians, named after the Alexandrian priest Arius, and their opponents [ who?

] in the person of Athanasius, who became Archbishop of Alexandria in 326 after the First Council of Nicaea rejected the views of Arius.
The controversy with the Arians caused years of unrest and rebellion throughout much of the 4th century. During one of them, the great temple of Serapis, a stronghold of paganism, was destroyed. Athanasius was alternately expelled from Alexandria and restored as archbishop five to seven times. Another religious development in Egypt was the monasticism of the Desert Fathers, who renounced the material world to live a life of poverty in devotion to the Church. [ citation needed
]

Under Muslim rule, ethnic Copts were cut off from mainstream Christianity and were forced to join the Pact of Umar. They were given the status of Dhimmi. Their situation improved dramatically under the reign of Muhammad Ali in the early 19th century. He abolished the jizya (tax on non-Muslims) and allowed ethnic Copts to enlist in the army. Pope Cyril IV (1854–1861) reformed the church and encouraged greater participation of Copts in Egyptian affairs. Khedive Ismail Pasha, in power from 1863–1879, further promoted the Copts. He appointed them as judges of the Egyptian courts and gave them political rights and representation in the government. They prospered in business affairs. [17]

Some ethnic Copts participated in the Egyptian national independence movement and held many influential positions. Two significant cultural achievements include the founding of the Coptic Museum in 1910 and the Higher Institute of Coptic Studies in 1954. Some prominent Coptic thinkers of this period are Salama Moussa, Louis Awad and the Wafd Party's general secretary Makram Ebeid.

President Nasser welcomes a delegation of Coptic bishops (1965)

In 1952, Gamal Abdel Nasser led some army officers in a coup against King Farouk, who overthrew the Kingdom of Egypt and established a republic. Nasser's main policies were pan-Arab nationalism and socialism. Ethnic Copts suffered greatly from Nasser's nationalization policies, although they constituted about 10–20% of the population. [18] In addition, Nasser's pan-Arab policies undermined the Copts' strong attachment to their Egyptian pre-Arab and of course non-Arab identity, which led to a delay in the issuance of building permits for churches along with Christian religious courts. be closed. [18]

Pharaonicism[edit]

Main article: Pharaonicism

Many Coptic intellectuals adhere to "Pharaonicism", which argues that Coptic culture is largely derived from the pre-Christian culture of the pharaohs and owes no debt to Greece. This gives the Copts a claim to a deep heritage in Egyptian history and culture. In the early 20th century, Coptic scholars widely adhered to Pharaonicism. Most modern scholars view Pharaonicism as a late stage of development, shaped primarily by Western Orientalism, and doubt its validity. [19] [20]

Harassment and discrimination[edit]

Main articles: Persecution of Copts and Freedom of religion in Egypt

Freedom of religion in Egypt is limited to varying degrees by discriminatory and restrictive government policies. Coptic Christians, the largest religious minority in Egypt, are also negatively affected. Copts faced increasing marginalization following the 1952 coup d'état led by Gamal Abdel Nasser. Until recently, Christians were required to obtain presidential permission even for minor repairs to churches. Although the law was relaxed in 2005 as approval powers were transferred to governors, Copts continue to face many obstacles and restrictions when building new churches. These restrictions do not apply to the construction of mosques. [21] [22]

In 2006, one man attacked three churches in Alexandria, killing one person and injuring 5–16 others. [23] The attacker was not associated with any organization and was described by the Home Office as "psychologically unstable". [24] In May 2010, The Wall Street Journal reported a growing wave of Muslim attacks on ethnic Copts. [25] Despite frantic calls for help, police usually arrived after the violence had ended. [25] Police also forced Copts to make "reconciliation" with their attackers to avoid prosecution, although no Muslims were convicted of any of the attacks. [26] At Marsa Matruh, a Bedouin mob of 3,000 Muslims attempted to attack the city's Coptic population, with 400 Copts forced to barricade themselves in their church while the mob destroyed 18 houses, 23 shops and 16 cars. [25]

Members of the US Congress have expressed concern about the "trafficking" of Coptic women and girls who are victims of abduction, forced conversion to Islam, sexual exploitation and forced marriage to Muslim men. [27]

Boutros Boutros-Ghali is a Coptic who served as Egypt's foreign minister under President Anwar Sadat. Today, only two Copts serve in the Egyptian government cabinet: Finance Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali and Environment Minister Magued George. There is also currently one Coptic governor out of 25, the governor of Qena Province, Upper Egypt Province, and the first Coptic governor in several decades. Additionally, Naguib Sawiris, an extremely successful businessman and one of the 100 richest people in the world, is a Coptic. In 2002, under the Mubarak government, Coptic Christmas (January 7) was recognized as an official holiday. [28] However, many Copts continue to complain about minimal representation in law enforcement, public security, and government agencies, as well as workplace discrimination based on religion. [29] [30] Most Copts do not support the independence movement or separation from other Egyptians. [31]

Although freedom of religion is guaranteed by Egypt's constitution, according to Human Rights Watch, "Egyptians can convert to Islam generally without difficulty, but Muslims who convert to Christianity face difficulties obtaining new identity documents, and some have been arrested for allegedly forging documents. such documents." [32] The Coptic community, however, makes every effort to prevent conversions from Christianity to Islam due to the ease with which Christians often become Muslims. [33] Government officials, being conservative themselves, complicate the legal procedures required to recognize a change of religion as required by law. Security authorities sometimes claim that such conversions from Islam to Christianity (or sometimes vice versa) can mix social unrest, and thereby justify wrongfully detaining items by insisting that they are simply taking measures to prevent possible social problems from occurring. [34] In 2007, the Cairo administrative court denied 45 citizens the right to obtain identity documents confirming their conversion to Christianity after converting to Islam. [35] However, in February 2008, the Supreme Administrative Court overturned the decision, allowing 12 citizens who had returned to Christianity to re-indicate their religion on their identity cards, [36] [37] but they would indicate that they had converted to Islam for a short period of time. [38]

In August 2013, following the 3 July 2013 coup d'état and clashes between the military and Morsi supporters, Sunni Muslims carried out widespread attacks on Coptic churches and institutions in Egypt. [39] [40] According to at least one Egyptian scholar (Samuel Tadros), these attacks represent the worst violence against the Coptic Church since the 14th century. [41]

USA Today

reported that "forty churches were looted and burned, and 23 others were attacked and seriously damaged." According to journalist Kirsten Powers, the Facebook page of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party was "replete with false accusations aimed at inciting hatred against Copts." The party's page claimed that the Coptic Church had declared "war on Islam and Muslims" and that "the Pope of the Church is involved in the removal of the first elected Islamist president. The Pope of the Church claims that Islamic Sharia is backward, stubborn, and reactionary." [41] [42] [43] On August 15, nine Egyptian human rights groups merged into the group "

In December...Brotherhood leaders began stirring up anti-Christian sectarian incitement. Anti-Coptic incitement and threats continued unabated until the June 30 demonstrations, and with the removal of President Morsi... turned into sectarian violence, which was sanctioned... by continued anti-Coptic rhetoric heard from group leaders on stage... throughout the sit-in. [41] [44]

On February 25, 2021, an Egyptian court found four Coptic Christian teenagers guilty of contempt of Islam after they appeared in a video mocking Muslim prayers. [45]

The Holy Family came to Egypt about two thousand years ago, hiding from the persecution of the insane ruler of Palestine, King Herod. Egypt had already sheltered many prophets such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and Jeremiah along with the tribes of the Israelites, but its greatest blessing came when Jesus came here with his mother the Virgin Mary and remained here until the death of Herod. A quarter of a century later, a young Jewish preacher traveling through Galilee - Jesus of Nazareth - begins to deliver his amazing sermons and wins unprecedented popular support, gaining the reputation of the most influential prophet of that time. Some followers of Jesus call themselves his disciples and claim that he is the long-awaited messiah, Christ.

According to historical information, a new teaching came to Egypt in the middle of the 1st century, during the reign of Emperor Nero, it was brought by one of the apostles of Jesus Christ - St. Mark. Christianity was greeted here with enthusiasm, as elsewhere, where ancient civilization failed to provide people with a decent life. The natural basis for the propaganda of the new faith was the presence of a significant Jewish colony in Alexandria. The Jewish poor find expressions like “the first will be last and the last will be first” irresistible. In fact, the first person to be baptized in Egypt was a Jewish shoemaker from Alexandria.

It is not easy to answer the question why the Egyptians, with their unique civilization, accepted the divinity of Jesus. The rapid spread of the new faith was undoubtedly accelerated by the conditions in which Egypt found itself under Roman rule. Emperor Octavian Augustus turned Egypt into a Roman colony and, by dispersing the Senate in Alexandria, deprived the Greco-Macedonian ruling elite of administrative power. The institution of the sanctification of the monarchy, an essential characteristic of Egyptian society during the time of the pharaohs, which was supported by the Ptolemaic dynasty, ceased to exist. Roman governors ruled Egypt without asking the blessings of the priests, and the prestige of the Egyptian priests fell catastrophically. Egypt became the patrimony of the emperor, a place of rest and entertainment for high Roman society. The Romans imposed huge taxes on the population and, in essence, turned Egypt into a granary supplying wheat to Rome. They recruited Egyptians into the Roman army to fight and die in other countries in endless wars. The Egyptians had no influence in their own country and felt like second-class citizens. An atmosphere of general disappointment, humiliation and discrimination reigned among them. The silence of the oracles contributed to the formation of a spiritual void, where the past was beyond memory and the future without hope. This was the void that Christianity filled. People readily welcomed the doctrine, which gave them hope of salvation, brotherhood and mercy. A body of earlier pagan beliefs prepared the way for the Christian message. Belief in the afterlife and the effectiveness of prayer, forgiveness of sins, the rite of baptism and purification with water - all this was in Egypt a thousand years before Christianity. Even after losing their independence, the Egyptians continued to believe in an all-encompassing cosmic order that governs humanity. Christianity responded to their religious traditions with the cult of Osiris and Isis as prototypes of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary. It again returned to them the home altar, the priests, the heavenly hierarchy of angels and God as the Father and Creator of order.

At first, the spread of the new faith in this region of the Roman Empire was perceived calmly by the authorities. The pagan religion of the Romans was associated with success; the pagan gods promised victory in war, good harvests, good luck in love and marriage, and the birth of sons and daughters. In the Roman Empire it seemed natural to make sacrifices and burn incense to the divine Caesars, no matter how disgusting their tyranny. Popular enthusiasm extended divine honors to such heroes as deceased athletes and boxers, and even to Olympic champion horses! Defeats, famines, failures, infertility, and civil unrest were considered a sign of the gods' displeasure. The traditional religion of ancient Rome was a public cult, and refusal to participate in it was considered as disloyalty with all the ensuing consequences. For Egyptian Christians, the demand for the deification of an emperor, who, as a rule, had dubious moral qualities, was offensive, and they avoided sacrifices. St. Mark was killed in 62 in Alexandria, when he openly protested against pagan rituals. Christians, however, did everything to convince people not to follow the customs of their fathers, Jews and non-Jews, and thereby destroyed the monolithic nature of society. The universal and perfect God of the Christian religion was very different from the numerous and unpredictable gods of Olympus, who had limited power and local significance. The young Church encouraged piety, repentance, equality of women, condemned suicide, and preached the rejection of idolatry, pagan eroticism and incest. While polytheism, with its permissiveness, embraced the entire ancient society, the moral strictness of the new religion and Christian ethics significantly limited the participation of Christians in certain types of professional activities, which led to some separation of believers from society. A true Christian could not think of becoming a teacher, since this involved studying literature and philosophy imbued with pagan ideals. Acting and dancing were also considered suspicious activities, and any involvement in magic was completely unacceptable. Violence was seen as incompatible with the ethics of the Kingdom of God, and therefore Christians had difficulties with military service. The “bad behavior” of Christians, as Emperor Hadrian described it in 130, was recognized later by the authorities: Christians refused to worship the omnipotent divine emperor and prayed to their only god - the poor and persecuted Jesus, moreover, Christian communities united against Rome’s attempts to impose official paganism. However, persecution of Christians during that transitional period was still rare, and the young teaching developed successfully. The theological college in Alexandria became the stronghold of religious science in the period of early Christianity. Patriarch Clement (160-215) headed it for 20 years. “In the beginning was the Word, and that word was God.” All early Christian literature was created in Greek. For many centuries before Christ, the official languages ​​in Egypt were Greek and Egyptian, and Greek was used more widely, since it was much easier to study and read than Egyptian hieroglyphs. Around 750-656 BC, scientists began translating Egyptian phonemes into the Greek alphabet, and this required adding eight signs of the Egyptian script to convey those sounds for which there were no Greek letters. The language transformed in this way became known as Coptic. The word “Copts” meant “Egyptians” and came from the Greek name of the country - Aiguptos, that is, Egypt. Under Clement, the psalms and selected chapters from the New Testament were translated from Greek into Coptic, making the Holy Scriptures accessible to most Egyptians. Clement wrote commentaries on the Bible and a number of theological treatises condemning the absurd behavior of the pagan gods of Olympus. More relevant, however, was a treatise called "The Rich Man's Rescue," which sensitively addressed an issue about which business people were very sensitive. The problem of wealth worried wealthy Christians, and they interpreted literally the commandment of Jesus Christ to rich young people seeking salvation to “sell everything you have and give to the poor.” In response to these interpretations, Clement argued that "the Word of God does not command us to renounce wealth, but only to dispose of it in an honorable manner." The wise patriarch believed in the bloodless arrival of true faith. But in vain Clement hoped for a peaceful and calm transition from paganism to Christianity. The new faith was already coming with a double-edged sword that would tear the ancient world apart, and here in Egypt it had already struck at the Hellenized elite with their hybrid gods invented by the Ptolemies. Christianity declared war on two great forces, the state and sex, and the old order was on the verge of extinction during this complex confrontation. Together with the entire Roman Empire, Alexandria plunged into a whirlpool of civil and religious unrest. Clement himself was forced to flee to Palestine in 203, hiding from the persecution of Emperor Septimius Severus. The barbarians attacked the borders of the empire, shaken by internal unrest. The emperors' difficulties were compounded by religious problems, but the Senate in Rome continued to proclaim them gods.

The first reliable documents testifying to the official persecution of Christians in Egypt date back to the mid-3rd century. Under Emperor Decius (r. 249–251), people were required to participate in traditional pagan rituals in the presence of Roman officers and present certificates swearing sacrifices. Those who refused were tortured. Others took false oaths and threw a few grains onto the pagan altars as proof. Although thousands died due to the verdict of the court and vigilance committees, there were also those who were saved and continued their work. But these pogroms were not comparable to the Great Persecution unleashed by Diocletian. In 284 the Roman army elected him emperor, and the disastrous conditions facing the empire necessitated unpopular reforms reminiscent of War Communism. Latin was introduced as the official language in Egypt. Diocletian sought to strengthen the Roman Empire in this way, but the Egyptians desperately resisted. Imperatov declared Christians a destructive element and considered it best to get rid of them. Egyptian Christians (Copts) were dismissed from government positions, their property was confiscated, their houses were demolished, and copies of the Holy Scriptures were burned. Many were tortured and killed, churches were banned and destroyed. The ancient martyrology counts 144 thousand martyrs for the faith over 9 years! The persecution was inhumane, women and children died subjected to monstrous torture. The Egyptian Christian Church did not perish as a result of persecution, but began to trace its chronology not from the birth of Christ, but from the so-called era of martyrs (284).

The result of the Great Persecution was the rapid rise of the monastic movement, the idea and philosophy of which originally arose in Egypt. In search of moral improvement and salvation from persecution, people of spiritual inclinations went into the desert, where the spirit of martyrdom grew. When St. Paul (228-343) and St. Anthony (251-356) - two of the first and well-known spiritual leaders of monasticism - devoted their lives to meditation and prayer on the deserted coast of the Red Sea, many followed their example. In the 3rd century, thousands of hermits leading an ascetic lifestyle already lived separately or in small groups in the catacombs and caves of Sinai. St. Anthony gave his disciples two simple principles of monastic life: prayer and work. The leaders of the hermits could be of simple origin, like St. Paul, but could also belong to the upper class of landowners, like St. Anthony, at the age of twenty, distributed his property to the poor and retired into the desert. As the reputation of the Desert Fathers grew, their followers became more and more numerous. Countless pilgrims visited the hermits and imitated their spiritually ordered life. The activities of the Christian church led to the creation of new social formations - monasteries, which provided not only a spiritual refuge for those who heeded the divine call, but also physical safety, peace and protection from the dominance of tax collectors and the lawlessness of the Roman army. Many monks were important public figures. Thus, one of the greatest Egyptian spiritual leaders was St. Pachomius (292-346) At the monasteries of Pachomius, located in Upper Egypt, there were bakeries, reservoirs, workshops and trading shops. Pachomius introduced a strict daily routine, he emphasized that a healthy spirit is found in a healthy body, and believed that there should be moderation in everything, even in prayers. His goal was to create godly, enlightened, and economically self-sufficient communities that would serve as an example to others.

The persecution of Christians ceased under Emperor Constantine (280-337). Constantine's commitment to Christianity is entirely related to his rise to the pinnacle of power. In 312, Emperor Constantine - full name Flavius ​​Valerius Constantine - won the civil war. On the eve of the decisive battle, he had a vision of the shining cross of Jesus against the background of the sun and the words “With this sign you will win.” The miraculous symbol was embossed on the shields of the soldiers, the battle was won with minimal chances of success, and throughout his life Emperor Constantine carried the conviction that he owed his victories to his conversion to Christianity and the support of the Christian God. The Edict of Milan in 313 legitimized the principles of religious tolerance and formally recognized Christianity as one of the religions officially permitted in the Roman Empire. Finally, it became safe to be a Christian, and many monks, including St. Anthony, came out of their caves and catacombs to build churches and monasteries. The property of the Church was restored, the construction of churches at the expense of public funds was encouraged, Christian priests were exempted from paying taxes, civil and military service. Constantine built a great many churches throughout the empire, including the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, legalized church property and established free supplies of food to the church. Pagan persecution had ceased, and the controversy about the nature of Christ, because of which so much blood would be shed, had not yet flared up. The number of believers increased significantly, especially among the middle and upper classes. It seemed that under the spiritual leadership of the renewed Church, the old world would enter the new without misfortunes and catastrophes. All of Egypt is already ripe for Christianity, but which one exactly? Disagreements arose. The debate revolved around the concepts of "Father" and "Son". What began as an academic theological debate threatened to cause division throughout the empire. The first conflict arose between the patriarchs of Alexandria, Athanasius and Arius. The disagreement between them turned out to be so irreconcilable that Constantine was forced to intervene and begged his fellow Christians to be like the Greek philosophers, who knew how to argue without bloodshed. Nobody listened. Arius stubbornly stood his ground: Jesus was of a different nature than the Father, he was created in time and, therefore, could not possibly be divine. And Emperor Constantine, Arius believed, this brave warrior with the heart of a lion, allowed himself to be confused so easily. And there was a serious danger that he would officially establish a wrong type of Christianity that would plunge the world into heresy for a thousand years!

The Most Reverend Athanasius, an uncompromising opponent of the Arian heresy, insisted that the Father and the Son are of the same divine nature. How difficult it was! The Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 325, in the presence of Emperor Constantine and 310 bishops, condemned the doctrine of Arius and declared him a heretic. Venerable Elder St. Antony was also present and fiercely debated with Arius. The triumphant Athanasius returned to Alexandria in triumph and found there... Arius, preaching his heresy as if nothing had happened! Such was the will of Constantine! The Emperor feared that the division of the Church would offend the Christian God and that divine retribution would fall on the Roman Empire and Constantine himself. The emperor's various attempts to find a compromise solution came to nothing. The implacable defender of Christian orthodoxy persecuted Arius with such force that it was Athanasius's turn to be expelled from Alexandria. He was expelled five times, and each time after the next expulsion, Arius became the patriarch of Alexandria and continued to deny the divinity of Jesus! The disputes did not stop; mountains of paper were consumed. The Temple of Cleopatra was the first to fall under the onslaught of truth. The Arians and the Orthodox competed so much for its consecration for six years that the ruins of the temple were burned down in fire!

The Alexandrian Church received a second blow when Constantine in 330 founded a new capital - Constantinople - as a counterweight to pagan Rome. His refusal to take part in the pagan procession offended the Romans, who did not want to part with their former gods, and after this the emperor never returned there. Constantinople - the eastern analogue of the former capital, the “second Rome” - was ideally located on the site of the Greek colony of Byzantium on the Bosporus. The emperors' divorce from Rome lasted for almost a hundred years. Rome and Alexandria lost their prestige and political significance. Geographical changes were accompanied by religious ones: the new city was turning into a real Christian capital. Its magnificent churches shone with masterpieces, far more beautiful than those in Alexandria or anywhere else. Constantinople became the metropolis of Greek science and art, the center of Christian learning. The authority of Alexandria was seriously undermined. This was an era when religious dignitaries expelled each other and mobs plundered churches of opposing sides. Under Theodosius I (reigned 379-395), the Arian heresy was finally branded, orthodox Christianity was proclaimed the only religion, and the Eastern Roman Empire, after the capture of Rome by the Visigoths, began to be called the Byzantine Empire. Drastic measures were taken against the pagans, culminating in Theodosius's order prohibiting, under threat of treason, all forms of pagan worship, private and public, including the Olympic Games. In 385, pagan temples were closed and sacrifices to Zeus were prohibited. The Christian Church, encouraged by Constantinople, began to dominate state institutions and worldly life, and gained unprecedented political power in all regions of the Byzantine Empire. The head of the Egyptian Church, the Patriarch of Alexandria, becomes the most influential figure in Egypt. The powers of the patriarchs significantly exceeded the power of the Byzantine governors and their garrisons sent from Constantinople. In reality, Egypt was ruled by the Patriarch of Alexandria and his army of monks. Christianity, accepted officially, was introduced in many cases by force, and the monks took every opportunity to settle scores with the pagans, attacking them under the leadership of the patriarchs during services and destroying the Ptolemaic temples in which adherents of the former faith were hiding. By order of Emperor Theodosius I in 391, the monks destroyed the famous Library of Alexandria, and a Christian monastery was erected on this site. The fanaticism of Christians in the name of the triumph of orthodoxy was not so different from the evil excesses to which Christianity itself was once subjected. In one of the pogroms in 415, Hypatia, a Neoplatonist philosopher, mathematician and astronomer, was killed. She aroused the hostility of Christians because she had extraordinary influence over the civil prefect of Alexandria. Father Kirill, the Patriarch of Alexandria, wanted nothing more than to get rid of Hypatia. A wild black army of monks filled the streets of Alexandria, intent on performing holy deeds before retiring to their monasteries, and met Hypatia coming from a lecture. It was literally torn apart by fanatical defenders of the Christian faith. But under the guise of religious passions, racial prejudices were hidden: the monks killed Hypatia not because she was a sinner, but because she was Greek. They had enough reason to hate the Greeks from the time when the arrogant Ptolemies ruled Egypt. Greek culture in Alexandria began to decline. And as soon as a theological formula was found through which the Copts expressed themselves, religious disobedience against Constantinople broke out. The obvious pretext was one of the doctrines. If the holy fathers of the 4th century argued over the relationship between the Father and the Son, then in the 5th century they were faced with the problem of the relationship between two substances - bodily and spiritual - in Jesus Christ himself. The Coptic theologians of Alexandria recognized only the spiritual incarnation of Jesus after his death, and their monophysical heresy became the second great heresy in the Eastern Empire. A rupture appeared inevitable after the Council of Chalcedony in 451. The Ecumenical Council demonstrated Byzantium's determination to put pressure on the church authorities in Egypt and Egypt's equal determination not to submit. Patriarch Dioscurus became the first hero of the early schism of the Byzantine Church, after rejecting all attempts at compromise. The Council of Chalcedony expelled Dioscurus and condemned his monophysical doctrine. The refusal of the Alexandrian orthodox to ratify the doctrine of Constantinople led to the separation of Egyptian Christians from the Byzantine and Roman churches. From this moment on, the Greeks in Egypt could breathe freely, but Alexandria was ruled by two patriarchs. One of them, of Greek origin, was appointed officially by Constantinople, adhered to the prescriptions of Chalcedony and received the largest part of church income. But he did not have spiritual power over the Egyptians; for them he remained a hated Greek. The Coptic patriarch was a simple Egyptian monk, poor, fanatical and popular. Each of the patriarchs claimed to represent St. Mark and the true Church. Each of them continues to claim this in Alexandria today. The balance of the patriarchs was maintained with the help of Greek garrisons. As a result, Egypt became easy prey for enemy invasion. After the Chalcedony incident, the Coptic Church broke with the other Churches and declared itself independent. Egyptian theologians began to write primarily in Coptic, and Greek ceased to dominate the ecclesiastical and secular life of the Copts. While both Churches of Constantinople—one with Greek adherents in Alexandria and the other in Rome—enjoyed the graces of imperial favor, accumulated considerable wealth, built beautiful churches, and developed lavish ceremonies of worship, the Coptic priests struggled to survive.

Dissatisfaction with Constantinople's rule and disunity created the conditions that allowed Egypt's old enemies, the Persians, to invade the Nile Delta and capture Alexandria in 619. This was a period of exceptional hostility towards the Coptic Church. The Persians did not allow religious services to be held and killed many monks in the basements of the monasteries. Around the same time, events began to occur in Arabia that would bring dramatic changes to Egypt. They were caused by the flight of the Prophet Mohammed from Mecca to Medina in 622 and the declaration of jihad - holy war - by Byzantium. On September 29, 642, the Muslim commander Amr Ibn al-As marched into Alexandria—thus began the unprecedented Arab conquest of Egypt. The Byzantine army offered significant resistance to the Arab troops, but the local population behaved more than ambiguously. The Copts had great hopes for their deliverance from Byzantium and, if they did not support the invaders, they did not provide assistance to the Byzantine garrison. The Arab conquest completed the separation of Egypt from the rest of Christendom and was accompanied for several years by the vicious persecution of Coptic Christians by the Chalcedonian patriarch of Alexandria, Cyrus. It was he who pushed Egypt towards Islam.

Religious disunity continued to weaken the Byzantine Empire, leading the Eastern Orthodox Church to division and eventual separation from Rome. By the time of the partition between Rome and Constantinople in 1054, adherents of the Eastern Orthodox Church had spread throughout the Middle East, the Balkans and Kievan Rus. The creation of the Slavic alphabet - the Cyrillic alphabet - by the two monk brothers Cyril and Methodius made it possible to translate the Bible into the Slavic language and establish Christianity in the Slavic lands. When the Byzantine Empire fell to the Turks, Moscow—the “third Rome”—became the center of Orthodoxy.

The Arab caliphs, although they favored those who converted to Islam, did not interfere in the internal affairs of the Christian Church. Subject to complete submission and proper payment of taxes, the Copts were guaranteed security and freedom of religion. But with the coming to power of the Mamluks in 1250, Christianity in Egypt quickly declined, and in the 14th century the Copts found themselves in the minority. Only in the middle of the 19th century, under the leadership of the great reformer, educator and statesman Patriarch Cyril IV, the Copts again regained their prestige and lost positions in the state. Despite being integrated into Muslim society, the Copts survived. Today there are about 7 million of them, which is approximately 10% of the Egyptian population. The Coptic Orthodox Church has entered into ecumenical dialogue and participates in the World Council of Churches. Coptic tradition considers Saint Mark to be the first Patriarch of Alexandria, and the current spiritual leader of the Coptic Church, Father Shenouda III, is his 117th successor, Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa. Coptic and Eastern Orthodox doctrines agree, except for the monophysics issue. In worship, however, the Arabic language is used; during the service, members of the congregation, both men and women, are present in the church together, but stand separately, women on the right, men on the left. Women are not required to cover their heads. The most important religious holiday among the Copts, as in the days of early Christianity, is Easter. The Holy Week on the eve of Easter begins with Palm Sunday - this is the day when Jesus entered Jerusalem and the people covered his path with palm branches. Lent on the eve of Easter, during which only plant foods are allowed - legumes, vegetables, olive oil, lasts fifty-five days. On Palm Sunday, believers remember their loved ones in cemeteries and decorate their homes and churches with palm branches.

The patriarch and 12 bishops regulate the finances of the church, prescribe rules for marriage, inheritance and other matters of personal status of Christians. In Cairo alone, not counting other cities, there are about 150 Coptic churches and 150 Coptic institutions, including schools, orphanages, nursing homes and hospitals. Today in Egypt there are more than 25 active monasteries and there is a revival of the monastic movement. Young people who have chosen the monastic path for themselves, as a rule, have a higher education, but only after serving in the army and completing worldly affairs can they go to monasteries, where they work in a specialty acquired in worldly life: librarians, doctors, agronomists, builders, engineers. Before taking monastic orders, a probationary period of at least three years is required.

Copts believe in the effectiveness of sacred amulets designed to protect against the devil's evil eye and all kinds of obsessions, and especially in the miraculous power of patron saints. The most revered among them is St. Mina, or Abu Mina, who performed many miracles. He is said to have resurrected a man who had been cut to pieces by the Bedouins, and another who had been torn to pieces by crocodiles. According to Coptic legend, the young officer Mina, an Egyptian by birth, from a good family, a Christian and an ascetic, served in the Roman army and was killed in 296 in Libya after monstrous torture during the persecution of Diocletian. The executioners gouged out his eyes, twisted his limbs, and cut off his tongue. Mina did not renounce his faith, and the emperor personally beheaded him. After all sorts of vicissitudes with miraculous deliverance from attacks, the coffin with the body of the martyr was returned to the Egyptian coast, and the Bedouins sent him to Alexandria through the desert on a camel, but he, having reached a certain area, refused to go further. The other camel also did not move. The coffin was buried at this place, and from then on miracles began to happen here: hopeless patients recovered, other visitors successfully resolved complex problems. The burial site became a place of pilgrimage. After the daughter of Emperor Arcadius visited the grave of the martyr, she was healed of leprosy, and the grateful father built a magnificent monastic city here in the middle of the desert (395-408). In the V-VII centuries, the monastery of St. Mina became the greatest center of pilgrimage, a famous place of healing from various ailments: thanks to the healing properties of the sacred oil from the lamps that burned inextinguishably at the relics of the holy martyr for the faith, thousands of people were freed from illnesses. Suffering people came here from all over the Christian world and took with them the miraculous oil in small ceramic jugs with the image of a young saint standing between two camels. Many historians have left evidence of their stay in the monastery, located somewhere near Alexandria in a fertile oasis among vineyards. They mentioned colossal buildings decorated with marble columns, mosaics, and frescoes. After the Arab conquest, the monastery of St. Mina ended up in the hands of the Greek Orthodox. During fierce disputes between Greek and Coptic parishioners over the issue of eligibility, the monastery was sacked. In the 8th century, the Arab governor issued a decree that the relics of Abu Mina were the property of the Coptic Church. But nothing remained from the former monastic city except memory. Many archaeologists tried to find it, but, contrary to the testimony of medieval travelers, they could not find any traces. In the end, scientists agreed that the monastery of Abu Mina is nothing more than a beautiful myth. And only in 1905, as a result of excavations carried out by the German archaeologist Karl Kaufmann, the ruins of the ancient basilica were discovered. Thirty marble steps led to the crypt, and at a depth of ten meters under the ruins of the altar was the burial of St. Mines. In the grave there was an icon of the saint, exactly as it was described by medieval historians: a young officer against the backdrop of the desert and two camels. Gradually, the entire ancient city, with its churches and squares, a hotel for pilgrims, workshops, a bakery and souvenir stalls, was revealed to archaeologists.

In 1959, during the Patriarchate of Cyril VI, the construction of a new monastery of Abu Mina began in its former place. Construction is almost complete, and pilgrims flock to the monastery, as in the Middle Ages, convinced that their participation in the “second birth” of St. Mina will bring them blessings. The main church, monastic cells, library, hospital, workshops for processing marble, souvenir shops, refectories for monks and pilgrims, where tired travelers can get a hot lunch for free, have already been built. Visitors willingly buy products grown on monastery lands and processed here: vegetables, olives, olive oil, fish, poultry - everything is environmentally friendly and inexpensive. In the monastery church, at the relics of St. Minas can always be seen by parishioners leaving notes asking for help. It is not necessary to sign, because the almighty saint, of course, knows who addressed him. Just like one and a half thousand years ago, the sufferers take with them from the chapel the relics of St. Mina ampoules with sacred oil with healing properties.

The stone reliefs of the monastery, wood and ivory carvings, wall paintings, and mosaics reflect all the originality of former Coptic art, rich in motifs from Greek mythology. Here, as elsewhere in Coptic churches, you will not see paintings with biblical scenes on the theme of torture, suffering, and punishment of sinners in hell. Copts believe that they should not show suffering and humiliation and not sinners, but the greatness and holiness of the martyrs. Economic conditions no doubt played an important role in the development of the style, and the deficiency of the patronage system is evident in many aspects of Coptic art, reflected in the shortage of skilled craftsmen and the lack of expensive materials. The domes of Coptic churches are devoid of gold covering, but the Coptic Church is not strong because of gold.

https://www.zerkalo-nedeli.com/nn/show/339/30688/

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Notes[edit]

1. Figures vary, but censuses and other third-party studies estimate Egypt's Christian population at around 5%. Eight consecutive census results from 1927 (8.3% Christian) to 1996 (5.7% Christian) show a declining trend in the Christian population. [3] However, censuses may have underestimated the number of Christians. [3] The National Demographic and Health Survey (2008), supported by US AID, found that about 5% of respondents were Christian. [3] QScience Connect in 2013, using data from 2008, estimated that 5.1% of Egyptians aged 15 to 59 were Copts. [4] The Pew Foundation estimates that the number of Christians in 2010 was 5.1%. [46] Other estimates are not based on surveys, but among generally reliable sources the trend is safely closer to 10% of the Christian population. Encyclopædia Britannica states that Copts make up up to 10% of Egypt's population. [47] Government agencies such as the US State Department, the CIA and the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office estimate Egypt's Christian population at 9–10% (about 10 million). [5] [48] [7] The BBC and CNN estimate the Coptic Christian population to be between 6 and 11 million. [49] [6] The National Geographic Society and the Century Foundation estimated it at 10% of Egypt's population. [50] [51] Al-Ahram newspaper, one of Egypt's state newspapers, reported a percentage of between 10% and 15% (2017). [52] Some sources give 10-20%. [53] [11] [54] The Christian Post in 2004 quoted the Coptic Association of the United States as saying that 15% of the population are native Christians. [55]

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