Ancient Christian Monasteries of Egypt

Saint Catherine’s Monastery (Greek Orthodox)

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St Catherine’s Monastery – Wikipedia

Located in the southern mountains of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, Saint Catherine’s Monastery is among the oldest Christian monasteries. Founded in 565 by Roman Emperor Justinian I, the monastery has stood for more than fourteen centuries. During that time it faced many dangers, and been attacked on multiple occasions. But despite the monumental changes brought by events like the Arab Conquest, and the Crusades, it remains. The monks of the monastery believe this is due in part to protection they say was bestowed upon the monastery by Muhammad, in a document known as the Ashtiname of Muhammad.

The monastery, which houses the largest known collection of ancient manuscripts (after the Vatican), maintains the oldest continuously operated library in the world. Discovered within its library were a number of important early Christian manuscripts. Included were the Codex Sinaiticus, which is one of the only complete manuscripts of the early Bible, and the Syriac Sinaitic, which was discovered by two sister from Victorian Britain, Agnes Smith Lewis and her sister Margaret Dunlop Gibson. The Syriac Sinaitic, represents the oldest known copy of the gospels written in Syriac, the original language of Biblical writers.

Saint Catherine of Alexandria, the Monastery’s namesake, is said to have been a Christian martyr that was put to death by the Roman emperor Maxentiusm. However, many modern scholars believe the legend of Saint Catherine is actually based on the life and death of Hypatia, a well known Greek philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician that lived in Alexandria. Hypatia, while a pagan, worked with and taught many from the emerging Christian community of her time. But the growing sectarian strife between the two groups ultimately cost her her life, when she was murdered by a mob of Christian monks in 415 A.D.

Videos:
Greek-Orthodox: Monastery Of St.Catherien, Sinai (Egypt)

Suggested Reading: 
The Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Discovered the Hidden Gospels – Janet Soskice
The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia–and How It Died – Philip Jenkins

Monastery of Saint Anthony (Coptic)

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Saint Athanasius

The Monastery of Saint Anthony, is named after the monk considered the father of Christian monasticism. Born in 251 A.D. and supposedly dying in 356 A.D. he is said to have lived to be 105, an extraordinary feat at a time in history when most lived into their 40’s and 50’s if they were lucky. Anthony was born to very wealthy landowners, but at an early age, decided to sell or give away his family’s wealth and become an ascetic.  For much of his life he lived in isolation, even purposely avoiding those who would try and follow him, by disappearing deeper into Egypt’s Eastern Desert. But he is also known to have come out of his isolation on several occasions to teach others what he had learned, and to console prisoners in Alexandra. He even offered himself up as a martyr to local rulers who were persecuting local Christians, but was never harmed.

Much of what we now know of Saint Anthony was passed down by several of his followers, including Saint Athanasius, who wrote a biography titled Life of Saint Anthony the Great, and Saint Macarius of Alexandria. The monastery itself was built after Anthony’s death, between 298–300 A.D., near where he’d lived as a hermit.  Over the many centuries of its existence, the monastery saw both periods of peace and persecution. At times it served as a refuge for monks from other monasteries that were being attacked by Bedouin and Berber tribesman.  And at others times it fell victim to attacks itself.

In the Middle Ages it became a destination for religious pilgrims, in particular from the various Crusader armies that visited the Middle East from the 11th through the 13th centuries.

Its more recent history has been marked by periods of prosperity, and others that left the monastery in near ruin.

Videos:
The Origin: Monasteries Of The Desert, Wadi-Al-Natroun (Egypt) • Abbeys and Monasteries
The Last Anchorite –  Father Lazarus El Anthony

Suggested Reading:
Life of St. Anthony of Egypt – St. Athanasius of Alexandria
Desert Father: A Journey in the Wilderness with Saint Anthony – James Cowan
Stories from the Egyptian Desert – Bishop Macarius

Monastery of Saint Macarius the Great (Coptic)

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This monastery was founded by its namesake, Saint Macarius the Great of Egypt, in 360 A.D. Macarius, like many other ascetics of the period, lost his family connections at a young age, gave away what inheritance he had to the poor afterward, and devoted his life to his Christian faith. He also suffered from accusations of immorality by local villagers, which further turned him away from society. This ultimately led him to flee to the Scetis Desert southwest of Alexandria. Through his actions, and eventual relationship with St. Anthony, he soon gained his own following of ascetic monks, around which he built a monastic community, and ultimately the monastery that exists today.

In time, Scetis became a center of Christian monasticism, and home to many Coptic monasteries, a number of which survive to this day.

Videos:
The Light of the Desert Documentary on St Macarius Monastery, Egypt

Monastery of Saint Paul the Anchorite (Coptic)

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This monastery was named in honor of Saint Paul of Thebes, who is often called the first Christian hermit. Paul spent much of his life alone in Egypt’s desert, in part to avoid persecution by various Roman Emperors of the time. Much of what we know of Saint Paul comes from his brief interaction with Saint Anthony, who after a dream sought out the hermit that he’d heard about from others. Legend says that they spent an evening together, eating and talking, and when Anthony arose the next day he found Paul who was already 113, dead. Saint Anthony buried the monk, and brought back what there was of Paul’s possessions to his monastery.

The story of his life was composed in the book Life of Saint Paul the First Hermit , by Saint Jerome around 375 A.D.

The monastery was established in the 5th century, on top of the cave where Paul spent much of his life. Over the course of its existence, the monastery has been inhabited by various groups of monks from Byzantium, Egypt and Syria.

Suggested Reading:
The Cave Church of Paul the Hermit: At the Monastery of St. Paul in Egypt – William Lyster

Syrian Monastery (Coptic)

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Syrian Monastery – Wikipedia

The Syrian Monastery derives its present name, not from a particular saint as most in Egypt, but from the origin of most of the monks that have inhabited it throughout history. Most historical sources suggest the monastery started in the 6th century, and was founded because of a religious disagreement about the nature of Jesus, and whether he was perfect without the ability to sin, or a flawed, potentially corruptible person as we all are. Those who did not share the idea that Jesus was perfect, decided with the blessing of the government at the time to break away and form their own monasteries. In this particular case it was monks who left the nearby Monastery of Saint Pishoy that led to the monastery’s creation.

Some believe the monastery derives its name from a group of Syrian merchants who purchased the monastery in the 8th century, and filled it with monks from their homeland. However the monastery has a long history of accepting refugees from other regions, including Syrians fleeing to Egypt in the 12th century.

Like other monasteries over the centuries, it has faced its own challenges, including attacks from local tribes, and at one point the monastery was decimated by the plague, leaving only one known monk at the monastery when it was visited in 1413.

Over the centuries numerous manuscripts were acquired from the monastery’s library, and now reside at the Vatican and British Museum.

Monastery of Saint Shenouda  (Coptic)

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This monastery takes its name from one of the most revered saints in Coptic Christianity, Shenouda the Archimandrite. It is also called the White Monastery, a name that comes from the color of the limestone it was created from.

Even though the monastery was  founded by Shenouda’s uncle, Saint Pigol (442 A.D.), the monastery saw its greatest growth and influence under the leadership of Shenouda. During Pigol’s time the monastery housed 30 elderly monks. Shenouda grew this number to over 2000. And its name honors his achievements.

Shenouda was also an instrumental player during Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in 431 AD. It was this council and the religious disagreements that followed,  that split a significant segment of the Christian Church in the Middle East from the rest of the Christianity.

Like many other monasteries, the Monastery of Saint Shehounda went through periods of peace and strife, prosperity, and decline. Probably its greatest test occurred during the Arab conquests, when it was highly taxed by the Muslim rulers of the time. This ruined many other Christian monasteries in Egypt, but this particular monastery managed to survive. It also experienced periodic attacks from Bedouin and Berber tribesmen, forcing the construction of a keep to protect the monks.

One other aspect that the White Monastery is widely known, and this again reflects back on Saint Shehounda, was its ancient library. Shehounda strongly emphasized literacy among his fellow monks, who in turn created and preserved a treasure trove of codices and manuscripts that have found their way into countless libraries around the world.

On a side note, the White Monastery shares a historical and geographic connection to another monastic community, known as the Red Monastery.  Its name like the White Monastery, reflects the color of its building material, a red sandstone. Not much is known of the early history of the Red Monastery, other than it was built in the 4th century and is dedicated to Saint Pishay, who was a contemporary of Shenouda.  Its been suggested that the overshadowing, or control of this monastery by the White Monastery may have contributed to the limited knowledge of its history. One historical event we do know about though  was the ransacking and burning of the Red Monastery by the Mamluks. This was reported by the 15th century historian Al-Maqrizi who arrived in the area shortly after it happened, and just reflects the challenges that many Christian monastic communities faced over the centuries in Egypt.

Today the Red Monastery is occupied by a growing community of monks, and was recently the focus of a major restoration effort by the US agency USAID.

Video:
Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition—The Red Monastery
Virtual tour of the Red Monastery

Saint Bishoy Monastery (Coptic)

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Saint Bishoy Monastery – Wikipedia

This monastery is named after Saint Bishoy, a well known saint in both the Coptic and Eastern Orthodox Christian traditions. The monastery is considered the most important monastery in Coptic Christianity and the final resting place of the Coptic Pope Shenouda III. Bishoy founded the monastery in the 4th century, and was later buried there at his request, Pope Joseph I of Alexandria.

It is said that Saint Bishoy at the age of 20, was sent went into the desert wilderness of Scetis by God, to live a monastic life. And it was on the site of the current monastery that he chose to live as a hermit in seclusion. In response to attacks by Berbers, he was also known to have sought refuge further south for a time, at the mountain of Ansena, where he befriended another future saint (Paul of Tammah), and founded another monastery that still bears his name.

During its long history, the monastery has been pillaged on at least 5 separate occasions, with its monks both persecuted and killed. There is a well within the monastery, known as the Well of the Martyrs, which commemorates 49 monks that were supposedly killed by raiding Berber tribesmen, and their bodies dumped into it.

The monastery has also seen precious manuscripts stolen by visitors, and turned away other vistors out of fear they would do the same thing.