A History of Christianity in Egy

Author's Note: When writing about the history of any religion, regardless of time and place, I have found that it is often difficult to separate history from tradition. In some cases, the two are one and the same, while in others, one account can be radically different from another. It is my purpose in these articles neither to vilify nor praise any one system of belief, but merely to present the story of a fascinating aspect of our world's history. I welcome any and all clarifications, corrections, additions, and comments that may be given by my readers to better this account. Thank you. -- DCS

This page is being updated all the time as more and more information keeps coming in from all over and I thank all of you who have volunteered information for this site. I am working daily to expand the information on Egyptian saints as well as on the Catechetical School of Alexandria (the Didascalia) and the great theologians who were Egyptian. As with all the other articles I have written, I welcome any additional material that my readers might send me.

Birth and Early Growth

The Theologians

The Saints

A Church in Upheaval - The Council of Chalcedon

Birth and Early Growth

The history of Christianity in Egypt dates back verily to the beginnings of Christianity itself. Many Christians hold that Christianity was brought to Egypt by the Apostle Saint Mark in the early part of the first century AD. Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, in his Ecclesiastic History states that Saint Mark first came to Egypt between the first and third year of the reign of Emperor Claudius, which would make it sometime between AD 41 and 44, and that he returned to Alexandria some twenty years later to preach and evangelize. Saint Mark's first convert in Alexandria was Anianus, a shoemaker who later was consecrated a bishop and became Patriarch of Alexandria after Saint Mark's martyrdom. This succession of Patriarchs has remained unbroken down to the present day, making the Egyptian Christian, or Coptic, Church one of the oldest Christian churches in existence. Evidence for this age comes in the form of the oldest Biblical papyri discovered in remote regions of Upper Egypt. These papyri are written in the Coptic script and are older than even the oldest Greek copies of the Bible ordered by Constantine in AD 312.

The Egyptians before Christianity had always been a deeply religious people, and many readily embraced the young religion, having had their old beliefs effectively destroyed by the coming of the Roman Empire and the final dethroning of the god-king Pharaohs. Many of the concepts of Christianity were already familiar to the Egyptians from their ancient religion, such as the death and resurrection of a god, the idea of the judgment of souls and a paradisiacal afterlife for the faithful. The ankh too, the Egyptian symbol for eternal life, is very similar to that of the cross revered by Christians (especially in the form of the Coptic cross, seen at right), itself also a symbol for eternal life. Furthermore, the belief that God had chosen Egypt as a safe place for His infant son to hide him from Herod was a great source of pride to the Egyptian Christians. It was through Christianity that the Egyptian culture survived the Roman Dominion.

The Church Suffering and Victorious

Yet these formative years were not without problems. Throughout this time Christianity in Egypt was locked in an often deadly struggle against the polytheistic religions of the Greco-Roman culture as well as the Hellenistic movement that began in Alexandria spread to other large cities. To counter Hellenistic philosophy that often criticized the young religion the Christian leaders in Egypt established a catechetical school in Alexandria, the Didascalia, founded in the late second century AD. This school became the heart of what can only be called Christian philosophy, and great teachers and orators such as Clement and Origen were able to battle the Hellenistic philosophers on their own ground and advocate Christianity in an orderly and intellectual manner. It was also in this great university of Christian learning that Christianity first underwent rigorous studies that created its first theology and dogma, as well as making the new faith accessible to all. Pantaenus, the founder and first dean of the Didascalia, helped the Egyptian people bridge the gap between Dynastic Egypt and the new era by promoting the use of the Greek alphabet instead of the Demotic ("cursive" hieroglyphics) in translations of the Bible as well as in the writing of religious theses and letters. Additionally, the school educated everyone who came to it in Greek, opening the study of religion to just about everyone, and making as many people as possible literate.

Yet the greatest persecutions on the young religion came at the hands of the Roman government. Emperor Nero had set the precedent in AD 64, about the same time as the martyrdom of Saint Peter. It was unusual, for the actual offense was simply to be a Christian or to profess the Christian faith, rather than any kind of criminal acts that might go along with it (such as those later falsely attributed to Medieval heretics). An arrested Christian could receive a pardon simply by offering incense on a Roman altar, but many refused to do so, citing scripture passages urging faith in the one God. Thus the true "crime" of the persecuted Christians was their refusal to do homage to the Roman gods, including the emperor. Those who did refuse to bow to the Roman religion were imprisoned, often tortured, thrown to the wild animals in the coliseum, or suffered execution by any number of other means. Rather than discouraging the Christians, these actions encouraged them and reinforced their faith, echoing the words of Jesus that those who suffered persecution because of his name were truly blessed. These heroes of the Christians were called "martyrs," a word that means "witnesses." In the first century this persecution was largely done by the government, though after a few decades they seem to have lost interest (or become fearful of the sect) and in the second and early third centuries the mobs took over the persecutions. Decius and Diocletian, in the 250s and early 300s respectively, brought the imperium back into the persecution, but it was clear by this time it was a losing battle as Christianity had penetrated even into the highest levels of society.

It was in Egypt that some of the greatest defianses of the Romans by Christians were done. While their Roman counterparts worshipped in catacombs and underground vaults, the Egyptian Christians built their churches openly and performed their ceremonies in full view of the Empire. And for every one that the Empire struck down, more would be converted by the example of the martyr. Diocletian was particularly brutal, executing so many Christians in 284 alone that the Coptic Church dates its calendar, the Calendar of the Martyrs (Anno Martyri) from that time. Despite these persecutions, Christianity seems to have grown rapidly in Egypt, spreading to Fayoum in 257 via Anba Dionysius, and in 260 even down into the Thebaid. But in 306 something happened that would change the destiny of Christianity forever: Constantine became emperor.

Constantine

Actually, he became one of the emperors. The Roman Empire of the time used the Tetrarchy, or Rule of Four. There was one Augustus and one Caesar each for the eastern and western parts of the Empire. One of Constantine's first acts as Augustus was to end the persecution of Christians where he had been campaigning in Gaul (France), Spain, and Britain. It is unknown where Constantine got his initial respect for Christianity, but it is thought that his mother was a Christian. Shortly afterwards Galerius, the Eastern Augustus, issued an edict of toleration for Christianity, ending persecutions in Greece and the surrounding area. Maximinus Daia (not to be confused with Maximinus the Thracian) however, responded by increasing persecutions in his territory of Egypt.

The story is told that once before the Battle of Milvian Bridge (by which Constantine took complete control of the Western Empire) when the odds were greatly against him, Constantine beseeched God for help, praying in the Christian fashion, and won the day. He later adopted the Chi-Rho, a stylized monogram of the first letters of "Christus," as his standard, and led his armies to victory after victory. Because of this, Constantine was even more well-disposed towards the Christians, though he himself was not baptized a Christian until his deathbed. In 313 together with Licinius, the eastern Augustus, he developed a policy of religious tolerance throughout the Empire and for the first time in many many decades there was a social peace. People were free to worship as they pleased and the Christian Church was allowed to own property, making it much easier to build permanent churches. Additionally, Christianity was made the official state religion, freeing it at least from persecution by the Imperium. Constantine's order giving religious freedom to all under his rule is known as the Edict of Milan or more properly, the Edit of Tolerance, and was the forerunner of other religious laws such as those found in the American Constitution and the Lateran Treaty of 1949, part of which created Vatican City.

Feeling that his power in Egypt was threatened, Maximinus, still carrying out his persecutions against the Christians there, marched an army across Asia Minor into Europe and confronted Licinius. Licinius, following Constantine's example, prayed in the Christian fashion with his army before the battle and defeated Maximinus. With this, Licinius brought the new Roman policy of religious tolerance to Egypt and ended the persecution of the Egyptian Christians.

After this, Constantine became more and more involved in the workings of Christianity. His dream was to travel to the Holy Land and be baptized in the Jordan River, but this was abandoned when he discovered that the eastern churches were in upheaval, mostly due to the stir caused by the beliefs of Arius, now called the Arian Heresy. In 325, in response to this disharmony, Constantine ordered the Council of Nicaea. This council was the largest gathering of Christian bishops in the history of the Church so far, and though the majority of those present were representing the eastern churches of Egypt and Greece, there were delegates from Rome, and thus the sobriquet "ecumenical" (meaning "of the whole world") was attached. Constantine attended as well, describing himself as "bishop of external things," and kept a secular position on the issues, but it was clear that he wanted Christianity to be united and harmonious. The Nicene Creed, the great contribution of the Council and a prayer still used by Christians to this day, was composed by Saint Athanasius, a young Egyptian deacon who would later follow Alexandros as patriarch of Alexandria.

The Foundations of Monasticism

Egypt is regarded by many Christians, regardless of denomination, as the home of Christian monasticism, and it is very easy to see why. The sheer number of Christian monasteries scattered about the East is astounding, from the 300 that were in Constantinople alone to the isolated Saint Catherine's at Mount Sinai. Yet it was Egypt that was seen as the heart of the monastic idea. The anonymous work, History of the Monks in Egypt, written at some time in the fourth century, says of Egypt:

There is no town or village in Egypt or the Thebaid that is not surrounded by hermitages as if by walls, and the people depend on their prayers as if on God Himself...Through them the world is kept in being.

Christian monasticism emerged as a genuine movement during the early fourth century, but the spirit of monasticism was already present in Christianity with its ideas of asceticism and moderation. For the Christian East, the monk was by definition a solitary role, and there have been more Christian hermits in this area than in any other in the world.

It is Saint Anthony of Egypt who is credited with the founding of monasticism, along with his fellow countryman Saint Pachomius. Yet even they were only expanding on an idea that had already existed. After the death of his parents in the 270's, Anthony had entrusted his younger sister to a parthenon, or convent of women. Thus priories of what are today called nuns were already established long before Saints Anthony and Pachomius even began their work. Indeed, it is women who are to be truly credited with the origin of the monastic vocation. Yet Anthony still deserves the praise due to him, for his true innovation was to move the monastic community away from the distractions of society and the city and into the wilderness, which he did, founding his first hermitage in AD 305.

Unlike monasteries in the West, the monasteries of Egypt and the surrounding area had no centralized orders, rather, each one was an autonomous unit. Many of the early monasteries in the East were founded and maintained by the rulers and nobility, others by groups of the citizenry wishing to have prayers said for themselves and their families. The size of the monasteries also varied greatly. Some were highly organized enterprises, owning large amounts of land and commercial interests, while others were hermitages of only three or four members. After Saint Anthony, there were two basic types of monasticism in Egypt, and later on, the world. There was the eremetical, or hermit, style and the cenobitic, monasteries in which the residents led a communal life.

These Egyptian ascetics each lived very similar lives to the others of their type. They took vows of chastity and poverty, and if part of a monastic community, obedience to the abbot. They practiced long and frequent fasts, some abstained from alcohol and meat, and they supported themselves by doing services for the lay people nearby, such as helping with labor or the selling of some small handicrafts. The largest monasteries were often self-sufficient, owning farms and herds, as well as making everything they needed, from the clothes they wore to the bread that was on their table. If they did make any money for anything they did, they kept only what they needed to subsist and gave the rest to the poor. While crowds of the poor often joined monasteries (vows of poverty being nothing new to them, and at least they would have food, clothing, and shelter), later on many of the upper class joined as Christianity spread across class and caste. Quite a number of the latter were educated and were employed by the Church in various intellectual occupations such as catechists, clerks and doctors. From the very beginning, the early Christian Church had a place and a task for everyone.

The Theologians

Perhaps the greatest contribution of Egypt to early Christianity was the Catechetical School of Alexandria, called the Didascalia. The oldest school of Christian religion in the world, it was founded around AD 190 by the scholar Pantaenus, who became its first dean. It soon proved itself to be the most important institution of religious learning at the time. Alexandria had always been on the forefront of great thought, and with the Didascalia, it had moved into the sphere of religious thinking. Many bishops of the Christian Church, both in Egypt and abroad, were educated at the Didascalia under such great theologians as Clement, Origen (called the "Father of Theology"), Didymus the Blind, and Athenagoras. Even Saint Jerome, the man who translated the Bible into Latin, visited the school to exchange ideas and converse and debate with the great Christian scholars of his time. The Didascalia gave Christian thinkers the opportunity to discuss and interpret their beliefs amongst the philosophical and intellectual environment of Alexandria.

But the school was not limited simply to the study of Christianity, nor was it limited to Christians. Science, mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy, and medicine were only a few of the subjects taught. Additionally, many Greek and Roman students and scholars, who held to their own religions, attended the school. The Didascalia was open to everyone who wanted to learn. Catechumens (followers of Christianity who had not yet been baptized) studied alongside members of the clergy and students of Greek philosophy. Even blind students were able to attend and learn, thanks to a raised-alphabet system using carved wood, fifteen centuries before Braille.

According to tradition, Saint Mark founded the original Christian school as a tool for instructing new converts, and it was this school that Pantaenus expanded on to create his Didascalia. Immediately the school established itself as a powerhouse of theological studies. Under the supervision of Pantaenus and his assistant Clement (who would later succeed him as dean), the New Testament was translated from Aramaic and Greek into Coptic, the language of the Egyptian Christians. Classes were taught in Greek and Coptic so that anyone who wanted to could learn how to read, opening up the scriptures to all Christians in the area. The effectiveness and fame of the Didascalia is apparent in the fact that many of its faculty and finest students also became Popes of the Egyptian Church.

For centuries the Didascalia was the seat of Christian learning. After the Council of Chalcedon the Emperors of Constantinople, as part of their persecution against the Egyptian Christians, or Copts, ordered the closing of the school and carried away most of the books. Rather than let this put a damper on their learning, the Coptic Church simply transferred its school to the Monastery of St. Macarius in the Wadi el-Natroun desert. This was yet another persecution weathered by the school and the Christians of Egypt, having survived through those of the Roman emperors Septimus, Decius, Diocletian, and many others.

One of the greatest members of the school was Clement, who succeeded Pantaenus as dean. Clement is most famous for his Trilogy, a lengthy three-volume work in the style of similar works issued by the Greek philosophers. The first volume, the Protreptikos (Exhortation), was an invitation to conversion; the second was the Paidagogos (Tutor), a manual of Christian ethics and morals; and the third volume, the Stromateis (Miscellanies), was a long and rambling work on just about every subject Clement could think of. Clement's whole thought was that Christian theology and Greek philosophy could be combined and reconciled to yield a method of scholarship unmatched by the rest of the world. His ability to refute his critics with quotations and allusions to the classic poets and philosophers made him a powerful force for intellectual Christianity, as many of the non-Christians of his day saw Christians as a largely uncultured and unintelligent group. Clement's writings also helped new converts feel at home in their new religion by showing that one could be learned and intelligent and be a Christian at the same time, a factor important at a time when the intellectual elite were all throughout Alexandria.

Another great Egyptian theologian was Origen, Clement's successor. While Clement had been a convert, Origen was born into Christianity, the son of devout Christian parents. The death of his father in 203 during one of the many persecutions gave him a bitter hatred of the established state religions, which combined with a rare talent for philosophical debate and a thorough knowledge of his theology to create an intellectual force unmatched by his peers. He is also said to have had a eidetic memory, and so was able to quote at length from scriptures, from the works of the philosophers, and from the classics when constructing his arguments. After the death of his father, he was taken in by a rich Christian woman, an arrangement he liked not in the least, as she harbored Gnostic beliefs that Origen was adamantly against. Shortly after he left the house and set up his own school and began to lecture on Christianity as well as on philosophy, like Clement, he was able to combine the two. An anti-Christian riot in 215 forced him to leave Egypt and take refuge in Palestine, but Demetrius, Pope of Alexandria, convinced him to come back and become the head of the Didascalia two years later.

The Didascalia is a valuable part of Christian history, but it has no less a bearing on the present, as it is still very much alive. The Theological College of the Catechetical School of Alexandria was re-founded in 1893 and today has campuses in Cairo, New Jersey and Los Angeles.

The Saints

Hagiography, the writing of the lives of saints, has long been a common activity of many scholars of religion. As with any religion, the story of its success is really the story of its members who made it succeed. Christianity honors its greatest members by making them saints, and what follows is a collection of Egyptian saints that were instrumental in the growth of Christianity in Egypt.

Saint Mark the Evangelist

Saint Mark is credited with writing the oldest of the four canonical gospels. According to the Life of the Apostle and Evangelist Mark written by Severus, Bishop of Al-Ushmunain, in the late tenth century, Mark was one of the servants who poured out the water that Jesus turned into wine at the marriage at Cana, and that it was his house in which Jesus appeared to the disciples in hiding after His resurrection from the dead. After that time, Saint Peter and Saint Mark went out to evangelize, and one night, Peter had a dream in which he was told to go, along with Mark, to Rome and to Alexandria. After preaching in Rome for a time, Mark went to Egypt and converted many to the Christian faith in the countryside; then leaving a small community of Christians there, he went to Alexandria. As soon as he entered the gates of the city, so the story goes, his sandal strap broke. He took it to a nearby shoemaker by the name of Anianus, who became his first convert in Alexandria. Mark soon discovered that he was being sought by his enemies, and so he appointed Anianus bishop, ordained three priests and seven deacons, and leaving them with orders to "serve and comfort the faithful brethren," he left the city. He returned years later to find the community he had left growing and thriving, but his enemies soon discovered him and threw him in prison. The next day, they threw a rope around his neck and dragged him over the ground until he died. But when they tried to burn the body, they found that it could not be harmed and scattered in fear. The Christians claimed the body from the pyre and buried it with reverence in the church they had built. Saint Mark is revered as the founder and first martyr of the Christian Church in Egypt.

Saint Catherine of Alexandria

Saint Catherine was a young Christian woman of noble birth and thus quite well-educated, when at the age of eighteen she presented herself to Emperor Maximinus Daia who was carrying out a persecution of the Christians. She admonished him for his cruelty and demanded that he cease the persecutions. Astounded and insulted at the young woman's audacity, but lacking the skills necessary to debate with her, Maximinus detained her in his palace and called for his scholars to try to trip her up in her beliefs either to make her apostatize against Christianity or commit a heresy against the Roman religion so that she could be put to death. Contrary to what Maximinus expected, she managed to convert many of his scholars with her eloquence and knowledge of both religion and science. Maximinus was so outraged he had them put to death and Catherine scourged and put in prison. His empress however, heard of the extraordinary young woman and stole secretly into the prison in the company of the general Porphyry. They listened to Catherine, were converted and baptized, but were executed by Maximinus when he discovered what had happened. Maximinus ordered Catherine to be broken on the wheel, yet at her touch it was miraculously destroyed. Seeing no alternative, Maximinus ordered her beheaded. According to legend, her body was carried to Mount Sinai by angels where a monastery and church were later built by the order of the Emperor Justinian. Interestingly enough, the site where Catherine's body was found is also believed to be the site of the burning bush seen by Moses.

Saint Catherine has been ranked with Saints Margaret and Barbara as one of the "fourteen most helpful saints in Heaven." In several dioceses in France her feast day was regarded as a Holy Day of Obligation up until the seventeenth century. Numerous churches are dedicated to her, and at one time her statue decorated almost every church in Europe and Africa. As Saint Nicholas of Myra was the patron of young men and students, Saint Catherine became the female counterpart, the patron of young women. The spiked wheel that she destroyed with a touch became her symbol and as such mechanics and wheelwrights have called her their patron. Because she triumphed also in the sciences, confounding even the philosophers of Maximinus, her intercession is sought by theologians, orators, and philosophers. It is even thought that she was the saint that had appeared to Joan of Arc.

Saint Anthony of Egypt

Saint Anthony is often called "the Father of the Monks," and rightly so. He is credited with the founding of Christian monasticism, and many of his ideas are still used to this day by modern monks and nuns. Most of what we know about Anthony comes from the writings of Saint Athanasius the Apostolic, a disciple and close friend of Anthony's. Anthony was born about AD 251 and was the son of a well-to-do family of Kemn-el-Arouse (Coma) in middle Egypt. When he was eighteen his parents died, leaving him sole guardian of his younger sister Dious. Six months later, while attending a church, he heard the scripture passage of Jesus and the rich young man, in which Jesus says, "If you would be perfect, go, sell all you have, give to the poor, and follow me (Matt. 19:21)." He took this as a personal invitation from God and sold most of his inherited property, gave much of the money to the poor and the rest to his sister and placed his sister in the care of a parthenon, a community of holy women, very similar to the priories of the Middle Ages. He sought guidance from a holy man near Coma in the ways of the Christian ascetic: prayer, fasting, and holiness. After a time of study, Saint Anthony left on his own and began living in the manner of a mountain hermit, living in a cave and praying for the salvation of the world. At the age of thirty-five, he moved to Pispir and remained there in solitude for twenty years. During that time, many came to live near him and copy his holy life. He became their spiritual leader, teaching them by word and by example the life of the ascetic. Anthony also taught them to perform manual labor between prayer times as an additional contribution to society.

When the persecutions began again against the Christians in Egypt at the hands of Maximinus Daia in the early 300s, he went to Alexandria and ministered to those in prison. After the persecutions ended, he returned to his life of solitude. He returned to Alexandria once more to support Pope Athanasius against the Arian Heresy in 352, and many came to see the aged holy man as he walked through the city, but he returned to his desert soon after, society no longer having any hold on him. Contrary to popular belief, Anthony founded no formal monastery and his Rule was simply work and prayer. Anthony also designed the first monastic uniform, an all-purpose robe of white linen fastened about the waist with a sturdy leather belt. This has become the basic pattern for monastic garb all over the world and in all times since. Many came to Saint Anthony for advice, spiritual help, and healing. Once even Pope Athanasius, in the company of the great Christian sage Didymus the Blind, came all the way out to visit him. Saint Anthony died in 356 at the age of one hundred and five and was buried secretly by Macarius and Amatas, two of his most loyal monks.

It is the biography of Saint Anthony written by Athanasius that was instrumental in spreading the monastic idea throughout the Christian world. The Saint Anthony's Monastery founded in the Egyptian desert still exists, and many monks still carry out his work there.

Saint Alexander

Saint Alexander was Pope of Alexandria during the Arian Heresy. Alexander's predecessor Peter had excommunicated Arius, but he was reinstated by Achillas, who succeeded Peter as Pope. When Achillas died, Alexander was elected Pope of Alexandria and Arius became even more prominent with his teachings. At first Alexander ignored Arius and was so lax in fact, that the clergy almost revolted against him until he openly condemned the Arian Heresy at the Council of Nicaea. Alexander is also credited with the writing of the Acts of the Council.

Before being elected Pope, Alexander had lived through the persecutions of Galerius, Maximinus, and many others who sought to destroy the Christians. At the time, even Pope Peter himself had been put into prison. Alexander and Achillas snuck into the prison one night to visit the soon-to-be-martyred pontiff and tried to persuade him to reinstate Arius. Peter refused, but it was a sign of Alexander's desire for unity within the Church that he went to such lengths on behalf of Arius, excommunicating him only when there was no hope of compromise. On his deathbed Alexander implored the great Athanasius to succeed him as Pope of Alexandria. His feast day is April 17th.

Saint Pachomius

Though Saint Anthony is regarded as the founder of Christian monasticism, he must share a portion of the credit with Saint Pachomius. Pachomius was born in the Upper Thebaid in Egypt and as a young man was a soldier in the Roman army. In 314, at the age of 22, he converted to Christianity and three years later became a hermit, living in the desert. Pachomius realized that a community of monks working together could accomplish more good, both for themselves and society, than hermits living isolated by themselves. He created the Cenobitic Rule that balanced the communal life and the solitary life, a Rule that became the basis for almost every monastic order to come after, especially that of Saint Benedict, who based his famous order almost entirely on the Pachomian Rule. In cenobitic monasticism, the monks live in a communal environment, each one working for the betterment of the whole. Cenobitic monasteries are entirely self-sufficient, with farms and herds, plus libraries, hospitals, and kitchens in which every monk works, and every monk can use. Saint Pachomius founded his first monastery in Tabenna around 323, and by the time of his death during a plague, he was the leader of over 3,000 monks. Saint Jerome, famous for translating the Bible into Latin, also translated Pachomius' Rule, and many monasteries today still use it.

Saint Maurice and the Theban Legion

Saint Maurice was the captain of the Theban Legion, a unit in the Roman army that had been recruited from Upper Egypt and consisted entirely of Christians. Although loyal to the Empire (ruled over by Maximinus Daia and Diocletian), they still remembered the words of Jesus to render to Caesar the things of Caesar, and to God the things of God. During the Bagaude, an uprising of the Gauls, Maximinus marched against them with the Theban Legion as a part of his army. The revolt was quelled, and upon their return to Aguanum (now Saint-Moritz or Saint Maurice en Valais) in Switzerland, Maximinus gave the order that the whole army should give sacrifices to the Roman gods in thanks for the success of their campaign. As part of the celebration, Maximinus ordered the execution of a number of Christian prisoners. The Theban Legion refused to comply with the order and withdrew from the rites, even going so far as to camp away from the rest of the army so as not to be drawn into what they saw as horrifyingly against their beliefs.

Maximinus repeatedly ordered the Theban Legion to comply with his orders, and when they continued to refuse, he ordered the unit "decimated," a practice in which every tenth man was put to death. The Legion was not shaken at all, despite threats of a second decimation, which was performed. Maximinus told those remaining that they would all be killed, but their captain, Maurice, inspired them with the example of the soldiers already martyred, and told them that they were all assured of a place in Heaven for holding fast to their faith. Every last man was beheaded by other soldiers, without resistance. Maximinus even went so far as to carry the executions out against every member of the Theban Legion stationed elsewhere in the Empire from Gaul down to Rome itself.

A number of miracles are attributed to these holy soldiers. In Zurich, it is said that the beheaded Saints Felix, Regula, and Exuperantius rose up, and carrying their heads in their hands, walked to the top of a hill, knelt down and prayed, and finally lay down in final death. On this spot, a great cathedral was built and the image of the three saints carrying their heads appears on the coat of arms of Zurich today.

Saint Maurice is one of the most popular saints in western Europe. There are over 650 sacred places bearing his name in France alone. Over seventy towns bear his name. In the Middle Ages, Saint Maurice was the patron saint of a number of the dynasties of Europe and later of the Holy Roman emperors, many of whom were anointed before the Altar of Saint Maurice at Saint Peter's Cathedral in Rome. King Sigismund of Burgundy donated land for a monastery in his honor in 515. Henry I (919-936) ceded the Swiss province of Aargua in exchange for the Lance of the Saints; and the sacred relic, the Sword of Saint Maurice, was last used in the coronation of Emperor Charles of Austria as king of Hungary in 1916. Saint Maurice's feast day is September 22.

Saint Cyril

Saint Cyril was the successor and nephew of Theophilus, Pope of Alexandria. As a youth, he entered the monastary of Saint Macarius where he learned the wisdom of the desert monks. Following this, he returned to Alexandria where he was ordained as a priest and rose through the hierarchy until he was finally made Pope of the Egyptian Church. From then on, he began to combat heresy and apostasy, helping to put an end to the Nestorian Heresy and even refuted the Emperor Julian when the latter tried one last time to remove Christianity from the Roman Empire. As Saint Athanasius had fought against Arius, so Cyril now fought against Nestorius. He wrote a letter to Nestorius explaining why his idea of two individual beings in the one person of Christ was heretical, and sent copies to the other Popes of Rome, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Aleppo, as well as to the imperial court. Though Nestorius answered only with contempt, the other letters received favorable replies praising his efforts and offering their support. More letters were written, but Nestorius became more and more stubborn, even trying to antagonize Emperor Theodosius against Cyril.

This controversy eventually became so great that the calling of a synod of bishops seemed the only solution. Theodosius called the First Council of Ephesus to address the heresy, which was held in 431. The bishops present elected Cyril to preside over the council. Though Nestorius was nearby in Ephesus, he refused to appear before the council. Nestorius' beliefs were deemed heretical and a sentence of excommunication was passed by the two hundred bishops in attendance. Six days later, John, Pope of Antioch, arrived with his bishops who had not been able to reach Ephesus in time for the Council. Though they did not believe as Nestorius did, they sided with him against the Council's bishops and deemed him innocent. They met by themselves and issued an accusation of heresy towards Saint Cyril! The Emperor ordered both Saint Cyril and Nestorius confined and the verdicts of both the Council and the Antiochene bishops void. Three legates were dispatched from Rome and when they arrived, they condemned Nestorius and approved of Saint Cyril's decision. The Emperor vindicated Saint Cyril with honor and ordered the exile of Nestorius. The Antiochene bishops contained a minor schism for a time, but made peace with Cyril in 433, agreeing finally with the decision of the Council.

In 1882 Saint Cyril was declared a Doctor of the Church, both for his work defending the faith in the Council of Ephesus as well as for the liturgy that bears his name. According to tradition, the liturgy had been passed down orally beginning with Saint Mark himself, but Saint Cyril completed it and wrote it all down so it would not be forgotten. It is chanted by Christians all over the world during Lent.

Saint Shenouda the Archimandrite

Saint Shenouda was born around 348 to devout Christian parents and spent much of his early life as a shepherd for his father's small flock. As a youth he accompanied his father on a visit to his uncle Saint Pigol, the abbot of the famed White Monastery. As a result of a vision, Pigol kept the young Shenouda and trained him in the ways of monasticism. In 385 following the death of Pigol, Shenouda was chosen by his fellow monks as the new abbot. The monastery at that time consisted of thirty aging monks, but by Shenouda's death in 466 the White Monastery had grown to over two thousand monks and close to two thousand nuns and covered an area three thousand times its original size.

The charismatic Saint Shenouda brought about a complete reform in Christian monasticism. He had "inherited" a system from his uncle based on the Pachomian Rule, though even more strict and austere. As a result, the followers were few in number and declining. Shenouda created a new Rule that was less stringent and appealed to the backgrounds and natures of the people in the region, who would later join his monastery in droves. He also had his monks utilize their time outside prayer and worship by having them use their skills and old professions for the benefit of the monastery and the community. Thus the monks were engaged in crafts and trades of every type, from cloth-weaving to shoemaking to pottery. For the first time, the monastery was self-sufficient. He also encouraged literacy amongst the populace by requiring his monks and nuns to be literate and to engage in the art of manuscript copying.

Shenouda's spiritual work in Egypt and the surrounding area made him quite popular and famous within the Egyptian Christian Church, as well as beyond. No doubt as a result of this popularity, he was chosen by Saint Cyril the Great to accompany him to the Council of Ephesus in 431 where Shenouda aided the council in refuting the teachings of Nestorius that, among other things, denied the sacred position and holiness of the Virgin Mary as well as denied the human nature of Jesus. Shenouda was instrumental in preserving the unity of the Church.

Saint Shenouda was also a leader of the peasants under the Greek landlords. He opened the monastery's church to the public and preached constantly to the peasants who came to him on religious and moral issues intending to elevate them from being slaves to confident Christians. He and his monks also defended the peasants who came to him for protection from their oppressive landlords. His heroic deeds have been lauded down through the centuries. Once he risked his life to save a group of captives from the Blemmyes warriors, and even appealed on behalf of the peasants to Emperor Theodosius.

Saint Shenouda died at the age of 118 surrounded by his fellow monks at the White Monastery, singing with them until the moment of his death the praises of God.

Saint Mary of Egypt

Saint Mary of Egypt, for a great many years, was a prostitute in Alexandria in the middle fourth century. One year she joined a group of pilgrims who were traveling to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. She joined them not for religious reasons, but in the hopes of finding some customers along the way. Even when she arrived in Jerusalem she persisted in her ways and on the holy day itself even went to the church where the sacred relic was held to ensnare members of the pilgrimage. But when she reached the door, she found she could not enter. Some mysterious force continued to push her away and she sat down in a corner of the churchyard. She was suddenly filled with remorse for her sinful life, which she realized was the reason why she could not enter the church. As she sat crying, she saw a statue of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of Jesus and with a newfound faith and humility of heart she implored the help of the Blessed Mother and permission to enter the church and pray before the sacred wood of the cross. She promised that if her request were granted, she would renounce her previous life in favor of a life of holiness and piety. She stood and approached the church door once more, and found that the force that previously pushed her away, now gently pulled her inside the church. While praying for guidance before the wood of the cross, she heard a voice telling her that across the Jordan River she would find rest. She left immediately, and upon reaching the Jordan she was baptized in a church dedicated to John the Baptist, and the next day crossed the river and walked into the desert.

She lived alone in the desert for the next forty-seven years, until a monk named Zosimus came upon her dwelling. In the custom of monks at the time, he had come out of his monastery to spend Lent (a Christian season of fasting and penance before Easter) in the desert. As soon as she saw him, she called him by name and recognized him as a priest. The two talked and prayed for a long time, during which she told him the strange story of her life. She asked Zosimus to promise to meet her at the Jordan River on Holy Thursday of the following year and to bring her holy communion. Zosimus kept his promise, and brought bread and wine to consecrate into the body and blood of Christ. He arrived at the Jordan and waited; soon he saw Mary coming toward him, walking across the river. After receiving holy communion, she raised her hands towards Heaven and shouted the words of Simeon, "Now thou dost dismiss Thy servant, O Lord, according to Thy word in peace, because my eyes have seen Thy salvation." She then asked Zosimus to return to her dwelling the next year. He did so, but found only her lifeless body and a letter she had written to him. He performed the funerary rites and buried her in the desert aided, we are told, by an angel in the form of a lion. In his prayers he asked that she watch over him from Heaven, and returned to his monastery where he finally recounted to his brothers the story of the holy woman. Her feast day is celebrated by the Eastern Churches on the first of April, and by the Western Churches on the second of April.

A Church in Upheaval - The Council of Chalcedon

No sooner had the Nestorian Heresy been dealt with at the First Council of Ephesus (431), the third such council to be held in a little over a century, than a new problem arose. Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople, had preached that Jesus was not one being comprising the human and the divine, but two beings, one human, one divine, that shared the same body. Such belief was found to be contrary to Christian dogma, a statement echoed and reinforced by the Council of Ephesus. Furthermore, the Council of Ephesus, which had been held under Saint Cyril, Pope of Alexandria, affirmed that the Virgin Mary is the Theotokos, the "God-Bearer," or "Mother of God," titles that Nestorius and his followers had reservations about. They said that Mary only bore the human part of Jesus, and that the divine was imparted by Heaven after the birth. By calling Mary Theotokos was to believe that both human and divine were born in one being, which is the belief of much of Christianity still today. Such questions over small aspects of belief may seem academic to those of us living in the modern world, but it is these very arguments that created what modern Christians take for granted. The Council of Ephesus condemned and excommunicated Nestorius and labeled the belief as heretical, which indirectly led to the schism between the established Christian Church and the Christians in East Syria and Mesopotamia, and are now called the Syrian Orthodox, or Jacobite (after the sixth-century bishop Jacob Baradaeus), Church. The new problem was that the opposite belief had started, that of Jesus Christ as a single being in which human and divine were united, but that the human was subsumed and absorbed by the divine, instead of being in equal parts. This belief was labeled the Monophysitic Error (Mone Physis; one nature).

This "error", whose chief proponent was Eutychius, was first detected by the Patriarch of Antioch, Domnus. A formal accusation of heresy was given by Eusebius, bishop of Phrygia, at a synod in Constantinople. Eutychius, despite brilliant oration on his belief in a single-nature Christ, was deposed and excommunicated. He appealed to Pope Leo I, to other bishops and also to Emperor Theodosius II (from whom he won great sympathy). The Second Council of Ephesus was held in August 449. By this time, Saint Cyril had been succeeded by his nephew Dioscurus I. Dioscurus ignored the Roman delegates and refused to allow the reading of the letters from Pope Leo explaining the Incarnation with special reference to Eutychius' beliefs. Dioscurus declared Eutychius orthodox and reinstated in his offices, while deposing Flavian, Bishop of Constantinople and Eusebius, Bishop of Phrygia. Because of these highly unusual and violent events, the Second Council of Ephesus has been called the Latrocinium, the "Robber Council."

Emperor Theodosius II approved of the acts of the Second Council of Ephesus; Pope Leo I, once he found out what had happened, condemned via letters and a Roman synod, everything the Council had done. He requested a new council in Italy to right the wrongs of Ephesus, citing the (nonexistent) appeal of the deposed Flavian. Theodosius refused the request, but his sudden death (an event that raises more than a few eyebrows at this point) less than a year later in 450 changed the imperial attitude towards Rome. Theodosius was succeeded by his sister Pulcheria, who soon after married and co-ruled with the general Marcian. Both Marcian and Pulcheria were opposed to Dioscurus and Eutychius, and informed Pope Leo of their wish to call a new council. Interestingly enough, by this time, Anatolius of Constantinople (who had succeeded Flavian) and many other bishops who had supported Eutychius now condemned him. The new council, originally to be held at Nicaea, was moved to Chalcedon, as the emperor was unable to travel to Nicaea at that time.

Chalcedon was, to say the least, impressive. There were between sixteen and twenty-one separate meeting sessions held in the Church of Saint Euphemia, Martyr, just outside the city. In a letter to Pope Leo, the number of bishops attending is given as 520; Pope Leo in his writings says 600; and according to the general estimate, there were 630, including the representatives sent by bishops unable to attend. No council before Chalcedon had such a large attendance, and few councils since then have surpassed that number until recent times. There were representatives from all over Christendom: from Rome, from Africa, and from the Illyricum (Egypt, Palestine, Asia, Dacia, Macedonia, and others). Paschasinus, Bishop of Lilybaeum, presided over the council, as per the request of Pope Leo to Emperor Marcian. Even Dioscurus of Alexandria was present, a fact that did not please many there, and open protests were made. Eusebius of Phrygia, reinstated in his office, leveled accusations of heresy and criminal acts at the Second Council of Ephesus against him. This controversy coupled with the suggestions of the imperial commissioners to prompt the removal of Dioscurus from his seat and deprive him of his vote.

Among the documents (testimonia) brought forward were the creeds of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381), two letters of Saint Cyril of Alexandria (his letter to Nestorius and his letter to the Antiochene bishops written after his reconciliation with them in 433), and the epistle of Pope Leo I. All the documents were approved as being of sound Christian theology. In its third session the Council decreed that Dioscurus was to be deposed and excommunicated for his previous acts, a fact communicated not only to Dioscurus but also to the imperial throne. In a further session, the partisans of Dioscurus at the Second Council of Ephesus were pardoned and allowed to attend the sessions, while many more bishops, monks, and archimandrites were accused of Eutychianism. The fifth session was the publishing of the creed of Chalcedon that affirmed the equal parts of the human and divine Christ in one body, one being.

However, the ruling of the Council of Chalcedon regarding the dual nature of Christ in one being did not end the controversy. Rather, it boiled over rapidly. Furthermore, the relationships between the Egyptian churches and Constantinople were strained as the Egyptian Christians refused to acknowledge the authority of Alexandrian popes appointed by the Byzantine state. Egypt's churches and Constantinople had rarely been on excellent terms, beginning when Dioscurus, while Pope of Alexandria, openly stated to Marcian "You have nothing to do with the Church." It is this stance in favor of a separation of Church and State that may have led to Marcian finally allowing the calling of Chalcedon in the hopes of exiling the "renegades" who he may have seen as a threat to his authority (at the time the popes and the Emperor were seen as equals). It is certainly true that the Egyptian Christians at least, did not truly believe in monophysitism as it was portrayed at Chalcedon. Rather, they too followed the idea of the two natures, equal in the one person of Jesus. After looking under the surface, it would seem that the schism that resulted from Chalcedon, like the others that would follow centuries later in the Reformation, was largely political in nature, and not the result of true religious differences.

Perhaps the Egyptian Christians were misunderstood at Chalcedon. Perhaps they were misrepresented by the council, or perhaps everyone was duped by Emperor Marcian and his followers. Perhaps Pope Dioscurus didn't work hard enough to convince the rest of the council, as he certainly had the support of many who saw the misunderstanding. Or perhaps the council understood the position but wanted to remove the power of the Egyptian Pope who said that Church and State should be separated. Both the Egyptian Christians and their Western counterparts believed in a Jesus Christ both human and divine, and it is tragic to think that a major schism resulted from what was most likely a combination of miscommunication and political interference. In the end, the Council of Chalcedon led, as the First Council of Ephesus did before it, to a lasting separation.

The non-Chalcedonian Christians of Egypt eventually formed what is known today as the Coptic Orthodox Church, currently with over nine million members in Egypt alone, and many more all over the world, including the United States, Europe, and Asia. The current Pope of the Coptic Church, Shenouda III, is the 117th successor to Saint Mark, showing the endurance of the Coptic Church through hardship and persecution, some of it even at the hands of their fellow Christians. The Catechetical School of Alexandria, founded as the Didascalia in the late second century, still educates the Coptic clergy and stands as a monument to theological studies. The Coptic Church prays daily for Egypt and its people, as well as for world peace and the continued prosperity of the whole human race.

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