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Tales of the saints Coptic Saints and Pilgrimages, Otto F A Meinardus, Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2002. pp113
Click to view caption


The Flight of the Holy Family, by Youssef Nassif and Boudour Latif
This small, beautifully bound and illustrated book on the Coptic tradition that goes back almost 2,000 years is Otto Meinardus's newest publication. Here, the renowned scholar moves away from the history of the Church (from its earliest days to the end of the 20th century), as covered in his widely distributed Two Thousand Years of Coptic Christianity, and examines the other side of the coin: the popular traditions and beliefs of the people. That is to say, he explores the folk religion that touched on every aspect of the personal lives of ordinary Copts: their worship of saints and martyrs, pilgrimages, dreams, visions, and women saints. He also devotes a section to recently discovered martyrs, and another to Coptic saints in an age of globalisation.
Meinardus points out that alongside the official religion with its emphasis on Orthodox doctrine and liturgy, there co-existed in Egypt a dynamic popular or folk religion that touched on every aspect of the personal and social lives of the people. Lifestyles and patterns of behaviour have given way over the millennia to new modes of living and political and social change have come in cyclic patterns, but what has nevertheless endured is deep- rooted faith and patterns of religious devotion. These have remained constant.
Take pilgrimages to holy sites, for example. Muslims and Christians alike attend many of the famous Christian pilgrimage sites, like the Church of the Holy Virgin at Gabal Al-Tayr and the Monastery of Dair Al-Muharraq in the Western Desert, because they are associated with cures. People attend to pray, offer donations to those less fortunate than themselves, and make promises and vows in the hope of a cure from physical or mental ailments. Women who want children, single people who want to get married, people who are believed to be demon possessed and wish to be exorcised call on the saints through the monks.
One chapter of this book, devoted to "Women Saints in Coptic Spirituality", outlines the positions and roles of women in the Coptic Church. Meinardus points out that, like all churches of apostolic origin, the Coptic Church of Egypt prohibits women from assuming any priestly or sacramental functions. This position, the author points out, is based on Old and New Testament verses, one of which is St Paul's statement: "As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silence... for they are not permitted to speak..." (1 Cor. 14: 33)
Meinardus does point out, however, that there were women monks, and he notes that in the leather-bound Coptic codices found in a cave near Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt in 1945, is the Gospel of Thomas, an anthology of 144 "Sayings of Jesus" (logia) which scholars have assigned to the middle of the second century. One of these reads: "Let Mary go out from among us, because women are not worthy of the Life." In answer, Jesus said: "See, I shall lead her, so that I will make her male, that she too may become a living spirit, resembling you males. For every woman who makes herself male will enter the Kingdom of Heaven."
Meinardus mentions that the biographies of women monks are similar to those of men. "They were usually daughters of Roman emperors, kings, governors, or notables," he writes. "Influenced and inspired by the asceticism of the Egyptian desert fathers, the young women assumed the disguise of a courier, in the case of Hilaria, or they escaped from marriage proposals by donning male attire, as Appollinaria did. As monks -- often described as eunuchs -- they entered the desert of Scetis or Wadi Al-Natrun. They lived as hermits, each inhabiting a cell under the direction of a father..."
Coptic Saints and Pilgrimages is not a new study. Most of the material that appears in this volume has appeared in one form or another in scholarly publications. In fact, a list of the sources in which this work originally appeared is provided in the bibliography. However, it is nevertheless important in that it focusses on the popular aspects of Coptic religious devotion.
Reviewed by Jill Kamil

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/673/bo22.htm

Coptic Hell and the ancient Egyptian Book of the dead


(Traditions about hell preserved in Coptic times)

and we may see from the literature of the Copts, or Egyptians who had embraced Christianity, how long the belief in a hell of fire and torturing fiends survived. Thus in the Life of Abba Shenuti,[1] a man is told that the " executioners of Amenti will not show compassion upon thy wretched sol,"[2] and in the history of Pisentios, a Bishop of Coptos in the seventh century of our era, we have a series of details which reflect the Tuat of the ancient Egyptians in a remarkable manner. The bishop having taken up his abode in a tomb filled with mummies, causes one of them to tell his history.[3] After saying that his parents were Greeks who worshipped Poseidon, he states that when he was dying already the avenging angels came about him with iron knives and goads as sharp as spears, which they thrust into his sides, while they gnashed their teeth at him; when he opened his eyes, he saw death in all its manifold forms round about him; and at that moment angels without mercy came and dragged his wretched soul from his body, and tying it to the form of a black horse they bore it away to Amenta. Next, he was delivered over to merciless tormentors, who tortured him in a place where there were multitudes of savage beasts; and, when he had been cast into the place of outer darkness, he saw a ditch more than two hundred feet deep filled with reptiles, each of which had seven heads, and all their bodies were covered as it were with scorpions. Here also were serpents, the very sight of which terrified the beholder, and to one of them which had teeth like iron stakes was the wretched man given to be devoured; for five days in each week the serpent crushed him with his teeth, but on the Saturday and Sunday there was respite. Another picture of the torments of Hades is given in the Martyrdom of Macarius of Antioch, wherein the saint, having restored to life a man who had been dead six hours, learned that when he was about to die he was surrounded by fiends, some of whom had the faces of dragons, others of lions, others of crocodiles, and others of bears. They tore his soul from his body with great violence, and they fled with it over a mighty river of fire, in which they plunged it to a depth of four hundred cubits; then they took it out and set it before the judge of Truth. After hearing the sentence of the judge the fiends took it to a place of outer darkness where no light came, and they cast it into the cold where there was gnashing of teeth. There it beheld a snake which never slept, with a head like that of a crocodile, and which was surrounded by reptiles which cast souls before it to be devoured, when the snake's mouth was full it allowed the other reptiles to eat, and though they rent the soul in pieces it did not die. After this the soul was carried into Amenta for ever. The martyr Macarius suffered in the reign of Diocletian, and the MS. from which the above extract is taken was copied in the year of the Martyrs 634 = A.D. 918. Thus, the old heathen ideas of the Egyptian Tuat were applied to the construction of the Coptic Hell.

Among the Copts


(I'm currently looking at reviews about this book).
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1902210565/202-8803057-6142216

Egyptian Recipes


"The variety of Egyptian recipes is endless. They go back a very long way. As a result of subsequent colonization, foreign influence is somewhat present, specially from the Turkish cuisine (it is understandable after more than 300 years of Turkish presence in Egypt). The "Pashas" living in Cairo mainly employed the natives as help and cooks. Their kitchen doors opened to us with their culinary secrets and, hence, Turkish food became part of ours.Recipes gathered here are those known to the common Egyptian, irrelevant of their origin. Their names in Arabic are the ones we all know and use. Ingredients used are very easily found in Middle East/Oriental specialty stores."
http://www.touregypt.net/recipes/

Egyptian Specialty food


Well I decided to combine two things I like to talk about together. Egyptian Orthodoxy, and Specialty food. I've been working full time, right now trying to get lead/prospects line up for a big Holy Chocolate mass marketing campaign, which will hopefully be very soon (because we need the money so pray for us!). Anyway I spend so much time on the web, looking on the web at places that sell Gift baskets, and specialty food shops online. That term "specialty food" is a term that I think has only caught on very recently. It describes hard to get gourmet food, that is either imported, or just very specialized and/or unique. "Trader Joes" is probably the best known specialty food store around. Carrying not only imported items, but healthfood, and various special kinds of gourmet food items not found in your typical supermarket. Anyway I thought I would give the reader an idea what Egyptian "Specialty Food", looks like.


Here is a link to an organization we belong to. We went to their winter Trade show, this last January. the National Association of FancyTrade Shows, (NASFT). They have an egyptian,section of their online magazine.

http://www.specialtyfood.com/do/GroupExhibit?group=egypt

Hieroglypic name/word generator! Write your name out in ancient Egypto hieroglyphics!



http://www.eyelid.co.uk/e-name.htm

History of Baklava

Well I was going to post a really great essay I ran acrossed on the web that described the multi ethnic origons of this delicasy. But I can no longer find it on the web (It was the best one covering ancient culinary history that I've ever seen).

But I did run acrossed a Blog from a lebanese bakery that specializes int his dish. So will quote some material from it, and add a little from my own memory.

http://chezesham.blogspot.com/2004/07/baagh-lava-baklava.html

http://chezesham.blogspot.com/2004/11/chez-sham.html

Stan's New Holy Chocolate pic! (aka - my new ooze avatar). :)

Even More Syriac Orthodox Music! (I'm looking to free up that bookmark space for holy chocolate leads).

http://www.syrianorthodoxchurch.com/Frkamil.html

The Coptic Year

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/682/feature.htm

Well Journey man james asked me about this. So thought this would make a nice entry for the Blog as well.

AlDokkan.com


Check this place out! http://www.aldokkan.com/index.html


while searching for Holy Chocolate e-merchant leads. I decided to try to come up with a new key word search that would bring up new businesses that I haven't found before. And when I did a Google search for "gift shop" (Since I've already done "Gift baskets", gifts, chocolate etc.). Well guess what pop's up the first web site listed on this search! Kind of an interesting coincidence don't ya think?

Church of St. George, Lalibela, Ethiopia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monolithic_church

Ethiopian Orthodox Music!

http://www.dskmariam.org/multimedia/churchsongs/index.asp

Syriac Orthodox Music

http://www.syriacmusic.com/

(you need to register before you can use it)

"Any suggestions about a good chant CD(s) to use during prayer time?" (one person asked on a message board I frequent) well I wanted to take the time to feature a few chants from our other Communions.

Armenian Chant

http://www.liturgica.com/htmlsite/results_cat_20.html


(I am currently looking for some old Ethiopian And Syriac Orthodox chant sites, that had MP3 samples and/or entire songs)

"Cairo: A movie focusing exclusively on Egypt's Christian Coptic minority and featuring Laila Elwi in a leading role, is sparking controversy, and may land the director in court. "

http://www.benadorassociates.com/article/6024

Family Planning
By His Grace Bishop Serapion

http://www.lacopts.org/index.php/lacopts/entry/43/

Jesus In Egypt

Check out this new online map that traces the path of the Holy Family

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/135/story_13569_1.html

"The Jonah Redemption"

Finally Curiosity has got the better of me. So I finally decided to learn more about the first big ever Coptic feature length film. So after scouring the web and not finding much (or in once case finding a complete accounting spoilers and all). I finally found one good review here. That reviews it but doesn't give away much for those that want to be suprised.

http://www.xculturemag.com/bishai15.html

A Walk through World Church History pt2

And speaking of maps..... check out this article concerning our previous discussion regarding the spread of Christianity and the East.

http://www.mari.org/JMS/january01/Syriac_Christianity.htm

Percentage of Orthodox in US

if you want to avoid eye strain go here.

A Walk through World Church History.

History and the general outlook you get from it was another thing that made me look to the east. I recall a number of times hearing sermons etc. about how we need to evangelize the far east with the 10/40 window, Jesus film, etc. Because "those people have never heard the gospel!", or that have never been "evangelized". The assumption when these people hear the gospel (Along with a few other isolated groups in africa and south america). Then Jesus will come back!!


Well if you study Church history of the world (And not just that of Europe and the US) then you realize this thinking is not the least bit accurate.


I am going to quote some from my newest hot linked document "East of the Euphrates"

"It is one of the ironies of history that Christianity, which was born in Asia, has become ‘alien’ in its own home. The Christians in China, for example, were persecuted in the ninth and fifteenth centuries because Christianity was considered to be a ‘foreign’ religion. One important reason for the ‘alieness’ of Christianity is that the history of Christianity in Asia is either forgotten or ignored even by the Asian Christians themselves. Having lost a sense of history, and thus their own identity, Christians were not able to participate fully in the historical process in the continent. "


I heartily recomend "East of the Euphrates" for those who like history, and like to read those subjects that often get passed over by the typical Western Eurocentric books, classes etc.

Ok while were still at it (talking about the Lord's Prayer and cool Aramaic Shiznit).

from /www.christusrex.org/www1/pater/JPN-aramaic.html

Anyway one of the cool things I remeber about reading about New Testament Aramaic was its structure. There are specifc orations that Jesus said that have poetic structure to them(i.e. -The Lord's prayer, The Beatitudes, etc.). They contain rhyme, meter, puns and other poetic devices. In much the same way the Psalms and Proverbs do in Hebrew. Anyway this gives a much different impression that what you get reading an english or greek Bible. Where it reads like prose. (Jesus is more than a messiah, son of God, Rabbai. He is also a poet/psalmist, even at times an improvisational comedian with his use of humor. And this greatly expands on both his "human side" as well as gives even more hints as to the supernatural wisdom that he possessed.)

And this of course reminds me of this sermon by Rick Joyner one of the big leaders of the "Prophetic Movement", in the general larger evangelical Charismatic movement. He spoke about how the Sermon on the mount violates all manner of Homiletics that they teach you in Seminary or Bible school on how to preach a good sermon. As he said, "Man... the sermon on the mount is the most disjointed collection of thoughts that I have ever heard!" And went on to say the typical line that I so often hear from Jesus Movement hippies, Vineyard type charismatics and evangelical Post Moderns.

Which is basically that if something is really "spiritual" it tends to violate all our rules, norms and ideas (Which tend to be fleshy or carnal in nature).

Of course I have another explanation.... namely that Mr. Joyner is not really hearing and understanding Jesus thoughts in their original Semetic context. He is rather hearing a translation of them (technically speaking a translation of a translation).

The fact that Jesus way of doing things looks alien to us is not that Jesus is being a super spiritual iconoclast, prophetically disregarding all forms of social rules and norms. But rather we are so far removed from Jesus frame of reference that we can only really grasp a fraction of what he really said and did.

"I found that it was a fact that I found that the Church, and Christianity, etc. was a much bigger thing then what my former (Protestant Evangelical) understanding said about it."


Here a little example of that. I once was a member of a church that was Syriac. It's Apostolic line of succession, and holy language was Aramaic (The language of Jesus and the disciples.) Anyway, I found sometimes the background and tradition around the text of the scriptures can often be just as important as what the text literally says.

here's an example from
www.theooze.com/forums/discussions.cfm?forumid=10&topicid=35646&bookmark=1&kw=Aramaic

(I am quoting from the work of an early translator of the Aramaic new testament)

"On one ocassion Lamsa was asked to speak in the Locust Valley Church in Long Island, New York. The Congregation was mostly Wall Street People. The minister asked Lamsa what his topic was going to be. Lamsa told him that he was going to speak on the passage from the Bible, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to go to heaven." The minister became alarmed and said "oh No!" You must not speak on that. Some of the wealthiest people in The World are in this church. Lamsa told the minister that the true passage should read rope not camel.

He explained that this is one of the errors in the Western translations. He pointed out that some of the strands of the rope could pass through the eye of a needle, but some of it would have to be sacrificed. "It means that a rich man certainly can go to Heaven, but he will have to give up something." The ARAMAIC characters for camel and rope are identical and only a native who was born to to the language can tell the difference.