Bashnouna () (died 19 May 1164) was a Coptic

saint In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...

and

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' Word stem, stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In ...

. According to his

hagiography A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a preacher, priest, founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian ...

, Bashnouna was a

monk A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...

in the

Monastery of Saint Macarius the Great The Monastery of Saint Macarius The Great also known as Dayr Al-ʾanbā Maqār () is a Coptic Orthodox monastery located in Wadi El Natrun, Beheira Governorate, about north-west of Cairo, and off the highway between Cairo and Alexandria. The m ...

Scetes Wadi El Natrun (Arabic: "Valley of Natron"; , "measure of the hearts") is a depression in northern Egypt that is located below sea level and below the Nile River level. The valley contains several alkaline lakes, natron-rich salt deposits ...

. He was arrested by the

Fatimid The Fatimid Caliphate (; ), also known as the Fatimid Empire, was a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries CE under the rule of the Fatimid dynasty, Fatimids, an Isma'ili Shi'a dynasty. Spanning a large area of North Africa ...

authorities during the caliphate of

Al-'Āḍid Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūsuf ibn al-Ḥāfiẓ (; 1151–1171), better known by his regnal name al-ʿĀḍid li-Dīn Allāh (), was the fourteenth and last caliph of the Fatimid dynasty, and the twenty-fourth Imamate in Ismaili doc ...

, and threatened to face death if he were not to convert to

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

. Having refused, Bashnouna was burned alive on 24 Pashons, 880 (19 May 1164 AD) His relics were buried at the Church of Saint Sergius in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

References

Sources

Coptic Synexarion
12th-century Christian saints Coptic Orthodox saints Christians executed for refusing to convert to Islam 1164 deaths Egyptian Christian monks 12th-century Christian martyrs Christian saints killed by Muslims Year of birth unknown {{saint-stub