The Monastery of Saint Mary El-Sourian is a

Coptic Orthodox The Coptic Orthodox Church (), also known as the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria, is an Oriental Orthodox Churches, Oriental Orthodox Christian church based in Egypt. The head of the church and the Apostolic see, See of Alexandria i ...

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

located in

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

in the

Nitrian Desert The Nitrian Desert is a desert region in northwestern Egypt, lying between Alexandria and Cairo west of the Nile Delta. It is known for its history of Christian monasticism."Nitrian Desert", in F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone, eds., ''The Oxfo ...

Beheira Governorate Beheira ( ', , "the governorate of the Lake") is a coastal governorates of Egypt, governorate in northern Egypt. Located in the northern part of the country in the Nile Delta, its capital is Damanhur. Overview Beheira Governorate enjoys an impo ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

. It is located about 500 meters northwest of the

Monastery of Saint Pishoy The Monastery of Saint Pishoy (also spelled Bishoy, Pshoi, or Bishoi), also known as Saint Pishoy Monastery, is a Coptic Orthodox Church, Coptic Orthodox monastery in Wadi El Natrun, west of the Nile Delta in northern Egypt. It is the largest ac ...

. The monastery is dedicated to the

Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

and carries her name. In scholarly references from the nineteenth century it is generally called the convent or monastery of Saint Mary Deipara. It is better known nowadays as the Syriac Monastery or the monastery of the Syriacs (Arabic: ''Dayr al-Suryān'') because it was mainly used by monks of the

Syriac Orthodox Church The Syriac Orthodox Church (), also informally known as the Jacobite Church, is an Oriental Orthodox Christian denomination, denomination that originates from the Church of Antioch. The church currently has around 4-5 million followers. The ch ...

from the 8th to the 14th century.

Etymology, foundation and ancient history

The exact date of the monastery's foundation is unknown. Most sources seem however to agree that its foundation took place in the sixth century AD. The establishment of the monastery is closely connected to the Julianist heresy, which spread in

during the papacy of Pope Timothy III of Alexandria. The Julianists believed in the incorruptibility of

Christ Jesus ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Christianity, central figure of Christianity, the M ...

's body. This was in contradiction with the teaching of the Orthodox Church, which held that

had taken human flesh that prevented him from being ideal and abstract, and therefore corruptible. Yet, in the

monasteries A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which 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 ...

, a majority of the

monks 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 ...

embraced the Julian heresy. In reaction, those who did not follow the heresy obtained permission from the governor Aristomachus to erect new churches and monasteries, so that they could settle apart from the Julianists. These new facilities were often built alongside the old ones, even keeping the same name but adding to it the word ''

Theotokos ''Theotokos'' ( Greek: ) is a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, used especially in Eastern Christianity. The usual Latin translations are or (approximately "parent (fem.) of God"). Familiar English translations are "Mother of God" or "God-beare ...

'', thus recognizing the significance of the incarnation, which the Julians seemed to minimize. The Syrian Monastery was therefore established by those monks of the Monastery of Saint Pishoy who rejected the Julian heresy. At the time of its construction, they called it the ''Monastery of the Holy Virgin Theotokos''. Towards the beginning of the eighth century AD, the monastery was sold to a group of wealthy Syriac merchants from

Tikrit Tikrit ( ) is a city in Iraq, located northwest of Baghdad and southeast of Mosul on the Tigris River. It is the administrative center of the Saladin Governorate. In 2012, it had a population of approximately 160,000. Originally created as a f ...

, who had settled 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 ...

, for 12,000 dinars. These merchants converted the monastery for use by

Syrian Syrians () are the majority inhabitants of Syria, indigenous to the Levant, most of whom have Arabic, especially its Levantine and Mesopotamian dialects, as a mother tongue. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend ...

monks, and rebaptized it ''Monastery of the Holy Virgin of the Syrians''. This could be one of the sources of the monastery's modern name. Yet, it is also possible that the monastery had already been inhabited by Syrian monks since the fourth century AD, which could trace the monastery's name to that period. The Syrian Monastery, like the rest of the monasteries in

, was subject to fierce attacks by desert

Bedouins The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu ( ; , singular ) are pastorally nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia (Iraq). The Bedouin originated in the Sy ...

and

Berbers Berbers, or the Berber peoples, also known as Amazigh or Imazighen, are a diverse grouping of distinct ethnic groups indigenous to North Africa who predate the arrival of Arab migrations to the Maghreb, Arabs in the Maghreb. Their main connec ...

. The fifth of these attacks, which took place in 817 AD, was particularly disastrous to this monastery. The monastery was then rebuilt in 850 AD by two monks, named Matthew and Abraham. In 927 AD, one of the monastery's monks, known as

Moses of Nisibis Moses (or Mushe) of Nisibis ( 904–943) was a West Syriac monk and scribe. He was the abbot (''riš dayro'') of Dayr al-Suryan, the Syrian monastery in the Wadi al-Natrun in Egypt, from 914 at the latest. He brought together and helped preserve ...

, traveled to

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

to ask the

Abbasid The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire (; ) was the third caliphate to succeed the prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 C ...

caliph A caliphate ( ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with Khalifa, the title of caliph (; , ), a person considered a political–religious successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a leader of ...

Al-Muqtadir Abū’l-Faḍl Jaʿfar ibn Al-Mu'tadid, Aḥmad ibn Al-Muwaffaq, Ṭalḥa ibn Al-Mutawakkil, Jaʿfar ibn al-Mu'tasim, Muḥammad ibn Harun al-Rashid, Hārūn Al-Muqtadir bi'Llāh () (895 – 31 October 932 AD), better known by his regnal name a ...

to grant tax exemption to the monasteries. Moses then traveled through

Syria region Syria, ( or ''Shaam'') also known as Greater Syria or Syria-Palestine, is a historical region located east of the Mediterranean Sea in West Asia, broadly synonymous with the Levant. The region boundaries have changed throughout history. Howe ...

and

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

in search of manuscripts. After three years of traveling, he returned to

, bringing with him 250 Syriac manuscript. This made of the Syrian Monastery a prosperous and important facility, possessing many artistic treasures and a library rich in Syriac texts. Inside the monastery, there is a large door known as the Door of Prophecies or Gate of Prophecies, that features symbolic diagrams depicting the past and the future of the Christian faith through the eyes of Christian monks of the tenth century.

Medieval history

Based on a census taken by Mawhub ibn Mansur ibn Mufarrig, the co-author of the

History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria The ''History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria'' is a major historical work of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. It is the only continuous narrative on the history of the Non-Chalcedonian Alexandrian Patriarchate. It is written in Coptic ...

, the Syrian Monastery had some sixty monks in 1088 AD. It was the third at the time in the

, after 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 ...

and the Monastery of Saint John the Dwarf. In the middle of the twelfth century, the Syrian Monastery witnessed a period of trouble, when no Syrian priest was present. However, in 2000 an inscription from 1285/1286 was found, "which recorded building or other activities in the Monastery". This may have reflected an influx of Syrian refugees in the 1250s. In the fourteenth century, the monastery was decimated by the plague. When a monk named Moses from the Monastery of Mar Gabriel in

Tur Abdin Tur Abdin (; ; ; or ) is a hilly region situated in southeast Turkey, including the eastern half of the Mardin Province, and Şırnak Province west of the Tigris, on the Syria–Turkey border, border with Syria and famed since Late Antiquity for ...

visited the monastery in 1413 AD, he found only one remaining

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 ...

. Towards the end of the fifteenth century, the Patriarch of

Antioch Antioch on the Orontes (; , ) "Antioch on Daphne"; or "Antioch the Great"; ; ; ; ; ; ; . was a Hellenistic Greek city founded by Seleucus I Nicator in 300 BC. One of the most important Greek cities of the Hellenistic period, it served as ...

visited the Syrian Monastery, granting it many privileges and donations, in order to restore it to its former glory. However,

Egyptian ''Egyptian'' describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of year ...

monks continued to populate the monastery and, by 1516 AD, only 18 out of 43

s were

. By the time of

Pope Gabriel VII of Alexandria Pope Gabriel VII of Alexandria (Anba Gabriel VII) was the 95th Coptic Orthodox Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark. He was born in the area around the monastery of El-Mouharraq, and at a young age he became a monk in the w ...

, who himself had been a monk at the Syrian Monastery, it was able to supply ten monks to the Monastery of Saint Paul the Anchorite and twenty to the

Monastery of Saint Anthony The Monastery of Saint Anthony is a Coptic Orthodox monastery standing in an oasis in the Eastern Desert of Egypt, in the northern part of the Red Sea Governorate close to the border with the Suez Governorate. Hidden deep in the Red Sea Mountai ...

in the

Eastern Desert The Eastern Desert (known archaically as Arabia or the Arabian Desert) is the part of the Sahara Desert that is located east of the Nile River. It spans of northeastern Africa and is bordered by the Gulf of Suez and the Red Sea to the east, a ...

when those two communities were damaged by

Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu ( ; , singular ) are pastorally nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia (Iraq). The Bedouin originated in the Sy ...

raids. In the seventeenth century, western travelers from France, Germany and England visited the monastery and reported that there were two churches, one for the

Syrians Syrians () are the majority inhabitants of Syria, indigenous to the Levant, most of whom have Arabic, especially its Levantine Arabic, Levantine and Mesopotamian Arabic, Mesopotamian dialects, as a mother tongue. The culture of Syria, cultural ...

and one for the

Egyptians Egyptians (, ; , ; ) are an ethnic group native to the Nile, Nile Valley in Egypt. Egyptian identity is closely tied to Geography of Egypt, geography. The population is concentrated in the Nile Valley, a small strip of cultivable land stretchi ...

(

Copt Copts (; ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group native to Northeast Africa who have primarily inhabited the area of modern Egypt since antiquity. They are, like the broader Egyptian population, descended from the ancient Egyptians. Copts pre ...

s). They also mention a miraculous ''Tree of

Saint Ephrem Ephrem the Syrian (; ), also known as Ephraem the Deacon, Ephrem of Edessa or Aprem of Nisibis, (Syriac: ܡܪܝ ܐܦܪܝܡ ܣܘܪܝܝܐ — ''Mâr Aphrêm Sûryâyâ)'' was a prominent Christian theology, Christian theologian and Christian literat ...

''. According to tradition,

was a fourth-century

theologian and ascetic from

Nisibis Nusaybin () is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Mardin Province, Turkey. Its area is 1,079 km2, and its population is 115,586 (2022). The city is populated by Kurds of different tribal affiliation. Nusaybin is separated ...

. He sought to meet the holy monk Saint Pishoy, and thus came to the monastic centers of

. When the two men met, they were unable to communicate because Ephrem spoke only Syriac. Yet, suddenly and miraculously, Saint Pishoy began to express himself in that language, enabling his visitor to understand him. During this exchange, it is said that

leaned his staff against the door of the hermitage and all at once it became rooted and even sprouted foliage. Near the church of the Holy Virgin, monks will continue to point out even today this tamarind, miraculously born from Ephrem's staff. When

Peter Heyling Peter Heyling (1607/1608 – c. 1652) was a German Lutheran missionary to Egypt and Ethiopia.Werner Raupp"Heyling, Peter" in Gerald H. Anderson, ed., ''Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions'' (W. B. Eerdmans, 1998). He was the first Protest ...

, a

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

missionary from

Lübeck Lübeck (; or ; Latin: ), officially the Hanseatic League, Hanseatic City of Lübeck (), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 220,000 inhabitants, it is the second-largest city on the German Baltic Sea, Baltic coast and the second-larg ...

, and Yusuf Simaan Assemani, a Lebanese envoy of Pope Clement XI of Rome, visited the Syrian monastery between the mid-seventeenth and mid-eighteenth centuries, they found no

monks living in it. The latter managed to acquire forty precious manuscripts from the monastery's library, which are kept today in the

Vatican Library The Vatican Apostolic Library (, ), more commonly known as the Vatican Library or informally as the Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City, and is the city-state's national library. It was formally established in 1475, alth ...

Modern history

Between 1839 and 1851, the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

in London was able to purchase about five hundred Syriac manuscripts from the monastery's library, concerned not only with religious topics, but also with philosophy and literature. Famous visitors to the monastery during this time included Lansing (1862), Chester (1873), Junkers (1875), Jullien (1881) and Butler (1883). The manuscripts found in the Syrian monastery inspired intense research on the

Syriac language The Syriac language ( ; ), also known natively in its spoken form in early Syriac literature as Edessan (), the Mesopotamian language () and Aramaic (), is an Aramaic#Eastern Middle Aramaic, Eastern Middle Aramaic dialect. Classical Syriac is ...

and culture, for until that time, many classical texts from

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

Euclid Euclid (; ; BC) was an ancient Greek mathematician active as a geometer and logician. Considered the "father of geometry", he is chiefly known for the '' Elements'' treatise, which established the foundations of geometry that largely domina ...

Archimedes Archimedes of Syracuse ( ; ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Greek mathematics, mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and Invention, inventor from the ancient city of Syracuse, Sicily, Syracuse in History of Greek and Hellenis ...

Hippocrates Hippocrates of Kos (; ; ), also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek physician and philosopher of the Classical Greece, classical period who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He is traditionally referr ...

and

Galen Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus (; September 129 – AD), often Anglicization, anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Ancient Rome, Roman and Greeks, Greek physician, surgeon, and Philosophy, philosopher. Considered to be one o ...

were known to Western scholars only in their thirteenth-century

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

translations. Even these were often translations from earlier

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

sources. These documents are the oldest copies of important

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

classical texts, with some dating back to the fifth century. Today, the Syrian monastery provides a great opportunity to study the development of

ic wall painting. Between 1991 and 1999, several segments of wall paintings layered on top of each other were uncovered in the Church of the

Holy Virgin Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under various titles such as virgin or queen, many of them mentioned in the Litany of Loret ...

and the Chapel of the Forty-Nine Martyrs, dating from between the seventh and the thirteenth centuries. There is currently an ongoing project to uncover, restore and conserve wall paintings within the monastery. The monastery is enclosed by a large wall, built towards the end of the ninth century, and whose height varies between 9.5 and 11.5 meters. The monastery also includes a keep (tower) and a refectory. The five churches inside the monastery are named after the

(2 of the churches), the Forty-Nine Martyrs, Saints Honnos and Marutha, and Saint John the Dwarf.

Popes from the Syrian Monastery

# Pope Gabriel VII (1525–1570) #

Pope Shenouda III Pope Shenouda III (3 August 1923 – 17 March 2012) was the 117th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark. His papacy lasted 40 years, 4 months, and 4 days, from 14 November 1971 until his death. His official title was Pope of ...

(1971–2012)

Abbots

List of the Abbots of the Monastery from the 6th century to the present, with their names, surnames/epithets in "", priestly rank, and reign (): * Theodore I; (6th century) * Marota "bin Habib"; (720) * Joseph I; (773) * Ibn 'Eidi; (contemporary of Pope Cosmas II of Alexandria) * John I "bin Maqari", Presbyter; (894) * Moses "al-Nasibi", Presbyter; (early 10th Century) * Saliba, Presbyter; (contemporary of Pope Abraham of Alexandria) * David, Presbyter; (1007) * John II, Presbyter; (11th Century) * Basil, Presbyter; (1222) * Joshua, Hegumen; (1237-1254) * Abd el-Massih, Hegumen; (contemporary of Pope Mathew II) * Severus I "Kyriakos", Metropolitan Bishop; (1484) * Severus II, Metropolitan Bishop; (1516) * Lazarus, Presbyter * Constantine I, Presbyter; (abdicated and retired to the Monastery of Saint Anthony) * Constantine II, Presbyter * John III, Hegumen; (~1584) * Abd el-Massih II "al-Anbeiri", Hegumen; (1665, he later became Metropolitan of Ethiopia) * John IV, Hegumen; (1684) * Michael, Hegumen; (1720) * Gabriel, Hegumen * Peter, Hegumen; (was the Abbot for all of Scetis, he later became Metropolitan of Girga) * Manqarious, Hegumen (was later consecrated as Metropolitan Peter of Manfalut and Abnub) * Qulta "the Scribe", Hegumen; (1784) * John V "al-Fayumi", Hegumen * Abd el-Qudus, Hegumen; (1848) * Joseph II "al-Mahalawi", Hegumen * John VI "Bishara", Hegumen; (was later consecrated as Bishop Mathew of Abu-Teig) * Theodore II, Hegumen * John VII "al-Esnawi", Hegumen; (was later consecrated as Bishop Serapamon of Khartoum and Omdurman) * Maximus "Salib", Hegumen; (1897-1939) * Philotheos "Morqos", Hegumen; (1939-1947) * Theophiles, Bishop; (1948-1989) * Matthew, Bishop; (1993–Present)

Other monasteries of the Nitrian Desert

* The Monastery of Saint Pishoy * The Monastery of Saint Macarius the Great * The Paromeos Monastery

References

External links

The Syrian Monastery: Arabic articles and photo-gallery
from st-takla.org'

{{Coord, 30, 19, 04, N, 30, 21, 15, E, display=title, region:EG_type:landmark Christian monasteries in Egypt Coptic Orthodox monasteries Christian monasteries established in the 6th century Oriental Orthodox congregations established in the 6th century Monaster, Syrian Buildings and structures in Beheira Governorate