The Coptic White Monastery (), also The Monastery of Abba Shenouda () and The
Athribian Monastery () 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 ...
named after Saint
Shenoute. It is located near the
Upper Egypt
Upper Egypt ( ', shortened to , , locally: ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the Nile River valley south of the delta and the 30th parallel North. It thus consists of the entire Nile River valley from Cairo south to Lake N ...
ian cities of
Tahta and
Sohag
Sohag (, , ), also spelled as Suhag or Suhaj, is a city on the west bank of the Nile in Egypt. It has been the capital of Sohag Governorate since 1960, before which the capital was Girga and the name of the governorate was Girga Governorate. I ...
, and about south-east of the
Red Monastery.
The name of the monastery is derived from the colour of the white limestone of its outside walls. The White Monastery is architecturally similar to the Red Monastery. The monastery had one of the largest Coptic libraries ever known with over 1,000 codices of which 10% survive.
History
Foundation
The monastery was founded by
Saint Pigol (), the maternal uncle of Shenoute, in 442
here
Here may refer to:
Music
* ''Here'' (Adrian Belew album), 1994
* ''Here'' (Alicia Keys album), 2016
* ''Here'' (Cal Tjader album), 1979
* ''Here'' (Edward Sharpe album), 2012
* ''Here'' (Idina Menzel album), 2004
* ''Here'' (Merzbow album), ...
]. However, it only became renowned after Shenoute succeeded his uncle as abbot of the monastery. From 30 monks, the population of the White Monastery increased to 2,200 monks and 1800 nuns by Shenoute's death in 466. The monastery also increased in size during this time to 12,800 acres (51.8 km
2), an area about 3000 times its original size. Such an area included cells, kitchens, and storehouses, the ruins of which can still be seen to the north, west, and south sides of the church complex.
Following the death of Shenouda, the monastic community of the White Monastery continued strong throughout the
5th century
The 5th century is the time period from AD 401 (represented by the Roman numerals CDI) through AD 500 (D) in accordance with the Julian calendar. The 5th century is noted for being a period of migration and political instability throughout Eurasia. ...
under the leadership of
Saint Wissa () and later
Saint Zenobius
Saint Zenobius () (337–417) who was the first bishop of Florence. Venerated in the Catholic Church, his feast day is celebrated on May 25.
Life
Born of a Florentine noble family, Zenobius was educated by his pagan parents. He came under th ...
. However, the monastery began slowly to decline following the
Muslim conquest of Egypt
The Arab conquest of Egypt, led by the army of Amr ibn al-As, took place between 639 and 642 AD and was overseen by the Rashidun Caliphate. It ended the seven-century-long Roman Egypt, Roman period in Egypt that had begun in 30 BC and, more broa ...
in 641. The state of decline can be attributed in part to the heavy taxes that the monasteries in Egypt had to endure. Such taxes put a great number of monasteries out of existence.
Middle Ages
In the middle of the 8th century, the Arab governor
al-Qasim ibn Ubayd Allah forced his way into the monastery church with his female concubine on horseback. This resulted in the concubine falling to the ground and eventually to her death, along with the horse she was riding.
The monastery served as a host for
Armenian
Armenian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent
** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...
monks in the 11th and the 12th centuries. This is indicated in the inscriptions found on the paintings of the central apse of the church, which date between 1076 and 1124. Among these Armenian monks was the artist Theodore of
Kaysun, the Armenian Vizier Bahram, who became a monk after having been banished from his office during the Caliphate of the
Fatimid caliph al-Hafiz (1135-1137). In 1168, the monastery was attacked by
Shirkuh
Asad ad-Dīn Shīrkūh bin Shādhī (; ), (died 23 March 1169) was a Kurdish Mercenary commander in service of the Zengid dynasty, then the Fatimid Caliphate and uncle of Saladin. His military and diplomatic efforts in Egypt were a key factor ...
.
The monastery underwent major restorations between 1202 and 1259. In the 13th century, in the work attributed to
Abu al-Makarim, it is mentioned that the monastery included a keep, which was probably built during the Middle Ages to protect the monastery from the attacks of the desert's
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 ...
s. Abu al-Makarim also tells of an enclosure wall around the monastery within which a garden full of all sorts of trees existed. The lack of literary manuscripts after the 14th century indicates that the monastery was in an advanced state of decline from that time onwards. According to al-Maqrizi, who called it both the "White Monastery" and the "Monastery of St Shenoute", mentioned that in the 13th century, it lay in ruins and only the church remained in use.
Modern history
The monastery was visited by
Johann Michael Vansleb in 1672 and by
Richard Pococke
Richard Pococke (19 November 1704 – 25 September 1765)''Notes and Queries'', p. 129. was an English clergyman and writer. He was the Bishop of Ossory (1756–65) and Meath (1765), both dioceses of the Church of Ireland. However, he is best kn ...
in 1737. Both of them made an incorrect attribution of the foundation of the monastery to
Helena of Constantinople
Flavia Julia Helena (; , ''Helénē''; – 330), also known as Helena of Constantinople and in Christianity as Saint Helena, was an '' Augusta'' of the Roman Empire and mother of Emperor Constantine the Great. She was born in the lower ...
,
Emperor Constantine
Constantine I (27 February 27222 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was a Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337 and the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He played a pivotal role in elevating the status of Christ ...
's mother. During the second half of the 18th century, the southwest corner of the surviving church-complex collapsed. In 1798, the monastery was sacked and totally burned down by the
Mamluk
Mamluk or Mamaluk (; (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural); translated as "one who is owned", meaning "slave") were non-Arab, ethnically diverse (mostly Turkic, Caucasian, Eastern and Southeastern European) enslaved mercenaries, slave-so ...
s. The destruction was mentioned by the French traveler
Dominique Vivant
Dominique Vivant, Baron Denon (; 4 January 1747 – 27 April 1825) was a French artist, writer, diplomat, author, and archaeologist. Denon was a diplomat for France under Louis XV and Louis XVI. He was appointed as the first Director of the Louv ...
, who visited the monastery on the day following its destruction. In 1802, under the direction of
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and social activist. A global cultural icon, widely known by the nickname "The Greatest", he is often regarded as the gr ...
, parts of the monastery were rebuilt. In 1833,
Robert Curzon visited the monastery and left a written record of his visit. In 1893, Fergusson published a plan of the church complex. However, the most significant contributions to the study of the monastery and its church were made by such visitors as
Wladimir de Bock (1901),
C. R. Peers (1904),
Flinders Petrie
Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie ( – ), commonly known as simply Sir Flinders Petrie, was an English people, English Egyptology, Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology and the preservation of artefacts. ...
(1907),
Somers Clarke (1912), and
Ugo Monneret de Villard (1925).
In 1907, the church complex experienced another repair which included the removal of the encrustation of brick work and the undercovering of the doorways. Then in the 1980s more restoration work took place on the walls and the columns of the church.
Description of the monastery
The only surviving piece of the original monastery is its church complex, which was built in the Basilica style. It has six entrances: three centrally placed in the north, south, and west walls. The other three are located south of the west wall, east of the south wall, and east of the north wall. Its outer appearance resembles an
Egyptian temple
Egyptian temples were built for the official worship of the gods and in commemoration of the pharaohs in ancient Egypt and regions under Egyptian control. Temples were seen as houses for the gods or kings to whom they were dedicated. Within them ...
. It has a combination of exo- and eso-narthex leading into the body of the original church. This body, which is now an open courtyard, contains a nave flanked by two aisles. They are separated from the nave by long rows of columns with a returned isle in the west to define the eso-narthex. There existed atop these isles mezzanine galleries, as evidenced by the two rows of windows seen on the walls. The grand style of this 5th-century
basilica
In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...
includes an open courtyard measuring 172 feet by 76 feet, of which the nave occupies half that width.

The current Church now occupies what used to be the choir and the sanctuary areas. This is separated from the open court by a solid red brick wall, of medieval construction, with doors and windows. The original sanctuary was built in a trefoil style with three apses. It is a step higher than the nave in the open court. The rectangular space, defined by the apses to its north, south and east sides, served as the altar for the basilica. Now the altar is located within the central or eastern apse. The rest of the space is now integrated into the nave of the current Church. There is also a new iconostasis made with solid wood and adorned by small icons on its top register. The current sanctuary in the central apse is actually divided into three. The middle one is dedicated to Saint Shenouda the Archimandrite, the southern one to the
Mary, mother of Jesus
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 the northern one to
Saint George
Saint George (;Geʽez: ጊዮርጊስ, , ka, გიორგი, , , died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to holy tradition, he was a soldier in the ...
.
The original three apses are of magnificent construction. Each contains two registers of columns separated by a decorative frieze and surmounted by architraves. Between the columns there lie the niches. The horizontal cross-section of the niches in each register alternates between rectangular and circular. The semidome of each is decorated with a beautiful design. Above the registers lies the majestic semidome. There paintings can be distinguished in these semidomes. The one in the central apse has a painting of the
Christ Pantocrator
In Christian iconography, Christ Pantocrator (, ) is a specific depiction of Christ. or , literally 'ruler of all', but usually translated as 'almighty' or 'all-powerful', is derived from one of many names of God in Judaism.
The Pantokrator i ...
and the four evangelists. In the northern apse, there is a depiction of the dormition of the Virgin Mary. The southern apse has a representation of the resurrection with the two Mary's and two angels.
The church complex has several annexes along the east and south walls. The most significant is the great hall that runs alongside the south wall. This probably served the function of a women's chamber in the early days. It has a chamber at each of its east and west ends. The west chamber contains a well and it underwent reconstruction in the early 19th century. There are also two chambers south of the central apse and a third one to the north. On the south side, one chamber is rectangular with a font which is now used as a baptistery, and the second is circular with niches. On the north side, the chamber is square. There is another rectangular chamber west of the circular chamber and it is divided in half by two projecting buttresses.

There is a variety of building material employed in the construction of the church complex. This reflects the different stages that the monastery went through since the time of its foundation. The outer walls are of white limestone set in mortar with no bonding. They are sloped six degrees from vertical on the outside (original construction). The gargoyles and the door lintels are also of limestone, with the doorjambs being made of red granite. The source of these limestones is probably from ruins of nearby
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...
ian temples, which Saint Shenouda the Archimandrite contributed to their demise figuratively and literally. The original nave columns are made of marble or granite with few later ones being of red bricks. Many of these columns are no longer standing. The paving of the nave is of limestone or granite slabs.
The original sanctuary is now roofed with vaults of burnt bricks; originally, it had a wood roof. The nave, isles, and the great south hall (lateral narthex) are now without a roof; originally they had wood gabled roofs with galleries atop the isles. The wall between the exo-narthex and the body of the original church is of limestone. The great wall that defines the western boundary of the current church is made up of red bricks which encase the original columns and arches. This now is covered with a cream-color stucco layer. The four arches carrying the squinches of the central, original, sanctuary dome are also made up of red bricks except for the one toward the east which is of marble construction.
The library

The literacy campaign, which Shenouda the Archimandrite waged in his monastery, reflected positively on the library of the monastery. With everyone in the monastery capable of reading and many skilled in writing manuscripts, the library must have been one of the greatest libraries of
Christian Egypt. The library contained around 1,000 codices, averaging 200-300 pages each. Around 10% of these survived today in collections primarily located in Europe. This testimony is not only in the number of codices identified but also in the wide variety of subjects it possessed.
Today the library is scattered all over the world. Codices were dismembered with individual folios ending up in different libraries or museums. At times, even an individual folio ended up in different libraries which were thousands of miles apart. Serious effort has been undertaken to artificially regroup these codices from their Diaspora with photographic means. Mgr.
Louis Théophile Lefort, a coptologist of Louvain, made the first comprehensive attempt toward achieving this monumental goal. However, his collection was a tragic victim of World War II. Currently, this task has been taken up by
Tito Orlandi and his associates in the
Sapienza University of Rome
The Sapienza University of Rome (), formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", abbreviated simply as Sapienza ('Wisdom'), is a Public university, public research university located in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1303 and is ...
. There, they formed the ''Corpus dei Manoscritti Copti Letterari''.
They were able to identify hundreds of separate codices with the aid of the prior works that
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 ...
ic scholars had previously done.
The library contents, as mentioned above, has adorned many libraries and museums around the world from as early as the 19th century. The following is a partial list of those places that possess such fragments:
*
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
,
Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museumplein, Museum Square in the stadsdeel, borough of Amsterdam-Zuid, Amsterdam South, ...
*
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
,
Deutsche Staatsbibliothek
*
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 ...
,
Coptic Museum
*
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 ...
,
Egyptian Museum
The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, commonly known as the Egyptian Museum (, Egyptian Arabic: ) (also called the Cairo Museum), located in Cairo, Egypt, houses the largest collection of Ancient Egypt, Egyptian antiquities in the world. It hou ...
*
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 ...
,
Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale
An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body.
In some countries, institutes c ...
*
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
,
Cambridge University Library
Cambridge University Library is the main research library of the University of Cambridge. It is the largest of over 100 libraries Libraries of the University of Cambridge, within the university. The library is a major scholarly resource for me ...
*
Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025.
Florence ...
,
Laurentian Library
The Laurentian Library (Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana or BML) is a historic library in Florence, Italy, containing more than 11,000 manuscripts and 4,500 early printed books. Built in a cloister of the Medicean Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze u ...
*
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
,
Russian National Library
The National Library of Russia (NLR, , ''РНБ''), located in Saint Petersburg, is the first, and one of three national public libraries in Russia. The NLR is currently ranked among the world's major libraries. It has the second biggest libr ...
* London,
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...
* London,
Eton College
Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...
*
Louvain
Leuven (, , ), also called Louvain (, , ), is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the sub-municipalities of ...
,
Bibliothèque de l'Université
*
Manchester
Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
,
John Rylands University Library
*
Michigan
Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...
,
University of Michigan Library
The University of Michigan Library is the academic library system of the University of Michigan. The university's 38 constituent and affiliated libraries together make it the second largest research library by number of volumes in the United Sta ...
* Moscow,
Pushkin Museum
The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (, abbreviated as , ''GMII'') is the largest museum of European art in Moscow. It is located in Volkhonka street, just opposite the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. The International musical festival Sviatos ...
*
Naples
Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...
,
Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III
*
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
New York may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* ...
,
The Morgan Library & Museum
*
Oxford
Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town.
The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...
,
Bodleian Library
The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley, it is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second-largest library in ...
* Paris,
Bibliothèque nationale de France
The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...
* Paris,
Musée du Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...
*
Strasbourg
Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...
,
Bibliothèque de l'Université
*
Vatican City
Vatican City, officially the Vatican City State (; ), is a Landlocked country, landlocked sovereign state and city-state; it is enclaved within Rome, the capital city of Italy and Bishop of Rome, seat of the Catholic Church. It became inde ...
,
Biblioteca Apostolica
*
Venice
Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
,
Biblioteca Naniana
*
Vienna
Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
,
Österreichische Nationalbibliothek
The Austrian National Library (, ) is the largest library in Austria, with more than 12 million items in its various collections. The library is located in the Neue Burg Wing of the Hofburg in center of Vienna. Since 2005, some of the collection ...
The ancient library of the White Monastery is rich in many categories such as biblical, hagiographical, liturgical, etc. This provides the researcher with good knowledge about what the monks were reading and what they were allowed to read at different stages of the monastery's development. However, the early times are not too well represented in the surviving fragments. This can be either attributed to their frequent use or simply that they were victims of time and of the decline of the monastery in later times. The dialect of these manuscripts were predominantly in
Sahidic Coptic, which was perfected in its literary form by Saint
Shenouda the Archimandrite. There were also some bilingual manuscripts. The early ones were in Sahidic Coptic and
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 ...
, while the later ones had Sahidic Coptic and
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 ...
. The writing materials employed were mostly
parchment
Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared Tanning (leather), untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves and goats. It has been used as a writing medium in West Asia and Europe for more than two millennia. By AD 400 ...
, because of its prevalence, but some of the later ones were found on paper.
The first category, and most abundant, is the Biblical manuscripts. Nearly every book of the
Old Testament
The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...
, including the
Deuterocanonical Books
The deuterocanonical books, meaning 'of, pertaining to, or constituting a second canon', collectively known as the Deuterocanon (DC), are certain books and passages considered to be canonical books of the Old Testament by the Catholic Chur ...
is represented. The only exception is some of the historical books, which were always in short supply in
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 ...
ian monasteries. The
New Testament
The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...
, on the other hand is represented in its entirety though in a fragmentary shape.
A second category is the apocryphal Gospels, Acts, and Biblical lives that were frequently read in Egyptian monasteries. These include the
Gospel of the Twelve
The ''Gospel of the Twelve'' (), possibly also referred to as the ''Gospel of the Apostles'', is a lost gospel mentioned by Origen in '' Homilies on Luke'' as part of a list of heretical works.
Schneemelcher's standard edition of the ''New Te ...
,
Gospel of Bartholomew,
Acts of Thomas
''Acts of Thomas'' is an early 3rd-century text, one of the New Testament apocrypha within the Acts of the Apostles subgenre. The complete versions that survive are Syriac and Greek. There are many surviving fragments of the text. Scholars d ...
,
Acts of Pilate,
Life of the Virgin Mary, and
History of Joseph the Carpenter.
A third category is the historical manuscripts, which are rare in any of the Coptic libraries found thus far. However, in the White Monastery one finds a substantial part of an ecclesiastical history manuscript. That manuscript deals with the history of the
Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria
The Coptic Orthodox Church (), also known as the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria, is an Oriental Orthodox Christian church based in Egypt. The head of the church and the See of Alexandria is the pope of Alexandria on the Holy Apo ...
in the 4th and 5th centuries. In addition, there are several fragments of codices that record the acts of the great Councils of
Nicaea
Nicaea (also spelled Nicæa or Nicea, ; ), also known as Nikaia (, Attic: , Koine: ), was an ancient Greek city in the north-western Anatolian region of Bithynia. It was the site of the First and Second Councils of Nicaea (the first and seve ...
and
Ephesus
Ephesus (; ; ; may ultimately derive from ) was an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek city on the coast of Ionia, in present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built in the 10th century BC on the site of Apasa, the former Arzawan capital ...
.
Another important category found in the library is the hagiographic texts. These are found in relative abundance in all monastic libraries, and the White Monastery is no exception. They are primarily intended for the spiritual edification of the monks rather than being accurate historical records of the saints. They include acts and related texts of many martyrs such as
Saint Colluthus the Physician,
Saints Cosmas and Damian
Cosmas and Damian ( – or AD) were two Arabs, Arab physicians and early Christian martyrs. They practised their profession in the seaport of Yumurtalık, Aegeae, then in the Roman province of Cilicia (Roman province), Cilicia.
Cosmas and ...
,
St. Philopater Mercurius,
Saint Psote,
Saint Theodore,
Saint Victor, and many others. There are also the lives of many important saints of the
Egyptian Church like
Saint Anthony,
Saint Athanasius, Saint
Pachomius
Pachomius (; ''Pakhomios''; ; c. 292 – 9 May 348 AD), also known as Saint Pachomius the Great, is generally recognized as the founder of Christian cenobitic monasticism. Copts, Coptic churches celebrate his feast day on 9 May, and Eastern Or ...
and his disciples, Saint
Samuel the Confessor, and
Saint Shenouda the Archimandrite to name just a few.
The richest and most significant category available is the writings of the fathers. This library has yielded a great number of manuscripts, preserving texts of the composition of
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 ...
writers, as well as
Coptic translation of
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 ...
writings of
Church Fathers
The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were ancient and influential Christian theologians and writers who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity. The historical peri ...
. The most significant part of it is that of the remarkable works of
Saint Shenouda the Archimandrite. Other writings includes those of
Saint Wissa's sermons, the writings of
Saint Pachomius and his disciples, and the
Apophthegmata Patrum. Other texts of original Coptic composition include those of
Constantine of Asyut,
John of Burulus, and
Rufus of Shotep. The group of Coptic translations of Greek writings includes those of
Saint Peter of Alexandria,
Saint Athanasius,
Saint Theophilus,
Saint Cyril the Great, and
Saint Dioscorus. The Greek translations of non-Coptic Fathers include Saint
Cyril of Jerusalem
Cyril of Jerusalem (, ''Kýrillos A Ierosolýmon''; ; 386) was a theologian of the Early Church. About the end of AD 350, he succeeded Maximus as Bishop of Jerusalem, but was exiled on more than one occasion due to the enmity of Acacius of ...
, Saint
John Chrysostom
John Chrysostom (; ; – 14 September 407) was an important Church Father who served as archbishop of Constantinople. He is known for his preaching and public speaking, his denunciation of abuse of authority by both ecclesiastical and p ...
, and Saint
Severus of Antioch
Severus of Antioch (; ), also known as Severus of Gaza, or the Crown of Syrians (; ), was the Patriarch of Antioch and head of the Syriac Orthodox Church from 512 until his death in 538. He is venerated as a saint in the Oriental Orthodox Church ...
. Works of other authors are also found in that collection.
See also
*
Saint Shenouda the Archimandrite
*
Codex Borgianus
Codex Borgianus, designated by T or 029 (in the Biblical manuscript#Gregory-Aland, Gregory-Aland numbering), ε 5 (Biblical manuscript#Von Soden, von Soden), is a Greek and Coptic language, Sahidic uncial manuscript of the Gospels, dated Palaeogra ...
*
Uncial 070
References
Sources
* Monneret de Villard, U., "Les Couvents Pres de Sohag". 2 vol. Milan 1925-7
* Peers, C. R., "The White Monastery near Sohag Upper Egypt" Archaeological Journal 3,11 (61), 1904, 131-53
* Takla, H. N., "St. Shenouda the Archmandrite - His Life and Times". Los Angeles 1987.
* Timm, S., "Ad-Der al Abyad" In Das Christlich-Koptische Agypten in Arabischer Zeit. Vol 2 (D-F) pp. 601–38, Wiesbaden, 1984
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*Images By Dr. Enrique Abreu 2010
Images of both Red & White monasteries
External links
Alin Suciu's blog on the reconstruction of the White Monastery manuscripts
{{Authority control
Christian monasteries in Egypt
Coptic Orthodox monasteries
Oriental Orthodox congregations established in the 5th century
Christian monasteries established in the 5th century
Buildings and structures in Sohag Governorate