Monastic Visions: Wall Paintings in the Monastery of St Anthony at Red Sea

Table of contents :
sammiir scannn
sammiir scannn-1
samiir scan 2

Citation preview

E D ITE D B Y

ELIZABETH

S.

BOLMAN

coL 'f'"

PHOTOGR APHY BY

PATRICK GODEAU

MONASTIC VrSIONS WALL PAINTINGS

IN THE

MONASTERY OF ST. ANTONY

AT THE RED SEA

••• •

AM ERICAN R E S EARCH C ENTER IN EGYPT, INC.

YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS

NEW HAVEN AND LONDON

IFAa. BIBLIOTHEQUE INV. No. 60,221.

Frontispiece: Mado nna and Chr ist Child, sa nctuary apse (SI; ADP/SA 6s 98)

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING- IN-PUBLICATION DATA Mo nast ic visio ns: wall paintings in the Monastery of St. Antony at the Red Sea / edi ted by Elizabet h S. Bolma n;

Co pyright © 2002 by th e Ame rica n Research Ce nte r in Egyp t, Inc.

ph ot ograph y by Patr ick Godeau. p. em, Includes bibli ogr aphical referenc es and ind exes.

Publ ished by th e American Research Center in Egyp t, In c. (ARCE) / 2 Mi da n Kasr al-Dub ara , Garden C ity, Cairo, Egyp t / and in the Uni ted States at Emory University

ISBN 0-300 -092 24-5 (clo th: alk. paper ) I.

Co ptic mural pa inting and deco ratio n- Egyp t-

Red Sea Region. 2. Mural painting and decoration ,

West Ca mp us, 1256 Briarcl iff Road NE / Build ing A,

Medieva l-Egypt - Red Sea Region . 3. C hur ch of

Su ite 423 West, Atla nta, GA 30306

St. Anto ny, of Egypt, Saint, ca . 250-35 5/6 -

and Yale Un iversity Press / 302 Temple Stree t, New Haven ,

sa ints in ar t. I. Ho lm an, Elizabe th S., 1960- . II. Godeau,

CT 06520-9°40

Patri ck.

5. Christian

ND286 3.3 .M 66 200 2 All right s reserve d.

751.7'3'o9623- dC21

200 1035760

T his publication was m ade po ssible through su ppo rt provided by the Office of Environ me nt and In frastru ctur e/ Enviro nm ent and Engineering ( El/ EE),

A cata logue record for thi s book is availab le from th e British Libr ary.

USAID /Eb'YPt, Uni ted States Agenc y for Intern atio nal Development, under th e terms of Gran t No . 263-G-00- 96-00 016-

The pap er in thi s book m eets the guid elin es for

00. Th e o pin ions expr essed herein are th ose of the autho rs

perman en ce and durabil ity of the Co m m ittee o n Producti on

and do-not necessar ily reflect the views of th e U.S. Agency

Gu idelines fo r Boo k Longevity of th e Co unci l o n Library

for Int ernatio nal Development.

Reso urces.

T his book may no t be reprod uced, in who le or in pa rt, includi ng illust rati on s, in any form (beyo nd th at co pying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of th e U.S. Co py right Law and exce pt by reviewers for th e public pr ess), witho ut writ ten permission fro m th e publi shers. Design ed by Leslie Th omas Fitch. Set in Adobe Minion typ e by Leslie Thom as Fitch. Printed and bo und in Gr eat Britain by Butler & Tanner Ltd , Fro me and Londo n.

109 8 7654 3 2 1

CONTENTS

Preface

IX

Mark Easton and Robert K. Vincent, Jr. Introduction

PART

I

Xlll

ST . ANTONY THE GR EAT

St. Anto ny th e Grea t and th e Mo nas tery of St. An to ny

3

at th e Red Sea, ca. A.D. 251 to 1232/I 233

Tim Vivian

PART

II

THE CHURCH OF S T . ANTONY: PAINTING S AND ARCHITECTURE

2

The Churc h of St. Anto ny: T he Arch itecture

21

MichaelJones 3

The Early Paintings

31

Elizabeth S. Belman 4

Theodore, "The Writer of Life," and the Program of 1232/I233

37

Elizabeth S. Belman 5

Theodore's Style, the Art of Christian Egypt, and Beyond

Elizabeth S. Bolman

v

77

6

Theo dore's Program in Context: Egypt and the Mediterranean Region

91

Elizabeth S. Bolman 7

Reflections of th e Tempo ral World: Secular Elem ent s in Theo do re's Pro gram

103

William Lyster 8

The Khurus Vault: An Eastern Mediterranean Synth esis

127

Elizabeth S. Belman and William Lyster 9

Conservation of th e Wall Paintings in the Monastery

155

of St. Antony at th e Red Sea

Adriano Luzi and Luigi De Cesaris

PART

III

THE VIEWER'S R ESPONSE: PAST AND PRESENT

10

Perspectives on the Monastery of St. Antony: Medieval and Later In habi ta nts and Visito rs

173

Gawdat Gabra 11

Th e Handwriting on th e Wall: Graffiti in th e Ch urch of St. Antony

Sidney H. Griffith

12

Windows into Heave n: Icons in Mo nast ic Life Today

195

Father Maximou s El-Anthony 13

In the Footsteps of th e Saints: The Monastery of St. Antony, Pilgrimage, and Modern Coptic Identity

203

Elizabeth E. Gram

PART IV

THE INSCRIPTIONS

14

The Coptic Inscription s in th e Churc h of St. Anto ny

Birger A. Pearson Conclusion

Elizabeth S. Belman

VI

217

Abbreviations

249

Notes

25 1

Glossary

271

Bibliography

275

List of Contributors

291

Ind exes to the Coptic Inscripti on s

\'11

I. NAMES OF PE RSONS

293

II. NAMES OF PLACES

295

Genera l Index

297

Photo Credits

307

. ~.

. . . ..... --.. .. ~

-- '

~

;.

.", .- !~.;..

~.:.... ..t",:,

__..J:._; .....

-.1 '

-r~

•

PREFACE

I OP POS ITE

Mo nastery of 51. Antony

View into the khums, with cleaning test area s visible (A DP/SA 7S 27 96 )

Our sma ll caravan wou nd its way toward the wall of mountains that emerged through the dust of the Red Sea deserts. For more than fifteen hundred years, countless pilgrims before us- the earliest Chr istians, Roman soldiers, Fayoumi bishops, Crusader war riors, Ethiopian clerics, Frankish travelers, Byzantine ar tists, and Egyptian Copts-had been making th eir way toward this remote location. In the distance, at th e foot of the barren ran ge, appe ared a hint of green, miragelike and almost uniden tifiable. Closer inspection revealed the unmistakable geometry of architecture (fig. 1). We were approaching the Monastery of St. Antony, widely believed to be the first and thus the oldest monastic establi shment in the world. Christmas 1997 was onl y a few days away. When we had first seen the Churc h of St. Anto ny, man y months before, its interior was sooty and blackened. In the int ervenin g months, con servation work had started on th e wall paintings. Although earlier limit ed test cleanings had given us reaso n to believe th at very fine paintings might lie hidden undern eath , we had yet to see what a period of extended conservation cou ld accomplish (fig. 2). Would there be a series of extraordinary works of art underneath centuries of grime and layers of overpainting, or would there be on ly disappointing obscurity? If it were the latter, our projec t would suffer the same fate. We could hardly contain our anticipation. Once we passed through the low entrance door and o ut of the gusting wind, we adjuste d our eyes to th e refuge of th e dark ch urc h. We were unprepar ed for th e stunning scene that met our view. For gazing sternly yet serene ly dow n on us from a height of four meters were four monastic saints of the Coptic Churc h who had not been seen

IX

clearly in more tha n four hun dred years. Their expressions, th eir dem ean or, and their poses radiated dignit y and hol iness (fig. 3). Stepping fart her int o the church, we looked up at the partially cleaned archway at the entrance to the khurus. There, soaring in brilliant colors, overwhelming our senses, was the archangel Michael (fig. 4). The quality of th e paintings was literally breatht aking. With Western Christmas and its holy rem embran ce only a few days away,

Pishoi the Gr eat, John th e Littl e, and Sisoes (N7- N9; ADP/SA 1999)

4

Th e archa ngel M ichael ( K1S; ADP /SA lOS 97)

we felt even more strongly than before the sense of the Christian tradition embodied in these figures. The Church of St. Antony is a masterpiece, and one that preserves the most complete iconographic program known from medieval Egypt. A rare mix of individual dedication and joint collaboration across many areas of expertise propelled this special project through all its stages. The project concept should be seen in relation to the other conservation work in Egypt conducted by the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE) , in collaboration with th e Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities ( SC A). As a result of an initi ative by the Unit ed States Congress, generous funding was made available throu gh the Un ited States Agency for Intern ational Development (USAID) . Under this initial grant from USAID, a broad program of work was initi ated encompassing th e bre adth of Egypt's histo ry, includ ing the pre histo ric and phara onic periods, as well as Greco- Roma n, Coptic, Islamic, and Jewish con tri butio ns. Although more tha n forty projects in this first gran t were balanced among these six cultures , at sites th rou ghout Egypt, none centered on a specific Coptic m on ume nt, nor were any located in the Red Sea region . So when USAID offered addi tional funding for a second grant as an activity of Sub-committee

x

III for Sustainable Development and Environment of the U.S.-Egyptian Partnership for Economic Growth and Development, AR CE welcomed the opportunity to round out its conservation program, as well as to meet the objec tives of the SCA and the Monastery of St. Antony. The effects of this project are already widespread. It has opened a window of discovery for scholars, created a wonderful viewing experience for the public , and restored an important part of the Coptic heritage (fig. 5). With newly restored vigor, the church will continue its tradition of receiving pilgrims and visitors. And it of course remains the location of hol y services for the monks who pray to th eir patron St. Antony, th e great founder of th e monastic tradition. May you, too, become a visitor as you experience the church in the following pages. We hope this book will encourage you to visit the church yourself, or will serve as a meaningful recor d of a visit you have already made. Sales of the book will help the monastery by providin g reven ue to maintain the church. So in any case, you will have become a con tr ibutor to the susta inability of th is wonderful, glorio us represe ntation of faith. MARK E AS TO N AND ROBERT

K. VI NCEN T,

JR.

Ge nera l view from the nave , aft er cleaning (ADP/SA 1999)

INTRODUCTION

6

O P PO S ITE

7

ABOV E

Ch urch of th e Holy Apos tles see n

Antony an d Pau l (Nl-N2; ADP/SA

through st reet of mo nastic cells

1999)

Xlll

Th is book of essays is the record of two extraordi nary and in ma ny ways parallel stories. Both of them took place in the Mo nastery of St. Antony, in the eastern Egyptian desert , near th e Red Sea (fig. 6). The subjects of the first story are the wall paintings that once again fill th e Churc h of St. Antony with their vivid and powerful presence, but which until recently had for centur ies been obscured by den se layers of soot and .overpainting. The se paintings ar e aesthetically compell ing work s of art, a delight to the eye (fig. 7). They are considerably more than that, however, and much of the subtle narrative in the individual pa intings, and the sophisticated messages in their programs, will be missed by the viewer who is unaware of their histo ry. It is the goal of th is book to present the overall context for the paintings, including the life of St. Antony the Great, the Monastery of St. Antony, and the way of life of which he is the primary exem plar. The paintings in the Churc h of St. Antony were and are an essential part of this mo nastic life. Th ey would not have come into existence witho ut St. Anto ny (or Ant hony), known in th e East an d the West as the father of monasticism (fig. 8). 1 Because of his prominence, and the desir e of others to follow him , a community developed in this remote location . It has existed there almost witho ut pause for more than eighteen hun d red years and has experienced numerou s period s of cultural im port ance and influence . Even th e br iefest of investigations for evidence of St. Anto ny's status as it was expressed in art yields rem arkable finds.' The oldest depiction s of him date to the early Middle Ages, some from as far away as the British Isles.3 He regularly appears in medieval and Byzantine art , in very dif-

IN TRODUCT ION

ferent visual terms, as th e painting from a Cyp riot ch urc h

8 LEFT

O ldest know n Cop tic paint ing of Anto ny, ca. sixth cen tury, Monastery of Apa Apo llo, Bawit (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris, C2278)

9

CEN TER

Ant on y, 1192, wall painting, Lagoudera, Cyp rus (Cour tesy of Durnba rto n Oaks , D73 312)

at Lagoudera (fig. 9) and a Western engraving by Ma rtin Schongauer (fig. 10) illustr ate. In Eastern representations,

Ch urc h of St. An to ny, was barely visible before clean ing (fig. u ). The Coptic art historian who had worke d mo st on these paintings befo re th eir cleaning, Paul van Moorsel,

Anto ny appears as an isolated , ico n ic figure, ofte n alone or in the company of equa lly static mon astic saints.' No t unt il th e fifteenth century do rare examples exist, from th e east-

desc ribed th e faces don e by th e m aster pain ter of the Church of St. Anto ny as "mask-like," and of mo dest ar tistic merit." The conservation of th ese pa int ings has shown

ern Mediterranea n, th at fra me the still, imposing figure of the saint with events fro m his life.s T hese na rra tive events captured the imagination of Western artists begin ning in

that his observations were correct in one sense, becau se they were ma de whe n the mos t visible sections of the

the early Middle Ages. In the West, numerous ar tists have shown him fighting with devils, avoiding temptations, and 6

10

RIGH T

Anto ny To rm ent ed by Demo ns, Ma rtin Scho ngauer , late fifteenth century, Ger ma n (The Metropolitan M useum of Art , New York, Roger s Fund,

19 2 0, 2 0 .5. 2)

meeting St. Paul. O ne of th e m ost significant m oments in th e history of th e Mo nas tery of St. An to ny was in th e early thirteenth century, when almost all of th e paintings we now see in th e church were commissioned and m ade . They belong to a Coptic artistic tradition that was th en abo ut eight hundred years old. This tr adition has often been characterized as having atrophied after the Arab conquest of Egypt in the seventh century.' This point of view has been ten able because so much of the artistic heritage of Ch ristian Egypt has been lost or, as in the case of the painting in th e

XIV

images were those that had been overpainted, b ut such an assertion would likely not be made today about the cleaned thirteenth-century paintings. Van Moorsel's predecessor Jules Leroy wrote th at th e highest-quality extant Co ptic wall pai nt in gs fro m th e m edieval period were th ose in th e Mo nas tery of St. Ma carius." He said thi s even th ou gh th e paintings in the Monastery of St. Antony were well kn own to him. A brief glance at th e photographs of the paintings in th e Ch ur ch of St. Antony befor e and after co nservation makes Lero y's and van Mo o rsel's assertions understandab le, if mistaken (fig. 12). Th e medieva l paintings in the Chur ch of St. Antony, together with other recent discoveries, attest to the contin ued richness and vitality of thi s ancient Ch ristian culture into the Middle Ages." T hey

11

Inter ior of the Church , 1930-1 931 (Whittemo re Expedition. Cour tesy of Dumbar ton Oaks, A8o )

INTRODUCTION

12

Virgin Ma ry (SI), during cleaning (A DP/SA

IlW 131:8 )

13 OPPOSITE

Sanctua ry dom e and apse, after clean ing (AD P/SA 1999)

dramatically revise not onl y our ideas about the quali ty of Co ptic art well after the seventh century but also our understanding of its links to th e other cultur es situ ated aro und th e Mediterra nea n. The majority of the pai nt ings in the Ch urc h of St. Antony belong to a single program. We know from inscriptions that the date of this program is AM 949 (an 110 ma rtyrorum ), according to the Coptic calendar, which corresponds to AD 1232/1233.11 It is the most complete and extensive cycle preserved fro m th is period in Egypt (fig. 13). The paintings were commissioned during a time of particular strength in the Monastery of St. Antony. A gro up of mo re th an thi rty do no rs pa id for th eir creation, and a team of artists led by a master painter nam ed Theodore ("G ift of God") entered th e church and commenced work there. His team consisted of at least four

XVI

individuals, and probably more. It certainly would have included on e or more assistants, th ere to do much of the less-skilled work of pr eparing th e plaster , mixing the paints, and building the scaffolding. Somet hing sto pped the work of thi s team just befo re it was finished. A second gro up of painters was engaged to finish the work within a few decade s of thi s unknown interruption-a clear testament to the importance of images in the monastic life, and, the prosperous state of the monastery in the thirteenth cen tury. This slightly later group of artists may well have been Copts, but their paintings belong to another artistic world. They are part of a Me diterranea n aesthetic that combines eleme nts from th e Byzantine and Islam ic trad ition s (fig. 14). These juxtapos itio ns do not seem out of place in such cosmopolitan centers as Cairo and Damascus, b ut their

I N T RO OU C TI O N

14 LEFT

Khuru s ceiling, after clean ing (A DP/SA 1999 )

15 R I G HT

Anto ny and Paul (Nl -N2), befor e clean ing (A DP/SA

12 S27

96)

app earance in thi s rem ote desert monastery sur pr ises us. Th ey show us that th e comm unity in the Mo nastery of St. Antony participated in th e visual culture of a vastly larger region . All the se thi rteenth -century secco wall paintings became part of th e spirit ual work and ritua l perfo rm ed in the churc h. As such, existing for cen turies within a churc h filled with incense and lit solely by oil lamps and candles, the pa inti ngs acquired layer upon layer of soot. Dust, ever pr esent in Egypt, ad ded to their disfigur em en t. Periodic efforts to enliven the images resulted in the less-than inspired over painting of severa l of the most beloved: the Virgin Mary in the nave, St. Theodore the General, an d, of course, St. Antony himself (fig. 15). In rare moments of abandonment, the mo nastery was inhabited by bedo uin tribes, and the fires th ey lit within the church added to the increasing layers of obscur ing blackness. Portio ns of the plaster on the walls fell off, and insects began burrowin g behind th e paintings. When the exteriors of several of the dom es were repaired and replastere d, windows were filled in, and less and less light en tere d the chur ch. Wh en I first visited the Mo nas tery of St. Anto ny in 1994, I cou ld barely make out the subjects of the paintings. The most visible of the figures were those who had been bad ly repainted over

xvIt I

the centur ies. Their overall appearance was comp letely discou raging. Th eir story seemed near an ignoble end. I didn't know at th e tim e of my visit that th e story that parallels the creation and first life of th e pa int ings had already begun : th e miraculou s rescue of the wall pain tin gs. As in the first story, there exists a pivotal figur e without who m we would have no second story to tell. He is Father Maximo us EI-An tho ny, a senio r mo nk in the Mo nastery of St. Anto ny at the Red Sea. Having received training in conservation, Father Maximous was aware of th e possibilities of th is field. 12 Additional insight s into th e dangero usly fragile condition of the paintings and th e walls of the church came fro m a project, fun ded by the Royal Net herland s Embassy in Cairo and with the assistance ofZuzanna Skalova, to combat termite damage." Father Maximous made the surv ival of the paintings in the Church of St. Anto ny his mi ssion . The con tributions of numerou s other ind ivid uals also en ter our story at this junc ture, para lleling those made by th e more than thirty do nors of the earlythirteent h century Co ptic wall paintings." As in any na rrative, aspects of lived experience are missin g. I will sure ly fail to mention essential contr ibuto rs, and I hop e they will forgive my overs ights. Every major project requires assistance from many

INTRODUCT ION

sources. Funding for the Monastery of St. Antony at the Red Sea Wall Painting Restoration Proj ect was forthcoming from th e Unit ed States Agency for Internation al Development (USA ID) , as part of the Subcom mitte e III for Sustain able Development and Environment of th e U.S.Egyptian Partnership for Economic Growth and Develop ment. The Red Sea coast is undergoing intensive development for recreational tourism . One of the goals of the pr oject was to balan ce this trend by actively preserving and pro moting sites th at are importan t for the cultural heritage of Egypt. The support of numerous peop le at USAID made this project possible, in particular the USAID Cairo Mission Directors John Westley and Richard Brown . All of us who have worked on the project are especially grateful to Thomas Dailey and Anne Patterson, US A ID Project Officers, for their complete commitment to it. The American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE) was funded by USAID to carry ou t thi s and the ot her cultural projects of th e U.S.-Egyptian Par tn ership for Economic Growth and Develop ment. The Antiquities Development Project (ADP) was formed at AR CE in January 1996 to manage several projects, among which was that at the Monastery of St. Antony. The dedication an d constant enco urage ment, help, and support of Mar k Easto n (for mer director , A RCE), Rob ert Vincent (director, Egyptian Antiquities Project , / Antiquities Development Project, ARCE), Cynthia Sha rtzer (EAP grant ad m inistrato r), and Madame Amira Khatt ab (deputy directo r, AR C E ) have been invaluable for the success of thi s proj ect. Altho ugh his tenure as director of A RCE began at the end of this project, Robert Spr ingborg has nevertheless show n great and mu ch apprec iated suppo rt for it. Special commendatio n is also d ue Brian Martinson and Barbara Bruen ing, respect ively grant adm inistra tor and associate grant adm inistrato r of th e ADP . Perhap s the pivotal person for th e success of thi s pr oject, second only to Father Maximou s, is Michael Jon es, project manager of th e AD P. Fro m the beginning, Jones's vision for the church itself, and also for the supporting documentation-including this book-has been extraordinary. He is an inspiration to work with , and his creativity and patience are legend ary. Father Maximous contacted Paolo and Laura Mora , whose expertise has shaped gen erations of students at the Istituto Centrale di Restauro in Rome , and who have dir ected one of the most important conservation projects in Egypt at the Tomb of Nefertari in the Valley of the Q ueens . In 1996 the Moras inspected the Church ofSt. Antony and recommended the talented conservators Ad riano Luzi and Luigi De Cesaris, bo th of whom had worked with the

XIX

Mora s on th e wall paintings in th e Tomb of Nefertar i, to take o n th e daunting task of con serving the paintings in the Churc h of St. Anto ny. Paolo Mo ra died on March 26, 1998, witho ut ever having visited the monastery again. It is a great loss to all who wo rked on the project that he was not able to see its final results . In con sult ation with Father Maximous, Luzi and De Cesaris determined a course of work that would includ e conservation and also restoration. Because the Church of St. Antony is part of an active monastery, it was decided that the conservators sho uld present the original paintings as a coherent whole, as free as possible from the visual distractions of extant damage to the wall sur face. A reversible reintegration was therefore made with paint in places that were missing their original plaster. All int erventions on the walls were carefully documented in an extensive series of graphic and photographic records. IS These materials are available for study at ARCE . 16 The parallels to the creation of the wall paintings in the Monastery of St. Antony by Theodore, his workshop, and the second group of th irteenth -cen tury pa inters, became particu larly clear beginning in 1996. Just as the or iginal painters worked in the church, so did Luzi, De Cesaris, and th eir team of conservators, Alber to Sucato, Gianluca Tancioni, Emiliano Albanese, Stefano Pulloni, and Massim iliano Gusmaro li (figs. 16, 17). They repea ted most of the physical move men ts of the thirteenth-century arti sts, namely, traversing the walls and domes, standing and sitt ing pr ecari ou sly on scaffolding, standing on the floor , and leaning backward fo r hours at a time. They allotted work based o n skills learn ed over years of training, and they also used the services of nonspecialist assistan ts provided by the monastery, who performed such essen tial tasks as mix ing plaster an d fetching supplies. Their efforts gave me insight s int o the often ard uo us physical aspects of the creat ion of such a large-scale artis tic effort. My art histo rical work has been im measur ably enriched by the opportunity to watch them at work , and by their willingness to dispute various points with me and to explain their methods and ideas. Th eir humor and friendliness made them stim ulating and delightful colleagues. We have no idea what kinds of accommodatio ns th e medieval painters had while the y were wo rking in th e monastery, o r how good their food was, but we can assume that they were in no way as magnificently cared for and fed as were all the members of this project, thanks to the hospitality of the Monastery of St. Antony, as expr essed through the services of Father Maxim ous, Father Isaac, Ramses, and ot hers. Father Maximous and Father Isaac

16

Adr iano Luzi working in the sanctu ary (5 1; ADP/SA 18 5191 98 )

17

Luigi De Cesar is, right , and Gianluca Tan cioni working in the kh ums (KI6)

INT RODUCTIO N

'f II

•

.I

.. ... , .

' ~ :,...,

"

18

Whittemore Expedition with auto mob iles, 1930-1931 (Courtesy Dumbarton Oaks, A198)

provided spiri tua l as well as material sustenance, assisted in thi s by the kindness and care of Bishop Yust us, Father Lazarus , Father Dioscorus, and other memb ers of the community. Both th e scope and th e length of thi s book are expansive, du e in large part to Jones's understanding of the imp ort ance of int erdisciplina ry work in art history, history, archaeo logy, and related fields. Life happens to human beings befor e th ey have a cha nce to segme nt it into scho larly disciplines, and while thi s book dep ends on professiona ls in several of these areas of study, its goal is to surpass their indi vidual efforts. Th e medieval wall paintings in th e Churc h of St. Antony are significant work s of art, whose raison d'etr e is th e figure of St. Antony the Great, and the monastic life he inspired. In order to und erstand th e paintings as fully as possible, it is necessary to know some thing about th eir setting. Thi s book therefore pro vides the interested reader with focused information no t only about the paintings but about their context and reception as well. This can only amplify our understanding of them. Differences of opinion and emphasis appear in this book. The y enrich it significantly. Studies of the past often engender disputes, and properly so, for lived experience is filled with contradictions . Western scho lars studyi ng subjects that are outside of the Western tradition often int erpret the past from a different per spective from that of thos e who belong to that tradition, and such has often been the case in Egypt. We do not have to look farther than previous scholarship on the Chur ch of St. Antony to find an example of such a divergen ce of opinion. Western scho l-

XXII

ars have long thought that the bui lding dated to the thirteenth century, and its mon astic residents have asserted a sixth-ce ntury date. Chapters 2 and 3 of this book prese nt architectura l and art histo rical evidence fo r the correc tness of the earlier dat e. Th e collaborative efforts of the auth ors have created so mething mu ch closer to the lived experi ence of history, as it relates to the paintings, than a straight forward, aesthetically oriented, art histori cal analysis would have done. In fact, th e wealth of material considered as part of this project has inspired such a quantity of int eresting work that much of it could not be included in Mona stic Visions. Another volume is therefore planned, which will include significant additions to our understanding of the history of the monastery, its library, the lives of the father s depicted in th e paintings, and the graffiti written by visitors and residents alike. Scho larly work at the Monastery of St. Anto ny first began with Thomas Whittemore's expeditions to the site, in a con voy of Ford automobiles, in 1930 and 1931 (fig. 18 ). Many of the best of the small com m unity of scho lars who have studied th e art and arc hitecture of Chr istian communities in the Middle East have turned their attention to the Ch urch of St. 'Anto ny: Leroy, van Moorsel, Peter Gross mann, Pierre-Hen ry Lafferier e, Rene-Geor ges Coquin, Alexander Piank off, Karel Inn ernee, Marg uer ite RassartDebergh, Lucy-A nn Hunt, Gertrud J. M. van Loon, Jean Dor esse, C. C. Walters, Pierr e du Bourguet, and Otto Meinardus. Despit e the ob scuring effects of soo t and overpainting, these scho lars acco mplished the major work of ident ifying th e subjects of the paintings, deciphering inscripti on s, and carefully docum enting the program. Some specialized and th em atic analysis was also available to the authors of Mo nastic Visions, mo st notably Inn ernee's stu dies of th e ecclesiastical and monastic cloth ing in th e paintings and van Loon's analyses of Old Testament themes and th eir connection with architectura l symbolism." All these fundamental effor ts have made it possible for the aut hors of thi s volume to proceed with oth er aspects of art historical and historical interpretation. IS Van Moorsel's pioneering work on the wall paintings was an especially valuable source of reference. He, along with Pierre-Henry Lafferiere, paid a me morable visit to the monastery dur ing October 1998. Sadly, he died in June 1999 and , like Paolo Mora, was not able to see th e church fully restor ed. This book is divided into four parts: historical context, art and architecture, reception and use of the paintings, and inscr iptional evidence. The single chapter of part I is an analysis of the figure of St. Anto ny and th e mon-

I N T RO D U CT I O N

19 LEFT

First view of the early paintin gs (ADP /SA 6s 97)

astery founded in imitation of his way of life. Tim Vivian gives us essential background information for our understanding of the Copts, monasticism, and Antony him self, im pressively characterizing life at the monastery through

20 RIGHT

1232/1233.

Hand of the arc ha ngel Gabriel

Part II presents the architectural history of the Church ofSt. Antony, and th e paintings in it. Using evidence from restri cted archaeological work, careful study of ar chit ectur al idiosyncrasies, and remn ants of early Co ptic paintings, Michael Jon es present s us with a com plete reevaluation of the architectura l development of th e church in cha pter 2 . I wrote th e thi rd chapter, an ar t historical ana lysis of the earliest paint ings known in the church, wh ich were recently found by the conservators as part of this project (fig. 19). My art historical evaluation complements Jones's reconstruction of the early phases of building at the site. The discovery of the paintings and of architectural evidence for pre-thir teenth century phases of construction is of excep tional im po rtance because it enables scho larly analysis to bear ou t long-standing monastic tradition in dating the churc h to th e sixth or seven th cent ury. Chapters 4-7 present and ana lyze the mo st extensive group of paint ings in the church, those dated to 1232/1233. In chapter 4, I introduce the entire program painted by

( K16)

XXltl

Th eodore and his team. I ana lyze the larger programmatic messages and the individual narrative detai ls in the se expressive paintings. In chapter 5, I characterize the style of the paint ings and also discuss the work ing practices of Theodore and his assistants. I explore the background of Theodore's paintings in th e Christian art of Egypt and th e eastern Mediterranean in chapter 6. In chapter 7 William Lyster focuses on a very im portant component of Theodor e's p rogram : th e evidence in it for elements from th e secular, predominantl y Muslim world outside of Coptic mon asticism. In thi s chapt er, Lyster expands our understandi ng of Coptic culture as a part of Egypt in the th irteen th century, exp laining, for example, why a Ch ristian author would be painted wearing a turban. In chapter 8 Lyster and I use art historical data and evidence provided by the conservation team to reconstruct the background of the artists who painted the remarkable ceiling zone of th e khurus and to ana lyze their program . Although they may well have been Copts, they were certainly not painting in the long-standing Coptic tradition exemp lified by Theo dore's paint ings. They belon g to a different ar tistic world altogether, and they have left us surpris ing traces of it in th is part of the church (fig. 20) . The most recent physica l changes in the church have

Monastery of

Lower Zone , O ld Church of St. Antony

51. Antony

at the Red Sea

Key to Numbered Plan

NAVE Nl

Antony the Great

N2

Paul the Hermit

N3

Anonymous

N4

Isaac the Presbyter

N5

Paulthe Simple

N6

Samuel

N7

Pishoi the Great

N8

John the little

N9

Sisoes

NIO

Arsenius

Nll

sarsuma

N12

Pach omius

N13

Arabic inscription on parchment

N14

Pakaou

N15

"Thouan" [Noua]

N16

Piroou and Athom

N17

Copticarch inscription

N18

Theodore the Oriental

N19

Clau dius

N20

Victor

N21

Menas

N22

Theodore Strateletes (the General)

N23

Sisinnius

N24

John of Heraclea (?)

N25

George

N26

Phoebammon

N27

large heraldicgraffito

N28

Shenoute

N29

Pisentius

N30

Moses the Black

N3l

Coptic memorial inscription

N32

Maximus and Domitius

N33

Macarius the Great

N34

Macarius

N35

Macrobius (?)

N36

Virgin Mary and Christ Child

N37

Copti c arch inscription

Kl

Unfinished painting, saint(s)with Christ

K2

Traces of paint

K3

Mercuriu s

S = Sanctua ry

K = Khurus

N = Nave

C ~ Chapel

A = A nnex

K HU RU S

K4

Copticdedicatoryinscription

K5

Abraham,Isaac,andJacobin paradise

K6

ThethreeHebrews

K7

Nebuchadnezzar

K8

George

K9

Two scenes of the martyrdom of

K32-K34 Decorative bands, ceiling K35

George, and Pasicrates KIO

Blankwall

Hexagonal window panes setin stucco, ceiling

533-536

58

Anonymous patriarch

59

Anonymous patriarch

510

Painted frame, unfinished composition

511

Mark

537

Decorativemotif

512

Christ Pantocrator

538

Thesacrifice of Isaac

C3

Two living creatures (oxand eagle)

C4

fragmentary roundel with an

C5

Roundels withbusts of Bartholomew

C6

Pairof roundels with busts of

and John the Baptist

The twenty-four eldersof the apocalypse

unknown apostle

Kll

Theempty tomb

K36-K44 Decorative bands, ceiling

K12

Thethree women at the tomb

K45

Arabic inscription, ceiling

K13

Coptic inscription

K46

Decorative band, ceiling

515

Cherub

541

Angel

K14

Arabesque andCoptic inscription

K47

Band of circular window panes setin

516

Angel

542

Isaiah andthe burning coal

C7

Christ in Majesty

517

Cherub

543

Mekhizedekand Abraham

C8

Roundels with the apostles Paul (?l

518

Angel

544

Decorative motif

519

Cherub

545

Jermiah

C9

fragmentary roundel withan

520

Angel

546

Elijah

547

Isaiah

C10

Two livingcreatures (man and lion)

548

Moses

549

David

550

Daniel

K15

Thearchangel Michael

K16

The archa ngel Gabriel

K17

Coptic inscription

K18

Christand the women in thegarden

K19

Band of circula r window panes set in

K20

Decorative band,ceiling

K21

Arabic inscription, ceiling

stucco

SANCTUARY 51

the Virgin Mary and Child flanked by archangels (lower zone)

stucco 52

Athanasius

Cherub

539

Thesacrifice of Jephtha 's daughter

514

Angel

540

Angel

521-528 Windowsflanked by angels, octagonal drumof the dome

53

Severus

54

Dioscorus

Decorative bands, ceiling

55

Theophilus

Hexagonal window panes setin

56

Peter

Cl

Niche of the precious cross

57

Benjamin (?)

C2

Christ in Majesty

K22-K30

K31

Christin Majesty (upperzone)and

513

stucco, ceiling

529- 532

andThaddeus (')

unknown apostles

and Peter

unknown apostle

and the Virgin Mary

ANNEX Al

four decorated triangles(transitional DEESIS CHA PEL

elements below the dome)

The archangel Michael

A2-A8 Graffiti, wreathed crosses, graffito crosses,andtraces of earlypaint A9

The archangel Gabriel

INTRODUCT ION

Upper Zone

........

-----.r-...-rrt"'T77T1 S

,

. . ' ... .f

-- ~I

-, \ I

(Sanctuar y)

..

0 ··.

33 28

.' ,

..

0

00 • 0

...

20

27 ; 36

•

19 26

17

0 0

.

14 12

18

31

21

13

IS 16

24

25

' 420

29 22

34'

23 30

=:0

12 4 7 4 6 4 5 44 43 42 M 403 938 37 363 5 343 3 323 1 30 29 282 7 262 524 232 22120 19 ..

ceiling

33

=

central band

ceiling

17 =.i nscription : 17

•

13 • 13 ::: inscription

K (Khurus)

14

r...::.. :. --- - .I .........

been brought about by the conservation team . They have

Griffith pr esents the personal traces left by many individ-

carefully stripped away the disfigurement of centuries to reveal the astonishing brilliance of the paintings from the thirteenth century. They have also discovered hidden

uals who are rarel y included in historical accounts. His translation and analysis of selections from the graffiti in

paintings dating between the sixth and thirteenth centuries. Luzi and De Cesaris contribute to this book in two ways. Having cleaned the paintings, they enable all Ofus to appreciate-indeed, clearly see-them. They have also written an account of their remarkable work and findings, chapter 9. Part III is en titled "The Viewer's Response: Past and Present." Gawdat Gabra , Father Maxi mo us, Sidney Gr iffith, and Elizabeth Gram construct fo r us a complex picture of 21

Plan of the Church of 51. Anto ny, with numbers keyed to the paintings

14

th e man y people who have come to the church since Theod ore's paintings were co mpleted and who are still com ing tod ay. The historical reco rd commonly includes events tied to na mes of people of stat us in their ow n tim e. Gabra gives us an account in cha pter 10 of th ese individu als, Co pts and others, and th eir respo nses to th e m on astery and the pain tings. He also identifies for us the smaller commu nities of Ethiopians, Armenians, and Syrians that have had close ties to the monastery. In chapter 11

xxv

the church evoke for us the countless people, visito rs and members of the monastic community, who have stood and prayed there. In chapter 12 , Father Maximous gives us a unique and penetrating look at the importance of images in Coptic monastic life today. As a monk in the Monastery of St. Antony, on e with experienc e in and appreciation for the arts, he is sing ula rly well placed to wr ite on thi s subject. He illu minates for us th e mon astery's perspective on its medieval wall paintings, and on their icons . Father Maximous uses the word icon (litera lly, image) to refer to all sacred im ages, whatever th eir mediu m. Elizabeth Gram complements Father Max imous's chapter by presenting in chapter 13 yet another category of viewer: th e Coptic pilgrim of today. The number of Co ptic visitors to th e site is expa ndi ng rapidly, attesting to a Co ptic renaissance. Gram no tes that Co ptic pilgrims have a spec ial appreciatio n for the antiqu ity of the Church of St. Antony, as a ho ly place where the Mass and pra yers have been said almost

INTROOUCTION

conti nuously for centuries. The medieval paintings, which were made to be part of those sacred rituals, add to the sense of age in the church. Ora m has also writte n abo ut the imp ortance of St. Anto ny him self to the Co pts, and she includes a discussion of th e peopl e who have chose n him as their patron saint. The final part of th e book is devot ed to the inscrip tion s. They embellish the thirteenth -centu ry paintings, and most of th em are written in the Bohairic dialect of Coptic (o ne addition is in Syriac, and on e in Arabic ). Birger Pearson tr an slates them in chapter 14 and analyzes their language for information abo ut the culture that produ ced them. Newly visible lett ers have enabled Pearson to resolve several of the mysteries of identification in the painted program. His pain staking work has been of exceptional help for the art historical anal yses, providing as it do es the basis for identifi cation and int erpretation of the paintings. A numbering system will assist the read er in locating places, subjects, and inscriptions in the church (fig. 21 ). Each physical space or room in th e church is given its own sequence (nave, khurus, sanctuary, annex, and chape l), which follows a clockwise order. Beginning with the nave, and star ting as close to th e center of the easte rn wall as possible, the first painting is I , with the cap ital lett er N added as a prefix. Thus N I is th e number for th e painting of St. Anto ny, which is the first painting to the right of the centrally positio ned entrance between th e nave and the kh urus, on the eastern wall. N2 is to our right ofSt. Antony, a painting of Antony's friend and colleague in the ascetic life, St. Paul. When numerous insc ript ions appear in one painting, as happens frequently, Pearson has given them an additional number, placed after th e number for the painting. The first inscription in the sanc tuary apse is numbered S1.1, the second is S1.2, and so on . All of the contri bu tors to this book refer to th e paintings and the inscriptions by thes e numbers. Modern and late-antique personal and place nam es are used in th is book, and are described an d included with cross- references in the glossary. Th e earlier version s are usually, but not always, used for peopl e. Th e saint known to scho lars of late antiquity as Pishoi , for example, is known to Copts tod ay as Bisho i, and th e mon astery named after him in the Wadi al-Natrun (the ancient Scetis) is called Deir Anba Bishoi . Nonspecialists may be helped to kno w that the Arabi c word deir m eans monastery. English tr an slation s of mon astery nam es have been used whene ver possible, so, for exam ple, instead of referring to Deir al-Shohada (so metimes spelled Chohada ),

XXV I

I have called this site the Monastery of the Martyrs, and I refer to Deir al-Baramus as the Monastery of the Romans. The context of discussion has usua lly determined the spelling chose n, so, for exam ple, the nam es Father Maximous uses for saints and places have no t been cha nged . O ne other point of terminology sho uld be mention ed here. The oldest buildi ng in the Mo nastery of St. Anto ny is th e Chur ch of St. Anto ny. It is often referred to as th e Old Churc h of St. Anto ny, or just th e Old Churc h. Although there is a new church at the mon astery, St. Anto ny shares the dedic ation with St. Paul. In this bo ok we have therefor e dispensed with th e identification of the early-medieval chur ch of St. Anto ny as the Old Ch urc h. All of the members of the proj ect are ind ebted to the Supreme Co unc il of Antiquities. Th e work was carried out under th e auspices of the SCA, and we thank Mini ster of Culture Dr. Farouk Hosni and also Pro fessor Dr. Abd elHalim Nur el-Din, Dr. Ali Hassan , and Professor Dr. Gaballah Ali Gaballah, di rectors of the SCA . We are also indebt ed to Dr. Abd ullah el-Att ar, head of the Islami c and Coptic Sector of the SCA , for his assistance, and to Mahmud Ali and Abd el-Hamid Amin Ibrahim, inspectors of th e S CA for the Red Sea region , for their helpfuln ess and support on site. The project received the blessing of His Holiness, Pope Sheno uda III, and His Grace , Bishop Yustus, head of the Monastery of St. Antony, and proceeded under the guida nce of Father Maximous El-An tho ny, who participated in the work as a memb er of th e team . I acknowledge th e efforts an d generosity of numerous scholars, museum directors, librarians , administrators, and archivists, whose assista nce I am gratefu l for, and also several inst itutions whose collections I have used : Alice-Mary Talbot; Natalia Teteri atnikov; Catherine Smith; Anne Gout; Annemarie Weyl Carr; Iaroslav Folda; Athanasios Papageorghiou; Renata Ho lod; Detlev Kraack; Getatchew Haile; Robert Nelson; John Williams; Cha rles T. Little; Johannes Den Heijer; Peter Grossmann; Bern ard O' Kane; Christina Spano u; Michele Piccirillo; Father Martyr ius of the Mo nas tery of the Virgin Mary (Syrian Monastery); Fathe r Benjam in of the Baramus Mon astery; Cathry n Clyne; Terence Walz; Agnieszka Dobrowolska; Iarek Dobrowolski; Amir Hassan Abdel-Ha mdi; Mary Sadek; Angela Jon es; Derek Krueger; Gene Rogers; Georgia Frank; Darlene Brooks -H eadstrom: Fra nces Vincent; Wlodzimierz Godlewski; Samir Morcos; Mand y McClure (for Arabic tra nslation); Cynthia Hall (for a dr awing ); Dr. Mo ura d Tewfick, dir ector of th e Coptic Museum (Ca iro); Madame Samiha A. El-Shaheed, general director for

I NTR O D U CTI O N

Scientific Research at the Coptic Museum; Dr. Farouk Askar, director of the Islamic Museum (Cairo); Monica Blanchard; Dumbarton Oaks; Art Resource; the Institut Francais d'Archeolog ie Or ientale du Caire; the University of Pennsy lvania Museum Library; th e Kelsey Muse um of the University of Michigan, An n Arbo r; th e Princeton Art Library's Photo graphi c Archive; the Deutsches Archaeologisches Institut in Cairo; th e libr ary of th e Amer ican Research Center in Egypt; and the libraries of th e American University in Cairo. Vital funding and suppor t for the final stages of thi s book project came from a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship. USAID and NE H have made it possible for m e to devot e all of my energies to thi s project for a con siderable length of tim e. Temple University generously assisted with some final unanticipated costs. All of the contributors to this book have sha red ideas and enthusiasm, resulting in a mu ch more int erestin g and thoughtful work th an I could possibly have imagined. They have exh ibited patience and dedi cation through the edit ing proces s, for which I thank them. This book has also benefited from the exten sive and excellent photographic record m ade by Patrick Godeau, and from the survey document s pr odu ced by Peter Sheeha n and by Michael Malinson and his associates. Th e super ior abilities and dedication of Iud y Metro, Patricia Fidler, Dan Heaton,

22

Monks fro m one of the Red Sea Mo nasteries, 1930-1931 (Whittemore Expedition. Courtesy of Dumbarton Oaks,

AIOl)

XXVII

and Mary Mayer at Yale University Press have improved every aspect of this book. Allen Peacock, Karen Vellucci, William Lyster, and Eileen Markson provided excellent editor ial assistance . In particular, Lyster sustained my flagging spiri ts on nu merous occasions and had infinite patience for refinements to the man uscript. Anthony Cutler's th orou gh critique of this manu script resulted in significant improvements to it. I am deeply grateful to all of these readers and editors for their encourage ment and fortitude. I am indebted to all of the people and institution s mentioned in thi s int roduction, and also to a few who have not yet been nam ed. Th ese include Robert Har ris and Dale Kinney, for their inspiring trainin g in medieval and Byzantine art histo ry; my parents, Katherin e Bolman, William Bolman, and Victoria Asayam a, for taking me to mu seums; and Patricia V. Pierce, for enco uraging my study of art histo ry and my decision to und ertake this massive project. My person al dedication of this volume is to th e monk s, past, present , and future, of the Mona stery of St. Antony at the Red Sea (fig. 22). Without th em and their tenac ious commitment to an ancient and vital tradition, we would not have had the cultura l richne ss of the paintings in th e Chur ch of St. Antony to share with a larger audience.

PART

I

ST. ANTONY THE GREAT

JE

till'll''''''

In.J1l..'1 tlr~ JJ,.i/ilh _ ' I (l 4{ tile ~!I duu Irf'tl/UII7LJ......,,..y,.."dir d: dt~ Jirirw ll u rrr Jo,irtJ.. the J'4t. Itill pur{1/ oV"/.N tluvlf9h . !-i.ght"

JLn Y'fli •

-

E

T&"f!'"

'Tra.vo.1fu8

YPT r ub/I i/uti by the .fo ~ie{l/ I'orthe

Diffusion of USOll} KD.owl("dg e:

JJ.'I G.LONG.1'ro/: Cruk.I.ond~{rniv.·" r: lap' , L .Lln.nd .F~ f.lf1'tTT12id Rz;Jfuins r.umplh 70

Betrta h .Mile. 40 so

30

Bote . Wh"",hI- m m /t',i HYlll,'1I 01.71 '''1 til., NI1~ it ,i,. {i.ul"~ ''' .11t!k·JUfn 't:

'1"

100

.; :t

i f j\'

_\ \ull )A.l1

~i.ttl,;t.14"'tlhi.: 1 ' ;uilt!.

'II"I'/"";";S '''' "••,h.r,;/tV.".,,,,·,!",.,,,·.

Ai~h .liJt'li'fl~ . .r(./lUU1,r .

tl"·/li..... td, .,,,

",. d Ud' d f ' I t- tn11(~'. Jln,; ', .Jf1J1UlSk't~tI .

:~~'~:I:,,~Z:t ~~~'~/;:::'~~:/:~;~/~~"S/

.

Ul

SheiJ.l". .m o!J,man;

~('':1.

JEw /illl".

tll. C

h/!tld

.....-l

Iv t:k,wott..n m.vh

iJr" .llr~of'rrllil.t.

1f!;JJ.qo II. .,a11~!I , tLJUtJ id ,,·ith a limUIt-' 1'fIl"uil4 tI,ro Lk/l, .It'1bd,. tl .M;mlltdli~ , •

u..

Jl''z.t;'r.k~.,iuk. t UI

.Btu. lJahr.

n...,d , a'P~ ' .riTZ

blfmd.

~

,n " 1!'r , /ak .

lJli~ a wdl . }{iur. d ('UJt/l' . IJi'rl'r:( a 'fJ1.-e, Glll-rl,. or ~l!a.qrr1l.

""ut. ,

::::t lJ:;';v:,:~;.c: 1. :(," ~ .

-

j~Y-U) ' an d goes on to na me many of th e people in his family. A line writte n on th e wall just above th e seemingly exculpatory no te at the beginni ng of the graffito, in m uch smaller cha racters, which Coquin and Laferriere seem not to have not iced, says, "the wretched Sergius wrote it (~ y-u ~I ~ ) , " as if to answer any doubt abo ut whether or not the same person was responsible for both the introdu ctory not e and the body of th e graffito. " Finally, at the end of thi s interesting text, in an app arent reference to monks on pilgrim age, the writer penned the prayer that "Go d might bless breth ren (;) ..,.:.. 1) for visiting St. Antony.,, 20 There are literally hundreds of Arabic graffiti on the walls of the church, particularly in th e nave. The heaviest conce ntra tion of th em are on the back, western wall, to the right of th e door as on e now enters the church, and in the no rth eastern corner, with a dense concentration under the icon of th e Virgin Mary (N36) . Here, on severa l layers of plaster, are graffiti in Arabic, Ethiopic, and Syriac charac ters, man y of them no longer fully legible, but all of them testifying to the penitent sincerity of the pilgrims who came to ask pardon for their sins. The following graffito is inscrib ed under the portrait of Patriarch Theophilus in th e sanctuary of th e church (S5):

haps in th e hop e th at an officiating priest would remember them in the course of th e divine liturgy. It is not iceable that the mother's name is not given in public. This usage is in accord with the practice of the Copts from the time of the Islamic conquest up until the beginning of the twentieth century," Very typical of many of the Arabic graffiti in its language and motivation is the following text, inscribed under the portrait of St. George (N25) on the nort hern wall of the nave:

J.Jl.iJ l ~ 1~.1, ~ 1~~y.J ~ ~j l

~~

~~ ~ 4..l . # 1 y~..iJI,J"-7.~ 1

~~

~~ . # 1 ~~~ .JJW I ..::...,jl .. ..::...,j l " .1, W I . . L -. , uJ=-'

l) to have mercy on the petitioners. A third Carshuni graffito in the same location, with different petitioner names, asks both "the great ones," 51. Paul and 51. Antony, to have mercy ( ~ .ro....J~1 l-=ulo ~a=> J.=O on them. All th ree of these texts were presuma bly pen ned by the same gro up of pilgrims. There are traces of other Garshunl graffiti at other locations in the church-for example, on the wall under the portrait of the Virgin Mary in the northeastern corner of the nave (N36)-but not enough of it remains to decipher the message. In the ensemble, these few texts testify to the wide popularity of the shrine church among eastern Christians, even beyond the bounds of the denomination of the Copts.

Ethiopic Graffiti The significance of the Ethiop ic graffiti in the Churc h of 51.Antony is in their age." Most of them are written, most

THE VIEWER 'S RESPONSE

under the portrait of Maximus and Domitius (N32). It is notable for its invocation of the blessing ofSts. Antony and Paul, as well as for its allusions to im po rtan t figures in Ethio pian mo nastic hi sto ry: In the name of the Ho ly Trinity. I, Galawdayos , and Gabra Qirqos, Nabiyud, and Giyorgis came to the Monastery of [Abba] Anto ny on the i zth of th e month of Sane [june 6 or 16 ]. 11 ·5

probabl y, in hands o f th e sixtee n th or seve n teen th ce n t ury.

Ge'ez graffito under Maximus

Perhap s th ey are evide nce th at Et h io p ian m onks lived in the m o nastery. Tra di tion h as it th at th e M onastery of St.

May th e blessing of O ur Father Anto ny and the blessin g of our Father Pauli [Paul] be with us. Amen. And may th e blessing of O ur Fathers

An to ny was th e o ne fro m whic h Co p tic m onks were chosen for the Eth io pian metropolitanate. So far, seve n Eth i-

Abba Tak la Hayman ot of abundan t good dee ds

opic graffiti have been found in the church. It is inter esting

and Abba Sarnu' el, an angel on earth,

to note th at five of th em are on the northern wall of th e

be with us, for ever and ever.' 8 Amen and ame n.

nave, in th e gene ra l area un d er th e p o rt ra it o f St. Moses th e Black (N30), but they are ac tua lly w ritten u nder the

Let [it be so; let it be so.]

m emo rial inscrip t io n (N31), th e portrait o f Sts. Maxi m us and Domitius (N32), th e portrait of St. Ma car ius th e Great

(N33), and the portrait of the Virgin M ary (N36). A particularly interesting Ethiopic graffito wa s written on the eastern face of the niche (blo cked -o ff doorway), under the memorial inscription (N31). It was written in

A.D. 1542, just a few years after Patriarch Gabriel VII's restoration of the church. The text reads as follows: In th e name of th e H oly Tr inity.

The sixteen th-cen tury Eth iopic texts th at appea r under the portrait of the Blessed Vir gin Mary (N36), one of th e most attractive spo ts for gra ffit i writ ers of all languages in the whole church, implore the intercession of Mary, of St. Antony, and of Gab riel, probabl y th e angel Gabriel, whose namesake wa s 'Patriarch Gabriel VII, the church's restorer in t he very century whe n the pi lgrim who wrote th ese te xts m ad e his visit:

I, [Arka] Mika 'e l," came to th is Mo nastery of Antony. He [the Lord] has shown me that which many righteous people and mOnkS-1l3bllrall3 3d'6 and officials -have not seen. Praise is fitting for

( A)

0 , m y Lad y. 0 , m y Lad y. M ay yo u not drive m e away from yo ur shadow.

the giver of grace. You who read my [ ], pray for me to

( 8)

[ ] Ch rist. Ab ba [Antony]

God [his good

° [who is] bo rn [ ]

th ings] . May Go d preserve

[ and] who is clothed in flesh .

you [in your cells] an d

I take refuge in My Lady Mary.

strengthe n [your cells] for you like the house

I take refuge in your holy body [so that you may

founded upon a rock. May he [the Lord] [multiply you very mu ch in it]' like th e mu stard seed

save ] m e fro m my ene m ies; and pr eserve [me]

sowed in the field of th e Gospel and wh ich the n [Amen]

rose so high that it sheltered the birds of the sky. Forever and ever. Amen [and]

and Amen. [Let it be so;] let it be so;

ame n. Let it be so; let [it be so.]

I tak e re fuge with Ga briel, [ I pray th at]

27

In the year 202.

Mary [may save ]

Another text (fig. 11.5), rich in personal nam es, which

mel ].

was inscribed sometime in the sixteenth century, appears

what.

T HE HANDWR ITING ON THE WAll

11.6

Heraldi c drawings (A2-A3; ADP/SA BW medium form at, Nov. 99, 1:3)

Armenian Graffiti

Medieval Western Graffiti

Armenian graffiti are to be found in some half-dozen loca tions in the church." The most widely known of them is the liturgical exclamation "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord, " written on both sides of the depictions of the angels carrying the mandorla of Christ in the small chapel (C2).30 Unfortunately, the Armenian graffiti at the other locations are very difficult to decipher, due to the peculiarities of the script and the colloquial character of the language. They are still under study. But already it is clear that those who inscribed them have recorded their pleas for the forgiveness of their sins, and that they have sought the intercession of the saints who are venerated in the church. For example, the Armenian graffito written under the portrait ofPhoebammon at N26, on the northern wall of the nave, clearly seeks the intercession of all the saints.

Texts and designs inscribed on the walls of the Church of St. Antony by medieval noblemen from the west have a strikingly different character from the graffiti left behind by the pilgrims who wrote in oriental languages, " Visitors who wrote in Arabic, Syriac, Armenian, and Ethiopic wrote votive graffiti; that is to say, they inscribed on the wall their prayers for forgiveness of sin and to seek the blessings of God and his saints. Western noblemen, and even clerics, by way of contrast, were more inclined to leave beh ind a record of their own passage. They themselves, rather than the saints, are the focus of attention . A startling example of this prac tice, still to be seen in severa l locations in the church, is the name of the Franciscan Frater Bernardus Ferulensis Siculus, who came to visit in 1625 and 1626, and wrote his name and the date several times in the church, in gigantic Latin characters, with no word of prayer or intercession, or any other expression of religious sent iment." A fascinating class of graffiti left behind by western nobles on their visits to the church of St. Antony from the fourtee nt h to the sixteenth centuries is to be seen in the heraldic displays, carved, scratched, painted, or draw n on the walls at various location s (fig. 11.6). They are typical of the practice of itin erant western nobl emen of th e periodwheth er th ey were on Cr usade, making a pilgrimag e, or just making th e grand tour- of leaving behind th eir names, coats of arms, crested helmets, and th e sym bols of th e chivalric ord ers to which they belong ed. Travelers' accounts from the period make it clear that local sto nemasons and em blazo ners were often em ployed for fashioning and installin g the se designs. The painted helmet with plumes on th e north side of the nave (N27) is an especially noticeable instance of this ph enomenon in th e Old Ch urch of St. Anto ny. It displays th e heraldry of a German famil y of counts, von Looz, a memb er of which could have visited the church as early as the fourteent h century, " On the western wall of the nave, under the portrait of St. Menas (N21), there is the heraldic design of the Schinkel family, together with the inscribed name of Detlev Schinkel, who gave the year of his visit in Roman numerals as 1436:14 What is more, it is clear that Schinke l had been to the Monastery of St. Catherine at Sinai, and to Cyprus, before coming to the Monastery of St. Antony, as indicated by the symbols of the chivalric orders connected to these places. Other heraldic graffiti in the church can be recognized as belonging to members of the medieval Voserie and Croy families. All in all, from these and other heraldic designs still waiting for identification, it is clear th at the Monastery

THE VIEWER 'S RESPONSE

of St. Antony m ust have been freq uen tly visited by European nobles during the four teenth and fifteenth centuries. What is more, in terms of the number of the heraldic graffiti to be found here, the church is comparable to other popular sites for the noble, western visitors of the Midd le Ages, such as the "o ld refectory" at the Monastery of St. Cather ine, or the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

Nineteenth- and Twentieth -Century Graffiti In modern time s, foreign visito rs to the monastery contin ued to writ e their names on the church wall. Man y of them, ho wever, were content to leave onl y th eir name s behind, and so metimes the date of th eir visit, in marked contrast to the practice of th e Co ptic pilgrims in every era who, in addition to th eir nam es, inscribed th eir prayers in Arabic under the portraits of the saints whose int ercession they sought for th e forgiveness of thei r sins. An alm ost official-lo okin g notice in Greek appears o n the wall und er the po rtrait of St. Shenoute (N28) , recording the visit of the Greek Ortho dox patriarch of Alexandria, Kallinikos (1858- 1861): nD 1859 M m ou K a,\ALvL Ko ~

Il rrr pur py r]

year, 1850, under the portrait of Phoebammon (N26) on the northern wall of the nave. Some modern visitors left their names in both Arabic and Latin scripts. A case in point can be seen under the portrait of SI. Menas (N21), where the name Georges Hayati / ~ ~ C:: .).J-?'- appears. On the wall to the right of the modern entrance to the church of SI. Antony, a num ber of mod ern visito rs have left their names. The most promi nent of th ese person s are King Farouk (1935- 1952) and his wife, Queen Faridah. Their nam es, th ough faintl y written , can still be clearly read high on th e wall: J _9.) U uIJ.J-'-""J ~ dLo J J':I I "Farouk I, King of Egypt an d Sudan," and just above this noti ce th e additiona l phrase: ii ..l7. ~ ~I , "Q ueen Farida h." There is no indication of the dat e on which the royal coup le came to the mo nastery. Hundreds of other less famo us nam es have been writte n on the walls. A number of them were put th ere by visiting serviceme n fro m abroa d. For exam ple, o n th e wall to th e right of the modern entr ance, one can still read: L. G. Philpott, RAO C, 25/7/40. And even mod ern monks have not shied away from recording th eir pr esen ce in th e mon astery by inscribing a graffito on the wall. O n th e same space as th e servicema n's nam e there is the following inscription: AbdeI Masih EI Antoni, 1934.

A AE ~ av8pEL a ~ ~ ETa r ns Luv0 8 w ~ a UTOU

Fprry opr ou Km fa~pLllA TWV LEp08w KOV Km 8 E08wpou Pa ~ 80u xou 35

In May 1859 this patriarch visited th e mo nastery, to gether with the members of his syno d, Gregory, Gabriel, and Theodore. In all likelihood, the visit was in connection with Patriarch Cyril IV's kno wn interest in fostering ecumenical relations between the several Orthodox chur ches present in Egypt, particularly the Armenian and the Greek." A well-known figure in the travel accounts of the nineteenth century is th e Russian Arch imandrite Porphyrius Uspensky, who visited the Monastery of St. Anto ny in 1850 in the company of the future Coptic Orthodox Patr iarch, Cyr il IV (1854-1861).37 He wrote his name on the western wall of the nave, where it is still to be seen, under the portrait of St. Menas (N21). Archimandrite Porphyrius was an avid ecumenist, who fostered hopes of restoring ecclesiast ical comm union between the Coptic Ortho dox Churc h and th e Russian Or tho dox Church." Ano ther Russian visitor, presumably in the entourage of Archimandrite Porphyrius, wrote his name, P. Soloviev, and the

Reading the Graffiti The hand that wro te on th e plaster of the wall of th e king's palace in th e biblical narrative of the book of Dani el (5:5) was a disem bod ied specter , and the words it inscrib ed were m ysteriou s and threa tening ; on ly a prophet cou ld deci pher them. The graffiti on the wall of the Church of St. Antony, by contrast, represent a rare connect ion people of our day have with the hundreds of pilgrim s and visitors who came to the church over the centuries. All who wrote on the wall must have done so with the know ledge that those who would come after them would be able to read the record of their passage. In this way the handwriting on the wall offers th e modern visitor a living con nection with his or her pre decessors. It is evident that some came in a spirit o"r prayer and devotion, and some came with a sense of personal fulfillment, bent only on leaving behind a memorial of their sojourn. All of them enab le the modern pilgrim or visitor to enter a network of fellow travelers who have come to a holy spot from many countries and lang uage communities, over a lon g period of time. The most immediately str iking impression o ne receives from the graffiti in the ensemble is of the variety of languages in which they are inscribed, testifying to the

THE HANDWRITING ON THE WAll

wide appeal of the holy place. The large number of them is also immediately evident, and the significance of this realization is enhance d when one recalls that the successive plaster layers mu st hide many more hundreds of graffiti th an can cur rently be read in the churc h. The fact that th e pre po nderant majori ty of th em are in Arabic, and that in formulaic fashion they impl ore the int ercession of th e saints for the forgiveness of sins, testifies to th e lively faith of the Coptic Orthodox Church, who se m embers over the centuries have been the largest single group of pilgrims to come to the church. The graffiti in Syriac, Ethiopic, and Arm enian go together with oth er historical records to tes-

193

tify to the presence in the monastery of monks and visitors from the other churches with whom the Copts have historically been in ecclesiastical communion, for whom the Monastery of St. Anto ny has had a more th an ordinary importance. In short, the presence of the graffiti helps to brin g th e site alive in a way th at enables on e to learn something of th e thousand s of peopl e who since the th irteenth century at least have entere d the church to pr ay, and to view with awe the paintings of the martyrs, patriarchs, and monks, whose portraits high on the walls still command the attention of visitors, whether to give a focus to their religiou s devotion or to excite their admiration.

= Father Maximous EI-Anthony

C HA PTE R

12

WINDOWS INTO HEAVEN I C O N S IN MONASTIC LIFE TODAY

12 .1

Maximus and Do m itius (N32; ADP/SA 1999)

The monastic life in Egypt is experiencing a period of renaissan ce. This is a result of th e general ecclesiastical rebirth taking place am ong the Copts in Egypt and abroa d, which is itself a result of th e ecclesiastical, spir itual, educ ational, and administrative awakeni ng effected by th e pastoral care of Pope Shenuda III (Patriarch of the Sea of St. Mark). The monastic life in Egypt is Christianity transformed into living practice. It was established by St. Antony, the father of all monks, and has endured from that time down to the present day. Th e monasteries are still filled with monks and nuns from all areas of Egypt, living according to original monastic custom and the traditions and teachings received from the first monastic fathers (fig. 12.1). In the monasteries, continued daily use is made of the Coptic language, in liturgy, prayers, and sacraments. Th e monks still live according to traditional monastic laws in matters of daily work, prayers , and spiritual exercises. Modern monasticism keeps to original monastic pract ice in matt ers of metanoia (p raying mindfully with peni tence), pros tration, work, and spiritual exercises. The Cop tic Church believes that monasteries and the mon astic life are like a fortress that preserves th e ent ire ecclesiastical tra dition . They are the spring fro m which th e whole church drinks. The spiritual atmos phere special to the monasteries is distributed to all areas of the country by th e pr iests, who begin the ir priestly lives in a monastery. They dr aw as mu ch as possible from thi s dee p source of living tradit ion, and with th is experience beh ind th em th ey begin their missio n an d service. In years gone by, the monasteries were no t charged with the care of the regular believers, as they were tradi-

195

tio nally cut off completely from the world and received few visitors. Long distances separated monasteries from cities, an d traveling was difficult. Mo nastic teachings also advocated withdrawa l fro m th e world and all that is in it. There are man y stories from the history of monasticism and also fro m th e lives of the saints that reveal how com plete was th is separation between the monasteries and the people . Many monks fled from peopl e, and it was a lucky visitor who actuall y managed to arrive at a monastery for a visit. In the modern era, alongside ecclesiastical and monastic renaissance, however, the economic, psychological, and social pressures on people have incre ased significantly. It has thus become inevitable that monasteries must open their doors to all, because individuals have found that the monasterie s with th eir saints offer a unique opportunity for them to partake of spiritual blessings. When Coptic Christians visit monasteries and the shrines of saints with an avowedly spiritual aim, the y are able to wash themselves from th e inside, and find solutions to their problems, relief from the ir worr ies, and cures for their sickne~ses. The monasteries an d monks have brought salvation to many, an d they have lit the paths of man y more by becom ing an exam ple for them on th eir spiritual jou rneys , and even on th eir way th rou gh the world. The Coptic Church is very pro ud that its mon ks have stood behind the church and strengthened, sup ported, nourished, and protected it, an d have participated in th e service of its wide-ranging activities. The successful service that contemporary monks have established reflects the entry of more educa ted people into the mo nasteries and th eir development of a ph ilosoph y combining the past

THE V IEWER 'S RESPONSE

with the present, supported by the Holy Spirit and the prayers of the saints. A crucial aspect of life in the monasteries of Egypt is the liturgical life. The monks live this life believing in what they are practicing with love and strength and piety, know ing that th e goal of their faith is their own salvation. Collective and ind ividu al prayers, and the service of Mass with all its rit uals, constitute th e bas is up on which the monk build s his monastic life. Hence the monasteries are keen ly int erested in collective prayers, such as th e midnight hymn s sung in the Coptic language and acco mp anied by tradition al Coptic melodi c compositions. Th e monks pr ay in two cho ral gro ups and express a deep and pr ofound spiritual harm on y. The Mass, too , is amo ng those ritu al liturgical services that still represent the basic part , indeed th e greatest part, of the mon astic life in all of th e monasteries. Th e monks live it, devot ing m uch atte ntion to its rituals, melodies, and language. This is all in addition to the ar tistic an d ed ucationa l aspect s of the monks' lives, in which they produce an d express th ose spiritual feelings inside th emselves an d translate them in the for m of nu merous arti stic products.

12. 2 RI GH T

Icon of Paul and Anto ny (AD P/SA 857096 )

Icons and Icon Making in the Life of the Monk The monk is an icon , pul sating with life, and wherever a monk is found, icon s, too , are found in all their different form s (panel painting, mosaic, wall painting, manuscript illumination, and so on ; fig. 12.2) . If it is true that on e cannot find a Coptic Chur ch without icon s, it is also true that on e cannot find a Coptic monk without icon s. Ind eed, the monk is at one with his icon s, and thi s is att ributa ble to th e clear relation between the monk and Heaven . In both their limited exterio r form and their unlimited int erior perspective icon s resemble windows: ind eed icon s are' the windo ws through which th e monk gazes at Heaven. Th e cell is th e place in which th e monk lives, by himself, all of his life. Inside thi s cell, which normally has few window s, th e monk strives to see the heavenl y world th rough th e windows of icon s. Inside the cell, the monk sees nothing of th e world, fo r he has entered this enclosed space and shut the do or. Rather, he gazes beyond the ph ysical realm to see the entire heavenly world. Henc e in that special place in his cell where th e monk offers his pr ivate pr ayers, we find vario us icon s hung in random ways. Through th ese icon s, and d uri ng his prayers, the monk strives to see Heaven . It is the ico ns which ope n his mind, his sight, and his eyes so that he may gaze with devoti on on an icon of Christ as a young child carried by his mo ther, of His face on ly or Him among his students, His trans-

figuration, His entry into Jerusalem upon an ass, His pain wearing the crown of thorns, of Christ crucified or rising from the dead or ascending into the heavens, sitting as a judge on the Day of Judgment, or any of the other numerous depictions of Christ. The monk also offers his prayers to the Mother of God, the Ho ly Virgin Mary, for she is the mo ther of the Savior and one may always seek her inter cession. She occupies a central position in the lives of Coptic mon ks, and no cell is witho ut an icon of th e Ho ly Virgin Ma ry. Th e mon k has a special love for her in his heart, for she is the intercessor for all of humankind , and the monk presen ts many prayers to her. Th e monk also dedicates his prayers befor e icon s of th e angels, mar tyrs, an d saints. The mon k's cell is filled with many icon s, thou gh we sho uld rem emb er that each monk has his own int imat e and beloved angels and martyrs and saints. We find that he is particu larly devoted to their icons, and he keeps th em in front of him at all tim es, raising prayers and pleas for intercessio n to them always. Nor does the monk interact with th e icon o nly through pra yers. There are several ways of expressing devotion, such as lighting a candl e in front of the icon . We find that man y monks light can dles in front of icon s in th eir cells, particularly. icons of th e Holy Virgin, the

WINDOWS I N T O H EAVEN

c: ..... : -, '

12·3

Monks of the Mo nastery of 51. Paul at th e terrace near the basket lift, 1930 - 1931 (Whitte mo re Expedition. Courtesy of Dum barton Oaks , 835)

mon astery's founding saint, the mon k's nam esake, or his patron saint. Ther e are ot her manife stat ions as well of monks' devotio n and tribute to icon s (fig. 12.3). We find that on those holy days special to Christ, the Hol y Virgin, th e martyrs, and those saints who hold a spec ial place with the indi vidual monk, each monk lights can dles for the who le per iod of th eir feast days. This takes place not only inside th e cell but also outside of it, in one of th e cell's windows, in fro nt of it, or at its ent ran ce. Monks also carry icon s in th eir pocke ts, inserted within their Bible, th eir prayer book of the canonical hours ihorologioni, their book for the midnight praises, and any other books they may possess. For the monk, the meaning of the icon is not located in its material or manufacturing techniques but rather in the person whom the icon represents. For the monk and the purposes of his interaction with the icon, it does not matter whether the icon is made of certain materials, manufactured in a particular way, and drawn with the quill of an artist, or whether it is printed on paper or any other material. The size, too , is not im po rtant; the mo nk interacts with the sma ll, printed icon as he does with a large icon made according to artistic specifications. Coptic monks believe intensely that the icon is not the material it-

197

self, but the thing which is seen-a depiction of a living person embo died in a visible form. Monks believe in th e mirac ulou s power of icon s. The y believe that icon s protect them from all kind s of dan ger and that th e presence of an icon blesses their cells. They believe th at an icon sancti fies their lives and helps th em in th eir search for holin ess. The monk fears th e icon as he woul d a per son standing befo re him: hence he str ives not to err in the pre sence of the icon, neither in tho ught nor in deed. The monk takes refuge in the icon and seeks its aid in his spiritua l life. Th e mon k also seeks int ercession with the person depicted on the icon, believing in the working of miracles, whether it be in the healing of illness, or !n dispelling anguish or any other needed aid. The monk speaks with the person of the icon, face to face and in an audible voice (pray ing, seeking intercession, requesting help, rebuking, thanking), believing that the presence of the person is a palpable, visible, audible truth. Thus the monk interacts with the icon not only in prayer before it but in mutual contact. He often kisses the icon, puts his han ds on it, kneels before it, or embraces it. The Coptic monk also uses the icon to adorn his cell, placing it on furniture or above his bed or next to his books. The monk can find no better gift to give than an

THE V I EW ER' S RESPON SE

12·4

Procession of monks, Mon astery of SI. Anton y, 1928

icon. By giving it to others, he conveys his faith in it and his relationship with it, making others cherish it and want to own it. Monks throng around beautiful icons and they want to purchase them, particularly if the y are made according to traditional specifications. Because of th eir love for icons, monks devoted themselves to the art of icon mak ing in the first centuries of monasticism . Th ey painted the churches in their monasterie s and the ir manuscripts with icon s. The monasteries avidly pr odu ced a great variety of icon s and pr eserved and passed on the art of mak ing th em. Througho ut our history, ma ny monks and bishops were skilled artists who made icons of all forms and types. In continuation with this tradition , some mo nks and nuns have begun to devote their attention to reviving th e production of icons, combining the pain tin g of icons with their prayers and asceticism. In th e past few years, we have witnessed a great number of m onks and nu ns in all th e monasteries taking up icon dr awing, whether for their own monaster ies or for sale to churches and individ uals. This renewed effort has encouraged the spread of icons everywhere. The production of icons is part of the or iginal work

of monks, for it requires time , patience, deliberateness of spirit, and contemplation, all monastic virtues . This is why the production of icon s is referred to as "monks' work." It is one of the im portant facets of the monastic life, for it is not merel y material work but spiritual as well. The monk is able to imbue the icon with the breath of life, something a lay person cannot do because the art of icon making is one of the works of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit guides the painter of the icon to fill it with the mark of the Spirit . The icon is th e work not of th e monk but of th e Holy Spirit, as is mu ch spi ritual writ ing; the mon k is a tool in the hand of the Ho ly Spirit. This the monk achieves through his spiritual life, led by the Holy Spirit. Hence th e paint ing of icons is one of the ma nual labors of monks that help to consecrate th e spiritual life and lead the mo nk to live in holiness. The majority of icon making takes place on days of fasting, which are considered the most holy and spiritual days.

Icons in the lit urgical life of th e Monk An icon is an icon in any place and in any form in the life of a monk. It occupies an important position not only in

= WINDDW5 INTD HE A V E N

his personal life and in his cell but in his ritual and liturgical life as well. The liturgical life of the monk begin s as soon as he sets foot insid e the monastery. When he enters the church, he performs the liturgy of veneration and respect and offers up his prayer s. When he stands before the door of the temple (the sanctuary), he performs his prayers of hum ility, accompanied by prostrations and prayers. He then stands and prays, after which he begins greeting th ose in the churc h. He greets those in heaven and th en th ose on earth. He begins by greetin g the Lord Jesus and th e Holy Virgin, the angels, the martyrs, and the saints th rough th eir icons. The monk passes by th em, greeti ng each in turn and taking from th em peace and blessings. He either kisses the icon directly, if its location permits this, or, more often, places his han d on the icon and then kisses his han d. He then begins greeti ng those in the ch urch - the relics of the saints, the ranks of the clergy, and his brother monks. Nor is the monk's greeting to the icon limited to a kiss, but there are also icons in the church before which the monk can light a candle, praying for himself and others. The lighting of the cand le befor e an icon is an act of faith in the power and efficacy of its saint ly subject and an expression of the belief th at th e candle is the oblatio n th e mon k can offer to th e person of the icon every day and every moment in which he sees the icon. The monk strives to place in a prominent position the appropriate icon for each particular feast the chur ch celebrates, or the icon of a saint or martyr on his day, if it is available. This is so that the monk can live with the person of the icon in his remembrance, recalling his faith, his struggle, and his prayers, making of him a living example to be followed in the monk's own life. The monk breathes in his pungent fragran ce. It is as if th e icon s are roses, and the monk smells each day a different flower with its own distingu ishing fragrance. Icon s parti cular to special occasions are placed next to th e door of th e temple in front of all, an d are amo ng the first icon s to be greeted by the monk. The monastic priest performs a special ceremony with the icons during the liturgical prayers, called the "incense procession." This is a procession undertaken by the monks during the liturgical prayers, whether it is offering up incense dur ing the morning or eveni ng prayers or during the Mass. In it the priest-monk passes by with an incense bu rn er, giving and presenting incense before the icon s in a prescribed ritual form. He prese nts th em with incense, offering his prayers to th e person of th e icon , seeking succor in all his needs and the needs of those who asked him to pray for them. This is an example of anot her interaction between the monks and icons found in the

199

churc h as a whole. Just as the scent of th e lives of those in icon s was fragrant, so also does th e scent of incense presented to them repre sent their perfum ed lives. In the monasteries, the monks pay close attention to the festivals of the saints, because these remind them of their own struggles . The monks perform a ritual parade of the icon on these special occasions (fig. 12.4) . During th e celebration of a festival of a martyr, saint, prophet, or angel, the mon ks carry the appropriate icon an d circle the inside of the church with it, having decorated it with flowers and candles, chanting joyous songs. Each also carr ies a cand le, illum inatin g him self as the perso n of the icon illuminates others with his life. If the occasion is a celebrat ion for the founder of the monastery, the monks, rad iant and joyous, carry his icon and circumambulate both inside the church and outside on the paths of the monastery, letting everyone touch the icon and take its blessing with strong yearning and faith. At the end of this procession, whether it is during the evening prayers or the special mass held for the person of the icon, one of the monks carries the icon and stands with it at the door of the temple. Then, one by one , the bishops and priest s begin offering incense to the icon while the monks chan t the appropriate melodies. After th e presentation of incense, the icon is placed in its spot next to the door of the templ e, and a cand le is lit in front of it for the duration of the celebration. Wh en one of th e saints or martyrs or th e Holy Virgin is honored, the monks stand before the icon, glorifying it with the appropriate chants while some of the m read about th e honoree's life. They conclude th e exaltation by receiving a blessing from the icon. During the Mass an icon of the Lord Jesus sitting on the throne is placed in the eastern part of the temple, because it is by liftin g our eyes to him in prayer that our heart s are also raised to Heaven. The Lord Jesus is always placed in the eastern part of the temple, from which he will come, and also on the altar, where he is imminent. On the altar is the "pedestal of the chalice," a box in w~ich th e chalice is placed during the Mass. The box is adorn ed on all four sides with icons. On the western side, in front of the priest, appears an icon of the Last Supper, and on the eastern side an icon of the Resurrect ion. On the north side there is an icon of the Holy Virgin, and on the south, the church's intercessor. Whe n the mon ks want to pay trib ute to one of the saints an d perform an exaltation, they put the icon before the m an d present it with exaltations and th e appropriate chants. In this case, the icon represents the presence of the person in the midst of th e monks.

THE VIEWER 'S RESPONSE

PASS ION WEEK

During th e week precedin g Easter the monks place an icon of Christ in pain, or an icon of Christ crucified, in the m iddle of the church, and they light candles and oil lamps befo re it. When the monks enter the church, th ey kneel before this icon and kiss it. This icon holds a special place, for through it the monks are able to contemplate the torments of Christ during His Week of Suffering. Accompan ied by mou rnful chants, the icon helps to create an atmosph ere of living with Christ in his pain . Traditionally worshipers do not kiss either each other in greeting or the icons after Tuesday evening in memory of Judas's kiss of betrayal. Monks also follow this prac tice and refrain from kissing th e icon. G OOD F R I D AY

On Good Friday, the icon of the Crucifixion is adorned with all types of deco ration. The monks are extremely devoted to this ritual, staying up late Thursday night prepar ing th is and all the other icon s special to th is occasio n. 12.5 ABOVE

Occasions and Celebrations

Icon o f th e baptism o f Chris t (ADP/SA 8 s64 96)

12 .6

B ELOW

Ce nser ( ADP/SA BW 74:19)

T HE FEAST OF T HE E P I P HANY

Dur ing the prayers for celebra tion of the Feast of the Epiphany, we perform what is called the Mass of th e Baptism al Font, or the Water Mass. In this mass, the mon ks wear their sacerdotal vestments and go to the baptism al font. Th ey stand before an icon of the Epipha ny in which John th e Bapti st is show n bapt izing th e Lord Jesus in th e River Jordan (fig. 12.5). Then the mon ks begin th eir pra yers to con secrate th e water of the fon t. PALM SUN D AY

We pr actice the rite of Palm Sunday by raising incense early in th e morning (fig. 12.6 ). This magnificent ritua l involves th e par ticipatio n of other icons, wh ich join with us in celebrating Christ's entra nce into Jeru salem , just as when Chr ist entered Jeru salem an d everyone celebrated with him, even children. It is an open invitation to all the inh abitants of heaven and the saints and martyrs to participate (fig. 12.7). The rite begins with a series of twelve stops or stations. The mon ks carry th e festal icon of Christ entering Jerusalem to the praises of the people. They begin before the sanctuary and proceed around the remaining eleven prescrib ed icon s. At each stop the monks chant the doxolo gy of Palm Sunday, read fro m the Holy Bible an d offer up incense. They carry th e icon of the tr iumphal entry, and the cross and palm branches. Fina lly they return to th e altar wh ere the rite ends.

200

WINDOWS I N T O HE A VE N

12·7

Two living creatures with head s of an ox and an eagle (C3; A DP/SA 6 S175 97)

Th ey prepa re the place in which th e Cru cifixion icon will be put, paying close attention to all the details. They offer any flowers, perfum es, and oils th at th ey possess. O n thi s day th e mon astic priest present s th e icon with incense, and th rou gh it th e monks live with th e crucified Messiah above Golgot ha Hill. At the end of th e day Friday, th e mon ks carry the icon in all its ado rn me nt and circu mambu late the church three times, alternating betwee n sorrow and joy. They are mournful for the crucifixion of Christ and his sufferings, but they are overcome with the joy of redemption . (In some Egyptian villages, we find special conditions governing who may carry this icon during its tour in the church, and many compete for the privilege.) TH E I CON OF T HE E N T O M B MEN T

The icon of the Entombme nt is used in the Coptic rite to represent the burial and the resurrection of Christ. It is a small icon , with a painting of th e entombment of Chr ist on one side and, on th e other side, one of Christ

20 1

rising from the grave. When the liturgy of th e en tombme nt is perform ed, the priest takes the icon and ado rns it with fragrances an d flowers and wra ps it as Chr ist was wrap ped in his shro ud. It is th en placed on the altar and remai ns th ere Frid ay and Satur day, not being remo ved until dawn Sunday morning. THE ENACTMENT OF THE RE SURRECTION

In the ritual of the enactment of the resurrection, the icon of the Entombment is unwrapped from the shroud to symbolize Christ's rising from the dead. Afterward, the monks celebrate the resurrection by circling the church with the icon, chanting joyful songs of the resurrection . During this tour, everyone kisses the icon, breathing in the fragrance of resurrection through the smell of perfumes and flowers. Once the parade is completed , the priest offers incense to the icon before the door of the temple, and it is placed the re, to remain for the duration of the celebra tion of Easter tide.

I

I ~

/

/

'-J ~"""""

"""".""" -

~~J . ----

DEVEW ~

_ ......

J~sui'm

..:o~~~~

,...

_ ...r_s--.

-- ---J -... ,~~

-- -- -----1 ~F

MONAS I ER ST.ANTO

", ... e-

um1NCI.,g;;;, 5

>loin

'Im

M~ ~ I;SOO

I

Eli zabeth E. Oram

CHAPTE R

13

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE SAINTS THE MONASTERY OF ST. ANTONY, PILGRIMAGE, AND MODERN COPT IC IDENTITY

13·1

Mo nas tery site plan , existing co nd itio ns, 1999

At two o'clock in the morning, I climbed onto a bus alon g with fort y or more yo ung men and women and a few small familie s to begin our two-day rihla (pI. rihlat) , or short pilgrimage trip, to the Monasteries of St. Antony (fig. 13.1) and St. Paul. We would be staying in the special guest dormitories each mon astery had constructed outside its walls for visitors. Most rihla pilgrimages do not include an overn ight stay, but those to the Red Sea monasteri es ofte n do, because the jo urney takes at least four hours, and there are usually enough beds to acco mmo date all the visito rs. Participants also want to feel that they have eno ugh tim e to perform all of the religious activiti es, inform al and form al, that are available to them at the Monastery of St. Antony, especially the optional climb to the hermit's cave, which can take several hours. Peopl e piled onto th e bus, squeezing by each other, juggling thermoses of tea and bags full of crackers, tanger ines, falafels, bean sandwiches, and ot her vegeta rian food. Altho ugh we were no t in one of the liturgically prescribed periods of fasting , many people had decided as a spiritual gestur e to abstain from eatin g animal products during th e trip. ' As people chose th eir seats and settled into th em, a young man in his twenti es nam ed Maher made his way to the front of the bus and took up a microphone, introducing him self as the trip leader. He began by leading us in the Lord 's Prayer, starting out in a loud voice, "Abana alethi fi as-sarnawat . . . " The enti re bu s quieted down instantly, people turning their faces and hands upward in a posture of prayer. Each finished the prayer silently, th en came a collective "Amin" out loud, accompanied by genuflection. Maher welcomed us again and began to explain the sched ule of our activities. We would arrive at th e Monastery of

203

St. Antony by 6 A . M. , in tim e to attend the mass conducted by th e monks. Th e rest of the day wo uld be free time , during which we might climb the mountain that runs up the back of the complex to St. Antony's cave, or simply walk around the places inside the monastery that are open to the public. Every monastery has areas where the pilgrims may move abo ut freely, but there are also zones reserved only for the mo nks' use, and pilgrim s are expected to respect these boundaries. . People would also be able to use th eir free tim e d ur ing th e day to make arrangeme nts to meet with individual monks. Some pilgrim s had come to see parti cu lar mo nks, either because they were kin or because they so ught th eir advice an d counsel on specific personal matt ers. Th e majority simp ly wanted to interac t with any mon ks th ey might see as th ey walked the gro unds, asking fo r th eir blessing an d hoping to receive th eir grace (baiaka). Maher finished outlining our sched ule by remin ding us that light sou t was at 10 P .M., when the monastery shu t down its generators. Those who so wished could attend the liturgy the next morning from its very sta rt, the matins pra yers (tasb i~ a) that would begin at 3 A.M . We would leave after the mass ended at 9 A .M . for o ur next stop, the Mo nastery of St. Paul, only a short distanc e away. For the duration of the bu s ride we sang contemporar y spirituals (taranim) , played biblical knowledge games for small prize s, and bought raffle tickets from two girls moving up and down the aisle for the most valuable prize, a Virgin Mary clock embe llished with shells. As we neared the monastery, Maher stood up again, this time with a stack of photocopies. While passing them out, he explained th at th is was the tamgid, or text of praise to St. Antony,

TH E VIEWER 'S RESPONSE

that we would be singing as a group in the church.' Maher read the text out loud once through, and then two young men accompanied us with the traditional cymbals (daff) and tr iangle (mutha lath) as we pract iced: In the Chu rch of the first Born

In the congregation of the Saints

He stands with great respect

Penior' Ava Antonious

He stands with great esteem

Among those who wearthe

At the rank of the cherubim

Peniot Ava Antonious

With spirit-filled prayers

With godly life story

eskee rn"

brations draw thousands of participants, some of whom arrive as much as a month in advance with their families to camp out around the site. Most can attend only one of these festivals a year and wait to perform certain rites or praye rs, for it is believed that they will be mo re effective d ur in g th e muli d . Amo ng suc h rites are th e bap tism of children an d th e makin g of religio us vows called nadr." Th e festival typi cally reac hes its clim ax on th e even ing before th e saint's feast day, called al-layla al-k abira, which is ma rked by processions, th e slaughtering of sacrificial ani mals, and the con sumption of meat to break the fast. 'Aiyad

You consecrated the wilderness

Peniot Ava Antonious

resonate with the lifeways of rural populations an d ar e tied

Striving in prayers

Tens and tens of yea rs

to th e agricu ltural seasons of planting an d h arvest, o ften sym bolized by bringin g first fru its to be di stributed in th e nam e of the sain t." Th ey em bo dy a rich m ix of sac red and

With tears and prostrations

Peniot AvaAntonious

Monastic in your fasts

For days and days on end

Yo ur soul seeks no rest

Peniot AvaAntonious. . .

You are the power and the

For those who seek an example

cultural activities th at func tio n to reaffirm both spiritua l ties with Go d and th e soc ial bonds of th e gro u p. T his typ e

Thedwellerof high mountains

Peniot Ava Antonious

of traditional religious festival has been documented amo ng M uslim, Christian, an d Jewish co m m un ities

Example of purity,

The power of spirituality

symbol

And the peace of the wilderness Peniot Ava Antonious Like the odorof sweet incense

Like the beautiful sound of psa lms

Your life story is a light

Peniot Ava Antonious

You aregreat in tribulations

You are wise in counsel

Intercede on our behalf

Peniot Ava Antonious

Can we follow your example?

Can we traceyour every step?

Pray on our beha lf

Peniot Ava Antonious ... 5

We were still cha n ting as the sun began to rise and th e m onastery ap peared in the distance . At least ten other to ur buses were already pa rked outside th e walls, and groups of people were streaming through the main gate on th eir way to Mass . We pu lled up, disembarked, and joined them on th is first step of our pilgrimage (fig. 13.2). A Modern For m of Pil gri mag e

This type of pilgrimage, what I will hen cefo rth refer to as rih la pilgrim age, is a m odern pheno me no n. Although it can be traced on ly to th e m id-1970S, it has become immen sely popular, especially amo ng you ng , urban, wor king -class men and wome n . Rihla pilgrimage differs from

th roughout th e M iddle East, an d most aut hors agree th at it plays a critical rol e in main taining the cultural fabric o f tr aditional societies." Rihla pilgrimage, by co ntras t, is a peculi arly modern Coptic practice. It attracts primarily the youn g workingclass Co pts of the cities, the ch ildren of im m igra nts from rural Egyp t who flocked 'to urban cen ters in the 1950S and 1960s, whe n decreasin g land yields and increasing population pressures forced ten s of th ou sands of Co pts and M uslims to aba ndo n agricu lture an d become wage lab o rers. Rihla p ilgrim age differs fro m 'aiyad in th at it occurs throughout the year (usually on Frida ys and Sundays), and att endance does not require great planning. Many rihlat are organized only days before the y occur, either by church youth groups or individuals who rent an independent tour bus and invi te friends. The target dest inations of rihla are working Coptic monasteries, mo st of which had not previo usly been asso ciated with 'a iyad and thus were unused to welcomi ng large numbers of visito rs. The activ ities ass?c iated with rihl a are different as well: pilgr ims come not only to be in contact with a holy place, as they do during th e 'aiyad, but also to interact wit h livin g m onks an d to learn abo ut Coptic history by takin g tours of th e monasteries. And whereas 'aiyad reaffi rm ties between exte nded

th e other most popular form of Co p tic pilgrimage, wh ich is much old er and revolves arou nd local sain t festivals called mulids or ' aiyad." Th e ' aiyad tak e plac e annually at a variety of ancient hol y sites, includ ing historic churches and monasterie s that hold th e rem ain s of well-known

fami lies, ri hla pilgrim age fo rges new ties between Co pts who are increasingl y mobile and separated from on e another, as the exodus fro m villages co ntinues. In short, rihla pilgrimage is pa rt of a process th at is creating new co m-

saints, as well as gro tt os where it is believed th e Holy Fami ly stayed during their sojourn in Egypt. ' These cele-

mu nal ties an d promoting a connection between co nte mporary Copts an d their history.

204

13 · 2

View of th e monastery showing the historic core , mode rn pa rking area, and guest hous es, 1996 (ADP/SA aw 47:1)

THE V I EWER' S RESPONSE

The growth of thi s new form of pilgrimage has transformed many monasteries, including th at of St. An to ny, from isolated outposts to modernized centers of mass pil grimage. Most have had to construct new buildings and introduce electricity and modern plumbing. The presence of so many pilgri ms has further affected the un derstanding of the monastic vocat ion. No longer lim ited to a person al strugg le with temptat ion carried ou t in isolation , m on ast icism no w entails new ro les fo r th e m onk as a tour guide, teach er, and sp iritua l m entor. As a res u lt, in cr easin gly th e philosophy of khidma, or service to the ch urch and its co m m un ity, is highlight ed in mod ern Co ptic monasticism, rathe r th an that of tawahliud, or th e ancho retic life. Rihla pilgrimage has also cha nged th e m eaning and experience of m on asteries for th e Co ptic laity. For th e older generatio n, th ese were im portant sac red sites within the Co pt ic religio us im agination but not places to be visited . In upper Egypt, for insta nce, a fami ly whose son chose to en ter a monastery wou ld give him a symbolic funeral after his departure, expressive of his absolute separation from "the worl d" an d his fami ly. Now roads, mass tr anspo rt, and th e frequency of p ilgrim age trips h ave m ad e th e oncerea l barri er of the desert int o a m etaphoric o ne.

The 'Copt ic Renaissance' W hen the current po pe , She nouda Ill , ascended to th e papapacy in 1971, he inherited a tro ub led generation . Th e Egyp tia n defeat at th e hands ofIsrael in 1967 and th e death of Pres ident Gama l Abde l Nasse r in 1970 had left the natio n depressed. Accelerated pop ulatio n growth, rapid ur banization, and un em ployment wer e exacerbating the challenge of revita lizing the country. The sense of fragmentation and anomie, espec ially am ong urban populations, was lead ing not only to a sense of dislocation but at times to incidents of soc ial unrest. ' I And alt hough Copts had always been patriotic citizens , th e growth of radic al Islamicist movem ents th at called for a religiously based state ma de Christians increasingly un sur e of their ide ntity as part of the nation ." In an attempt to strengthen th e Coptic community, Pope Sheno uda in itiated a wide range of reforms and new programs that greatly expa nded th e ro le of the ch urch. The success of these programs in d rawin g Copts to th e church and promoting a renewed in terest in Coptic history and iden tit y is ofte n called th e Co ptic Ren aissan ce, or al-nahda al-gibtiya. Th e admi nis tra tive, ed uca tio na l, and social reforms wro ught by Pope She nouda were (an d conti n ue to be) th e most expansive the Co ptic Church has ever known. But he built upon a spirit of change that had begun under

206

th e previous pope, Kyrolli ou s VI (1956-1971). Kyrolli ou s had enco uraged th e expa nsion of social ou tr each p rogram s like th e rural diakonia, and educa tional initiative s such as Sunday schools. There had also been a renewal of int er est in the monastic life, and a new cadre of educated and socially concerned young men had joined monasteries. I ) Pope Shenouda continued to modernize and central ize the structure of the church. He created n ew dioceses and bishophr ics, reor ganized churc h lan d s, an d instituted a centr alized salary syste m fo r priests. He also began new soc ial p rogram s that dist ributed finan cial aid to th e poor and set up infirma ries next to ch urc hes to prov ide free hea lth care." But his most exte nsive init iatives were dir ected at the youth, th e "new generation," or al-gil al-gadid. It was this segme nt of th e Co pt ic population that was hi t hardest by such socia l pressures as u nem ploym en t and who were m ost vulnerable to feelings of dis loca tion, particu larly in urban centers like Cairo. For the m he instituted yout h groups and service programs organized into units called 'il' ila (pI. ' ii'iliit) , or fam ilies. These "families," often nam ed for a saint (for example, the fami ly of St. Abraarn), became invo lved in a range of activities that included visiting .the sick and poor, putting on religious plays, organizing outings, and inviting outsid e speakers . As participation in the 'ii'i liit grew and their structure became more reg ularized, th ey provided yo u th wit h an opportunity to travel throughout Egypt, meeting othe r 'ii' iliit on exchange programs and spiritua l retreats and th rough Bible co mpetitions. T he activ ities sponsored by the 'a' ilat provided a new place for Coptic yout h to meet each other and form a sense of community. Pope Shenouda's new program s also encouraged the use of m od ern technology and secular acad emi c research to promote a sense of community. He esta blished a printing pr ess on the gro u nds of th e patri ar chate in do wntown Ca iro and encouraged th e publicatio n of a variety of simply wri tte n wor ks on Coptic spiritua lity, hi sto ry, and lan guage for mass d istribu tio n. An audio library and later a video library were established to circulate tapes of lectures and serm ons, as well as religious movies. Originally, movies were imported, but during the 1980s an indigeno us Coptic film in dustry grew u p and began produc ing its own videos, most often on the lives of Egyptia n saints. Fina lly, there was a re newed focus on th e deve lop me n t of dep artmen ts of acade m ic research on what is called collectively turiith, or Coptic h eritage. The Co ptic lan guage began to be taught to children in Su nday school. The In stitu te for Coptic Studies, which had been established decades earlier but had fallen into a state of di sre-

I N THE fOOTSTEPS O f THE SA IN TS

pair, began to attract new students. Master's degrees were offered in subjects such as Coptic language, history, architecture, and art. The Department of Coptic Art , headed by the renowned artist Isaac Fanous, was particularly success ful in turning out a new cadre of icon and mosaic artists tra ined in the tenets of traditional Coptic art. Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth century, Coptic Church ar t had been dominated by an im ported Italian ate style. Churc hes began to rem ove this artwo rk and orde r icon s from th e institute to replace it. T hese new initiatives no t o nly m odernized th e ch urc h, th ey shaped a new generatio n of Co pts. For al-gil al-gadid, th e ch urc h becam e a soc ial and ed ucational center. Linked th rou gh service activities, retreats, and outings, and more aware of th eir historical iden tity th an previous generations, al-gi l al-gadid responded enthusiastically to the new sp iritual and social opportunities offered by rih la pilgrimage. Opening the Monaste ries to Modern ity

Unti l th e 19 70S Egyptian mo nasteries were for the most part difficul t to reach , and they attracted few lay Copts as visito rs. Those who did come were mostly Weste rn travelers, frequently in search of texts and manuscr ipt s to take with th em to the gro win g collections in Eur ope. Although colo nial travelers marveled at th e desert settings, the architecture, and the libraries, th ey wer e oft en disappointed with the monks themselves. Baron Von Tischendorf, for instance, who traveled to the Monastery of the Romans (Baramous ) at the end of th e nineteenth century, made thi s typi cal observation: Here the cells were the blackest of all. The superior here had a peculiar custom; he sat beside me in the cell, and as often as a pause was made in the conversation, he interp osed the formula of welcome, Salam, Salam, and repeated the pantom ime of his hand s. What I inquired for, and everywhere in vain, was manuscript accounts of the history of the mona stery. But not a line of such a record was known. Thu s they live carelessly from day to day. To such an existence, what is the past and what is the future? " Such remarks are rooted in a larger colonia l d iscourse about Co pts as "Sons of the Pharaohs," or living represe ntatives of Egypt's past, and thus imagi nary reposito ries of key elements of history. In colonial narratives, when Copts are perceived to fall sho rt in this role, either by not con d ucting themselves "aut hentically"- the way ancient texts might indicate they did -or by not placing an

20 7

emphasis on th e preservatio n of mat erial things such as texts, th eir actions evoke disapp ointment in westerne rs. T his is th e case in thi s reported int eraction, in which th e monk's actions, intended to m ake the visito r feel honored and welcomed, do not have the desired effect, but instead provoke anger and the judgment that the monk cannot d istinguish between the trivia l (hum an interaction ) and the im por tan t (texts). As th e co lonial presence in Egypt dw ind led thro ughout the first half of th e twent ieth cent ury, Co pt ic monasteries faded fro m th e Western imagination as storeho uses of texts an d ico ns for th e taki ng, and the jou rn eys thro ugh the deser ts to see th em were mu ch reduced. Unt il the 19 70S mos t mon asteries remained isolated and sparsely populated. The Co ptic laity had no tradition of visiting monasteries, and monasticism was understood to be a solitary spiritual pursuit. But as al-gi l al-gadid took shape outside the monasteries and the new cadre of monks grew into positions of aut hority within them, possibilities of opening these places to the public began to be imagined. Particularly appealing was the idea of bringing Copts directly into contac t wit h their histo ry. As the scholar Dina EI-Khawaga has point ed out regar ding th e Cop tic Renaissance, the very idea of a ren aissanc e "im plies by definit ion an effor t of rupture, of a selection of foundational or igins and a reformulation bet ween the present and a specific past.?" Th e opening of the monasteries and th eir subsequen t m od ernization could be said to form part of this process, for in them the laity experienced a new blending of modern technology, ancient spirituality, and communal identity. T he process of makin g m on asteries accessible to th e public had of course been made easier by the general impro vem en t of Egypt's road system. However, th e serv ice road built out from th e m on astery to th e m ain road remain s a powerful symbo l of a new era for its resident s. Guide books prod uced by mon asteries often begin with th e story of how their road was built as a type of foun d ing tale and go on to detai l the ensuing physical growth of the site which happened as a result. The guidebook to the Monastery of th e Romans, for instance, describ es the con struction of their road as the beginnings of a "revolution" : For any "revolution" to succeed, whether it be . . . economic, social or ideological, there must be easily accessible roads to lead to those places where it is hoped the revolut ion will spread. Thus the beginnin g of the "revolution " in the Monastery ofBaramous (and what can be said pertain ing to the Monastery of Baramo us might be said about all the working Egyptian monasteries ) in the

THE VIEWER 'S RESPONSE

era of Pope Shenouda III is rooted in this development; the construction of a road making exchange possible between the world and the monastery. Thus the world now drinks deeply from the spirituality of the monastery and the monastery itself benefits from the numerous scientific inventions which come to it from the world."

13·3

Print ing press of the Monaster y of 51. Men a, Marriout

This "exchange .. . between the world and the monastery" initiated by the bu ilding of roads turned out, however, to be a comp lex interact ion with far-reaching consequences. First, pressure to accommodate th e waves of pilgrims who began to arrive an d the new availability of "scientific inventions ... from th e world " began a pr ocess of reno vation and modernization in all the monasteries. Some made onl y modest architectural additions, whereas in others, the older stru ctures all but disappeared behind th e new construction. At the very least, electricity and plumbing were introduced, new kitchen facilities installed, rest houses erected for pilgrims' overnight stays, and, in some instances , new churches built next to the anci ent ones, which could no longer hold the numbers of pilgrims who came to attend the masses. A po rtion of thi s ph ysical growth has also been du e to th e const ruc tion of accommodations for the growing numbers of new monks. Despite th e strict standards and lon g evaluation perio ds, most mon asteries have waiting lists for admission. The population ofSt. Antony's has grown, for example, from twenty -four in 1960 to sixty-nine in 1986. By the time of my fieldwork in 1996, the monastery was reported to have approximately ninety monks. Similar increases have occurred in almost every monastery in Egypt." Pilgrims have become a new source of income that can be used to finance further projects within the monasteries. For centuries monks depended exclusively on charity for support. Donations of money and also of goods were collected by the maqarr, the monastery's outpost in a nearby town, to sustain the monks. They also lived on the proce eds from land s th at had been bequeathed to th em by

208

ind ividuals (awqa]'). Charity, and especially the awqaf, are still important forms of sup por t, but now in addition mo nasteries produce a wide variety of goods for sale to pilgrim s and for expor t. Several monasteries have also acquired computers and printing presses and have become active in producing pamphlets and guidebooks detailing their institutional histories (fig. 13.3) . Ot her kinds of income-generating projects have been made possib le through the importation of new technologies for desert agriculture and animal husbandry. These activities, which used to be limited to supporting the alimentary needs of the monks, have been expanded into small industries. The monasteries of the Wadi al-Natrun in particular have been leaders in thi s field, importing new variet ies of plants in order to increase the pro duction of fruits and vegetables. The Monastery of St. Bishoi has even starte d a fishery project an d has constructed a high technology lake in the middle of the desert . The financia l and architectural changes to the monasteries have been accompanied by a deeper philosophical change in the understanding of the role of the individual monk. On th e one hand, he participates in new kinds of collective work . with in the monastery, like large-scale farming, technical projects, or service to pilgrims. On th e oth er hand, he may be called beyond th e monastery to serve the larger Coptic community, where he might act as a priest to a congregation that does no t have on e, or in a more elevated stage, as bishop to a diocese. Th e need for new prie sts and bishops has grown dramatically in th e recent past, as a result of th e multiplication of diocese under Pope Sheno uda's organizational reform s an d of the enormo us gro wth of the Copt ic community outside of Egypt. Cer tainly, th e boundaries between the world and th e monastery have becom e more porous. It is important to note here, however, that although openness to contact with th e laity and the concept of khidma have reshaped mo dern monasticism, the ideal mo del of mo nastic life is still a subject of discussion in man y monasteries. The re continue to be monks who favor th e anchoretic life, living outside th e monasteries in caves or man -made qalayat (cells), and important religious figures who support this ph ilosophy of isolation or tawahhud." I also occasionally encountered pilgrims during rih lat who que stioned whether monks had enough time for prayer, given the extent of their involvement in all the new pro jects in the mo nastery. But these reactions were rare, and most often the modernization of the monasteries was seen as an indication of the spiritual health of the Coptic comm unity as a whole.

» IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE SAINTS

Past a nd Present To the Western gaze, which values "authenticity" and seeks to di fferenti ate between the "ancient" and th e "m odern," th e developments th at have taken place in contem po rary Coptic monasteries may seem like ad d itions, or overla ys, both ph ysically discontinuous with the " real" monastery and co ntradictory to the phi losophy of isolation and med itation upon which mo nast icism was initially built. But the ma ny mon ks and pilgrims I spoke with d uring th e course of my researc h did not make these sharp distinctions betwee n "tradition" an d "modernity," nor d id th ey descri be feelings of contra d iction connected to the site of the monastery. One m on k from th e Wadi al-Natrun responded to my general questions about the "changes" in his monaster y in this way:

I prefer to call them tapvwariit [developm ents] and not taghayyariit [changes], for just as the world has advanced, so has the monastery. In ord er to und erstand life in the mona stery today, you mu st understand what life was like in the fourth -century world. If you look at the technology and the pace of life in the fourth- century world, the move to the monastery was not that big. In fact, in the fourth century, the technology and architectu re in use in the monasteries was "state of the art." The leap one has to make today, the things he leaves behind, is much greater.

13·4

Burial place of 51.An to ny. with a mod ern image of th e saint and writt en prayers left by pilgrim s, before co nserva tio n (K3, K4 ADP/SA 9 52 96 )

The younger monks who joined th e monasteries recently even felt that their ability to pursue their vocation was made possible only because m od ern technology m ade life in th e monastery mor e efficient. O ne noted, "Ins tead of spend ing four hours washing my clothes, for example, I can spend the tim e praying. And if you think abo ut th e number of visitors who co me here, how would we dea l with th em all if we couldn't cook with electr icity and so on? Abo ut one hu nd red tour bu ses show up every Frida y and Sunday, carrying fifty visitors apiece. Think about it, that makes abo ut five thousand visitors a week!" The se indigenous reactions to th e int roduction of technology into th e mon asteries point to a m or e funda mental difference in the way th at history itself is imagined in relation to these sacred sites. Although the y may run technologically sophisticated machinery, monks are also understood to be "closer " to th e past. They are viewed as guardians of important sites that hold the memories of meaningful events and the bodies of saints an d martyrs. The y are thought to be responsible for sustaining thes e places particularly through conducting dail y masse s. Externa lly, the y continue to be link ed with things anc ient ,

209

through their traditional vestm ent s and by giving up the ir own names to adopt th e names of saints or ma rtyrs whose qualities the y hope to bring alive in themselves." In shor t, even as he participates in mod ern activities, the monk's body and th e rhythm of his life are understood to be mimetic of saintly bodi es and lives fro m th e past. W hat we need to pay atte ntion to here is not th e existence of th e episte mo logical catego ries of past and pr esent bu t rath er th e relatio n between th em in th e Co ptic religious imag ination. This bri ngs us back to th e int eraction between Baro n von Tischendorf and the abbo t of AI-Baramous. The Baron represent s a pecu liarly Western set of beliefs about what history is, how it can be known, and what on e doe s with th at kn owledge. Here histo ry settle; in objects and artifacts th at can be scru tinized and whose details can be woven into a mast er narrative. Thi s Western scientific method revolves around the establishment of criteria for distinguishin g, as I have said, the "auth enti c" from the "inauthentic" based largely on chronology: often it is th e older that is considered m ore authentic. Yet however it is evaluated , the past remains di stinctly in th e past, carried objectively into th e present by art ifacts, from which it can be exam ined and cataloged by scholars who can "read" th eir mean ings. Within the Coptic reli-

T HE V IEW ER 'S RESPONSE

gious imagination, by contrast, it is prec isely the fact that th e past can break thro ugh into th e present, in objec ts, people, and places, that makes these th ings "tr ue." For instance, anyone who has entered a Co ptic Church in Egypt has seen new posters of the Virgin Mary, Chr ist, and saints displayed alongside histo ric icon s (fig. 13.4 ). This visitor will have seen th e Copts inside th e churc h walking by, touching and pr aying in front of th e new one s with th e same frequency as (if not som etimes mo re than ) th e old ones. I have been with people who have rem arked that this was an ind ication that Copts were not generally educated about art and history and thus could n't tell the difference between a poster and a "real" icon. But when I asked people how th ey felt when they prayed in front of posters or icons, they always said that it made no difference because the y felt that th e holy figure was th ere, and that his or her eyes were looking at the petition er, whos e prayers were thus being heard . And so it is with modern technology in the monasteries. It is not understood to challenge th e authenticity of monasticism as mu ch as it is seen to enable the powerful spirituality of the saints to be mad e available to the Coptic community in th e present.

Ritual Practices at the Monastery of St. Antony The Mo nastery of St. Anto ny provides an excellent exam ple of th e ways in which rihla pilgrimage has transform ed a once -isolated site int o an imp ortant social an d spiritual center for the modern Coptic laity. Western travelers who were dr awn by its ancient buildings and tales about its well-stocked manu script library had long visited this mon astery. Yet perha ps because of its location , rem oved from th e pop ulation centers of the Nile Valley, it never developed a well-atten ded >aid festival, an d Cop ts them selves had little contact with it. Today, th e Mo naste ry of St. An tony is one of th e mo st popular rih la destinations. In the past the monastery had to be ap proac hed from th e Nile side, where tracks led from the towns of Boush and Kuraim at through th e desert to th e site. The Suez-Ras Gharib road was con structed in 1946 by th e Shell Cor po ration an d has been constantly imp roved, giving access from the Red Sea coast and cuttin g the journey from several days to several hours. Th ere have been improvem ent s in the kitchen facilities, and th e construc tion of a large bookstore and male and female dormitories outside th e old walls. Another addition common to mo st monasteries is a new retaining wall that juts far out from the monastery and encloses all th e land s th at it owns. In oth er monaste ries thi s land has been used for large-scale farming proj ects, but at St. Anto ny's it is almos t empty. Whe n I asked the

210

monks what, then, the external retaining walls were for, they answered that they had been built to ensure that peace, tranq uility, and the desert would always surround the monastery (fig. 13.2). Unlike some other Chris tian pilgrimage traditio ns th at prescribe a correct way of moving thro ugh a holy site and a sequence of activities to be completed, th e pilgrimage to th e Mo nastery of St. Antony is not made up of a set series of ritual actions that mu st be perform ed in order for it to be cons idered successful. There is little regulation of pilgrim s once they ar rive in the monastery, and large gro ups quickl y break down int o smaller on es, mad e up of friends and fam ily, who mo ve through the monastery at th eir own pace. People spend different amo unts of tim e engaged in activities, moving off alone and then coming back together into gro ups, all of which gives pilgrim age a fluid and som etimes disor ganized appe arance. P RAYER

Prayer is a complex ritual action that can take man y forms, fro m the deeply person al to th e highly form alized. Pilgrims carry out both during their stay at the monastery. Most trip s include at least one mass conducted by the monks, which almos t everyone atte nds. The liturgy itself is considere d to be a powerful collective ritual in which prayer an d praise are sen t to heaven in th e same way that incense floats upward towar d God. 21 Masses take place more th an once a day, bu t th ere are two constrai nts on th e number that may occur. First, a pr iest mu st cond uct a mass, an d only a sma ll number of monk s are ordained as pr iests. Second, masses cannot be held consecutively on the same altar because ritually the altar must "rest" or "fast" (y isii m) for at least six hours after the com pletion of the service. Th us th e number of consecra ted altars in th e monastery and the nu mb er of available priests limit the schedule of masses durin g the day. But th e morning liturgy of prai se, which begins at 3 A .M. and usua lly ends around 6:30 in the morning, is a constant featur e at the Monaster y of St. Anto ny. The consistency of this par ticular mass is quite im portant to pilgrims, whether or not they atte nd the service, because it affects the way they imagine the ho liness of th e site. Man y menti oned to me that the y thought one of the most impo rtant duties of th e monks was to con tinue to say this daily m ass, and th at part of th e miracle of the place is that the mass has been said in th e same place for hundreds of years. W hether or not pilgrims attend th e formal mass, they always enter the church to say a perso nal prayer in front of the altar (haykal). Ritually, this req uires remov ing

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE SA INTS

one 's shoes and either standing with face and hands turned upward or, alternatively, bowing to touch the forehead to the ground at the steps leading to the altar screen. Usually one begins with the recitatio n of the Lord 's Prayer an d ends with a personal supplication. This prayer can be performed in any of th e churches, but pilgrims seem to express so me preferen ce for the Churc h of St. Anto ny as the "mos t ancient chur ch." This echoes a mor e gene ral feeling th at the "layering" of pra yer up on pr ayer and mass upon mas s through the centuries not onl y reconfirms the holiness of the mo nastery's original inhabitant, St. Antony, but also magnifies each indi vidual pra yer. Prayer around the bodi es of th e saints interred in th e mon astery is also an essential part of th e pilgrimage. Here, too, th ere are two types of prayer: indi vidu al supplication and a mo re ritualized gro up prayer. Next to th e haykal, th e bodi es of saints provide the most powerful locus of baraka in th e mon astery. Whereas entrance to th e haykal itself is not perm itted, the remain s of saints are ope nly displayed in wood and glass cases, called maqsurat. At any given mom ent one can find many peopl e crowding aro und the rnaqsurat, tou chin g th em , leaning over th em , kissing th em and making personal supplications. A few pilgr ims spend almost the entire time in front of these reliquaries, settin g up blankets an d food on the floo r in th e corners of the roo m, sim ply to be near th em and to absorb, in a sense, the blessin g ema nating fro m the holy rem ain s. Fro m time to tim e a group gathers to cha nt a tam gid to St. Antony or the Virgin Mary. The cha nting of the tarngid is an important mom ent during the course of the pilgrimage: attr ibutes of the saint and events of his or her life are recalled, remi nding peop le of the figure 's historicity as well as the continued relevance of the saint's spirituality for the con temporary believer. C ONSUM P TI ON

Part of every pilgrimage involves th e acquisition of blessed items that can be taken ho me an d retain ed for persona l use or given away to friends an d fam ily. These mementos may be purchased at the bookstore or received as a gift from the m onks. O ne of the most popular item s for wome n are th e St. Anto ny headscarves, to be worn during the Mass and com munion . I remember being struck by th ese headscarves th e first few tim es I attended masses in Ca iro . Looking out over th e wome n fro m the back th ey provided me with a sort of visual map of the monasteries th ey had visited, or an hon or roll of saints the y felt especially close to. Such a "patro n saint" or person al int ercessor, is called one's shafi' in Arabic. Not all Copts have

211

a sha fi', but many adopt one either because they are attracted by the power of the saint's life story or becau se they feel a certain saint has performed mir acles for them. Several people I spoke with on rihla to the Monastery of St. Antony had come becau se Antony was their shafi' and they wanted to stre ngthen their relationsh ip with him by visiting his "home.,,22 These peop le in particular seek to acquire things bearing th e image of the saint to wear, carry, and place around th eir hom es as a sign of their continuing devotion. Sma ll vials of holy oil and cards with bits of haniu (spices used to perfume th e rem ains of th e saints) are also popular items to acqu ire o n pilgrimage. They can no t be bou ght but are given out by monks. Ho ly oil, or sim ply zayt, has been specia lly blessed in the monastery and is considered to be particularly efficacious for those su ffering from certa in sorts of illnesses." Hanut cards are made by tapin g sma ll pinches of the fragrant embalm ing spices onto the reverse of cards that picture the saint. There is usually plenty of hanu t available to make these cards for visitors, because the remain s of the sain ts are ceremo n ially rewrapp ed every year with new spices o n the saint's festival day. Mo nks give zayt and hanut to pilgrim s at the close of a co nversation , along with a final blessing . C O N T AC T

An im po rtant part of the rih la to the Mo nastery of St. Anto ny is the feeling of being quite literally in to uch with the hol iness of the place. This holin ess or blessing is loosely tran slated by the Arabic term baraka. Baraka is an ind igenous concept found thro ugho ut Middle Eastern cultures. It bears a family resem blance to the Western catego ry of blessin g, but also overflows that category, making a simple translation difficult. 24 For Copts, one of the characteristics of baraka is that it is gained by saints and mar tyrs through their virtuo us acts, both during their lives and also after death, when it continues to reside in th eir rem ains. Baraka is cons idere d to be so powerful that it exu?es from these holy remai ns and imbues everything around them with holiness as well. As the bodies of pilgrims come in contact with th is baraka-filled place, th ey hop e to incorporate a sma ll part of this holin ess int o themselves by sitting next to it, by leaning on it, by tou ch ing and breath ing it. This is not to imp ly that th e experience of pilgrimage do es not encourage use of the m ind ; it certai nly do es. As we have seen, the vast majority of pilgrims em phas ized that prayer is the most important ritua l act ion in which th ey par ticipate. However, th e desire to obtain baraka reminds us that the pilgrimage exper ience

THE VIEWER'S RESPONSE

for Cop ts encompasses not on ly the mind and heart but all the senses. One perso n said to me, "It's like when someone has been to Mass and th ey come home and you smell the incense on them . The holin ess of th e saints is like that, it can go into you like th at." Pilgrim s also seek contact with th e monks. Like a priest, a monk is understood by the laity to be two things at onc e: an individual and an instrument of God . Sometimes, for instance, my informants complained about some aspect of their local priest, but this never in any way diminished their respect for him during Mass. "A priest is a man," said one person, "but when he is at the haykal, God works through him during the communion." Most pilgrims hope to greet any monk and obtain his blessin g, not for his individuality but because of his generic status as an exemplary servant of God. In some cases pilgrims do seek to meet with particular monks because the y have developed a counseling relationship with them over time. In my experi ence, it was particularly young unmarried men and women who sought counsel on matters in their lives, often because th ey felt monks wou ld be more impartial than the ir own family members, or even their local pries ts. But on the who le, visitors will approach any monk they see in or der to greet him , kiss his hand, and obtain baraka. M I MES IS

The kinds of activities we have observed so far occur in alm ost every Coptic mon astery duri ng rihla trips. But the specificity of the pilgrimage to the Monastery of St. Antony is to be found in the informal ritual of climbing th e steep path up Mount Clysma to visit the cave of the herm it himself (fig. 13.5) . There are no activities on other pilgrimages to Co ptic mon asteries that require th e level of exerti on tha t th is practice does." It involves three stages: climbing th e path, entering th e cave to receive the bar aka of the place, and leaving a sma ll wooden cross planted near the cave. The effort of the climb is considered ritually incidental to the goal of reaching the cave, for Copts have no tradition of self-mortification as part of pilgrimage." But on th e occasion s I climbed with other pilgrims, I found that it was a critic al period of time during which people thought about th e saint's great faith as well as their own lives, as they followed his trail up the mountain . On e gro up I accompani ed had grown weary about mid way up the mountain, when the y began to marvel at the great faith St. Antony must have had to com e all the way down from his cave to get water, and then climb all the way back up . As we continued to walk, peopl e began to tell th e stories

13,5

Group of pilgrims sett ing off for th e Cave o f 51. Anto ny

2 12

p IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE SAINTS

they knew about St. Antony and his life and then stories about how the saint had touched their own lives. Physical exhaustion merged with collective storytelling, and through it, the saint's history and faith came alive. Once at the top, pilgrims enter S1. Antony's cave to receive the baraka of the place (fig. 1.3). They m ust make their way down a narrow natural corridor in the rock abo ut ten meters lon g in order to reach the inner cha mber and the altar set up inside it. Several people told me that th ey felt particularly close to St. Anto ny in thi s place, especially because his actual bod y, believed to be buried in th e m onastery (fig. 13.4), is not accessible to pilgrims in th e same way th at th e rema ins in the rnaqsurat are. After visiting th e cave, m any people scavenge for bit s of wood and craft th em int o a cross, which th ey plant on th e hillside near th e cave ent rance . Looking out over the rock-strewn cliff face one can see dozens of such crosses thrus t between th e boulders and into cracks, ma ny of th em falling apart only to be recovered by future p ilgrims and lashed int o new crosses (fig. 13.6). Placing th ese crosses recalls oth er practices, such as writing messages to th e saints in wax on the prot ective glass of th eir icons or stuffing small handwritten messages int o the m aqsurat so that they fall near the holy remains. They indicate a desir e on the part of the pilgrim not onl y to remember the life of the saint but also to be remembered. Further, the y dem onstrate the constant tension between the effacement of self through the promotion of a sense of communitas on the one hand, and the desire to mark one's individuality and personal petitions on the other. The modern ph enom enon of rihl a has brought many ancient monasteries out of the Coptic religiou s ima gina tion and transformed them into important new sites of spiritual and communal renewal. As the laity has come into closer contact with the living history of the monasteries, the monastic vocation itself has been reim agined to include an unp recedent ed com po nen t of social contact and service to the wider Coptic community. Although rihla could be called a new or "invented" tradition, its age

1) .6

Crosses at top of the mountain, near th e Cave of St. Anton y

2 13

is of little consequence to its practitioners. It has become a powerful means for an urban generation to "drink deeply from the spirituality" of its collective religious past and use it as a resource to face the pressures of contempor ary Egyptian life. On our way back to Cairo, 1 asked on e of my fellow pilgrims if she felt sad now that our trip was coming to an end. She said that while she did wish she could spend more tim e at th e monaster y, she felt peaceful going ho me. "I do not know what 1 would do if 1 could not go on rihlat from tim e to tim e," she said. "The pressur es we face in societ y are great, but the peace and baraka 1 gain from spending time with the saints and learn ing about how they dealt with difficult ies, it helps me in my own life so mu ch." Rihla pilgrimage acts as a br idge, bringing the ancient Cop tic past and contemporary parish ioners together so that eacli. might sustain the other.

PART

IV

THE INSCRIPTIONS

Birger A. Pearson

CHAPTE R

14

TH E COPTI C IN SCRIPT ION S I N THE CH URCH OF ST. ANTONY

OPPOSITE

Isaac. Sanc tuary. (S38)

14 ·1 RIGHT

One of Theodore's signature inscriptions (S38; ADP/SA BW 14 8 :14)

Although most of the Coptic inscription s published here have been pub lished before, this study present s significant new material. Alexandre Piankoff publi shed some of th e inscription s between 1954 and 1958. 1 Then in 1978 ReneGeor ges Coquin and Pierr e-Henry Laferri ere publi shed all of th e Coptic and Arabic inscriptions th at th ey could see, based on whatever limited cleaning of the paintings could be done for that purpose.' Paul van Moorsel was able to prov ide additional epigraphic infor mation in his detailed study of th e paint ings in th e chur ch. His work was com pleted in 1986 but publi shed onl y in 1998.3 The recent restora tion work don e in th e church has made it possible to see mu ch mo re of the inscription s previously published, as well as newly revealed inscriptions hitherto unpublished . The Coptic inscriptions are of several kinds: inscription s accompanying and identifying the figures portrayed in the paintings; inscriptions describing or commenting on aspects of narratives portrayed in the painti ngs or aspects of the figures' stories; inscr iptions with biblical and/ or litur gical texts; do nor inscription s; and "signatur e" inscriptions (fig. 14.1). In each of these five gro ups of inscrip tion s interesting variatio ns occur. Biblical figures are usually identified by name, with occasional reference to a function (for example, the proph ets in 545-550, or th e priest Melchizedek , 543) . Oth er features of a painting are also often labeled- for example, "the tree of Mamre" and the divine "voice" in 538. Mo nastic and ecclesiastical figures are identifi ed by nam e, preceded by the honorific "Abba" (father). Mo nast ic figur es so designated are conc entrated in th e eastern section of th e nave, ecclesiastical figures (patriarchs) in th e sanctuary. Additional identifying feature s also occur-for example,

217

51.1, where Antony is identified as "father of th e m on ks,"

or 52.1, where Atha nasius is identi fied as "the apostolic patriarch of the city of Alexandria." Martyrs, concentrated in the western section of the nave (sometimes called the narthex), are identified by name , each preceded by th e pr edication "ho ly is," usually followed by "the martyr of Jesus Christ" and sometimes by the place where the sub-

THE INSCRIPTIONS

ject came fro m or was martyred. Some of the saints also have invocations addressed to them-for example, Arsenius (NlO.2), Barsuma (N11.2), and T heodore Stra telates (" the General," N22.3). Narrative action, reflecting stories associa ted with th e vario us figures, is ind icated in the inscriptions with the use of a form of the Cop tic verb. The first of m an y examples is N2.2: "the raven brou ght th e food to Abba Pau!." Biblical and liturgical inscriptions are plac ed at strategic locations in th e church. Psalm 26:1 (LXX Ps 27:1: "T he Lord is my light and my salvatio n, whom shall I fear?" [RSV]) is prominently inscribed above th e arch leadin g from th e nave into the annex and cha pel (N17) .4 Th e verse rep resent s th e faith of th e m artyrs po rtrayed in th at section of th e nave. It might also be not ed th at Psalm 26 (27) is o ne of severa l used in th e service for the co nsecration of a church.' Th e other arch inscription in th e nave (N37), abo ve the arch leading into the khums (choir, Greek xopos ), is Psalm 83 (84): 1- 2. That psalm originally described th e joy of the ancient worshipper in the Jerusalem Tem ple, which is here repre sented as th e church. Simil ar use is made of Psalm 86 (87), a song celebrating Zion (Jeru salem ). Verse 1 is inscrib ed on th e north wall of th e khurus, at the base of the vaulted roof (K17); part of verse 2 is inscribed on the south wall of the kh urus (K13); and th e rest of verse 2 plu s part of verse 3 is inscribed on the west wall, above th e arc h leading int o the nave (K14). Psalm 86 is one of several used in th e dai ly offices (praye r services) of th e Co ptic Ch urc h." The inscription enci rclin g the base of th e central dome in th e sanct uary m ay be ano ther passage from the Psalms, but there is too little of it left to identify it. Ot her biblical texts occur within some of the panels containing paintings of bib lical figures. As m igh t be expect ed, inscript io ns consisting of liturgical phrases are concentrate d in the sanctuary and in the chapel, th e foci of liturgical act ion in the vario us services held in the church. The apse in the sanctuary an d the niche in the chapel are dominated by th e figure of Ch rist in majesty. On either side of the enthro ned Chr ist is "Em ma nue l, our God" (51.2; C1.4), a phrase found in one of th e prayers (" King of Peace") of th e eucharistic liturgy (anapho ra), and also in th e fo rmula said at th e dist ribution of th e sacra me nt .' Christ's feet rest up on a foo tstoo l on whic h is inscrib ed Isaiah 66:1 (" Heaven is my throne and th e earth is my footsto ol," 51.7; C2.5). The Trisagion (" Holy, holy, holy," Is 6:3), used in a number of places in the Coptic liturgy, app ears several tim es in various fo rm s (513,15,17, 19; C3.2, C3; ClO.2-3) . Th e opening verses of the Gloria in Excelsis, or "Hymn of the Angels," also occur in

218

the sanctuary and chapel (514,16, 18, 20; CJ.1; ClO.1). This hymn is sung in the morning and evening prayers of the Coptic church," The open ing passage of the Magnificat (Mary's song, Lk 1:46-55) appears wit h the Virgin in the chapel (ClO .9). The Magn ificat is sung in a n umber of settings in the Coptic litur gy, including the services for Ho ly Saturday, an d the Theotokia (hymns to the Virgin, "Mother of Go d") are sung daily in the mon asteries d uring th e month preced ing Christmas ," Th e Agnu s Dei ("Lamb of God," Jn1: 29) appears with John the Bapti st in the cha pel (C).lO). Th e Agnus Dei is not part of the o rd inary (invariable part s) of th e eucharistic liturgy of th e Coptic Ch urc h (as it is in Western churches), but it is reflected in th e use of th e term Amnos (Greek QIlVOS, lamb ) for th e loaf used in th e service of Holy Com m un ion (anaphora) ." It is, of co urse, in corporated within th e "Hy m n of th e Angels" as part of an invocation of Chr ist, and occurs in some of the variable pr ayers offered at the fraction (br eaking of th e 10af).11 There are four dedicatory or donor inscriptions in the church, inscriptions co mmemor ating th e per son s who contributed to th e cost of th e paintings (N31.2; K4.1; 51.14; S33-S36.2) . These .in scriptions follow, in some resp ects, a formulaic pattern found elsewhere in donor inscriptions associated with church wall.pa intings. This pattern is best illust rated by five inscript ions found at Dayr al Fakh ury nea r Esna, pu blished by Rene-Georges Coq uin: (1) "the Lord bless" (either as a wish or a pr ayer ) th e (2) "God-loving" don or s who have (3) "prov ided for" (c.Jf J1 po 0 'If!!l) th e pain tin g(s), and (4) give th em th eir "recompense" in heaven. " At the Monastery of St. Antony the first item of the form ula (" The Lord bless") is found in K4.1 and 536, repeated in K4.1. Item 2 ("God-loving") is found in N31.2, item 3 (" provided for ") in K4.1, an d item 4 (" recom pense" in heaven ) in N31.2 and K4.1. Ano ther feature found at the Mo nastery of St. Antony is the use of the term memorial (!!I€ N€ P.ON ~i NT€ iC xc Holy is

Jesus Christ.

Abba Victor, the martyr of Jesus Christ.

A vision of Christ is part of Theodore's story," N 19. C LAU D IUS 1

2 Within light rays coming down on the saint's right and left shoulders (to left and right) , in red:

55

To left and right of Claudius's raised arm, in white: otre.r roc N KC . .

N20. VI CTOR 58 To left and right of the mounted saint, in white:

n /(K)(\O,.\\ nJ(K)(\O,.\\

Holy to the Lord (?) ...

Visible in red beneath NKC .. is o tre.rroc, which originally was penciled in. The present inscription in white represents a correction to what was initially plann ed. In the expanded version otre.c roc is moved to the left of Claudius's arm. 2 To right of Claudius, in white: KPP/ K(\b,."ll'toC 2:>.ON Iii NiC xc

The crown. The crown.

The crown is the "crown of life" prom ised to the martyrs in Revelation 2:10. 3 Under Victor's horse, in red:

t ClooO("ll')NN

Thebathhouse.

In Victor's story, one of the attem pts to kill him involved throwing him into the furnace used to heat the baths in Alexandria.

Sir Claudius, the martyr of Jesus Christ.

In red beneath KPPI is K(\b,."ll'tOC, originally plann ed. 3 Under the horse 's forelegs, on the facade of the

building , in white:

O"ll'b,.CIOC e.ne, ~1;Ir:tb,. 2:>.ON

NIl!lHO"ll'/ NNI2:>.O(\0r:t

Holy is

The altars of the idols.

12:>.0(\ON is taken here as the Greek word ELOWAOV. Coquin and Laferriere translate NN/2:>.O(\O [sic] as "the gifts" (Greek oW pOV).56 4 Within the open door, in white:

c/? pO

Thedoor.

5 To right of the crowned figure under the horse's hind

legs, in black: JlO("ll')P[oo ] 2:>.loo X(\H 2:>.Ib,.N O ~

Theemperor Diocletian.

Here Claudius is credited with the death of Diocletian, something not otherwise attested in Cop tic sources." 6 In the scroll in Dioclet ian 's left hand, to left and right

of his hand, in black: J.l . . .O"ll'oo ... J.l~ . . .

224

1

N2I. MENA S 59 To left and right of the mounted saint, in white:

~i

NT€ iC xc

Abba Menas, the martyr of Jesus Christ.

2 Withi n light rays coming down on the saint's right and left shoulders (to left and right), letter traces in red: J.l .I (K)~ [O l ~

The crown.

[ nl l( K)[ (\O]~

[The crown]

The restorations are based on N20.2; Victor and Menas are presented in similar fashion. The crowns, seen in Menas's vision of the mar tyrs, are also part of his story. 3 Above the camel beside the shr ine, letter traces in

black: tn / 2S. 1~ ["\\ J (;)'(f~ [The came l].

The reconstruction , admittedly tentative, is based on the pro minence of the camel in the story of Menas 's burial.

THE CO PT IC I N SC RI PTI O N S

N22. THEODOR E THE G EN ERAL 1

60

To left and right of the mounted saint, in white : O'lfb..CIOC 6€Ull>.[O]PO [C] n IC Tpb..t~b..T HC l>.ON ~i

ilK

XC

Holy isTheodo re

CO'lf C/[NIOC] l>.ON [~i ? ]!lO[ ? ] Sisi[nnius]. the [martyr] . .

"Of Iesus Christ" would be expected after the conjec tured martyr. Construction of the new door has destroyed most of the painting and other inscriptional evidence that might have existed.

the Genera l, the martyr of Jesus Christ. 2

N24 . JO HN OF HERA CLEA

To right of Theo dore's head, within th e shield, in red: Ie

xc

1

Jesus Christ

3 At upp er right hand corner, within a half-circle from

To right of the mounted saint's missing head, in white: mie,

which a hand extends, in black:

(?) 64

K

nb..~lfH!!I N .[.] NN € Cb..J:I

for

2Nq : [l>.O )N ~i J:I[T€]

xc

Ul 6€Ull>.O

a Theodore,

John (?), the .. . of the brothers (?) of the city of Hnes, [the martyr]

PO[C] ~H €

the one

of Jesus Christ.

T€K[ . .].Ul';/

whose [.. .1

€ lf€ [

. . .[

.J,l[

.[

Th e inscrip tion is presumably a divine ad dress to Theo dore, a voice from heaven, symbo lized by th e extended hand. An app earance of Jesus Chris t promising him victory is part of The odore's story," 4 Above the praying woman, in white: [?]PN[ ?]N[ ?]

Thi s is presumably the name, otherwise unattested, of the widow whose two sons were saved from the dr agon by St. Theodore." 5 Below the dragon's head, in white: .[. . .].N

[?] . .[. .]. . .

Thi s inscription relates to the dragon slain by Theodore. If the inscription began to the left of the point of Theodore's lance , one could restore on the first line: [nll>.]p[b..K]cpN, "the dra gon ." 6 To left of th e boy on th e left:

ncrpoc

Peter

7 To right of th e boy on the right:

John's name IS given In abbreviated (suspended) form. On th e probl em of th e identity of thi s saint see Coqui n and Laferriere, who hesitatingly entertain th e possibility th at thi s is John of Heraclea, orig inally from Heraclea in th e Pontu s region of Asia Minor but martyred in Antinoe in Egypt." In that case, John's hom e town of Heraclea has been con fused with Heracleopoli s in Egypt, Coptic Hn es, as given in the inscription (mo dern Ihnas ya alMadina ). The identity of Eutychius in N24 .2-3 rem ains a mystery, and this is one fa~tor in Coquin and Laferriere's hesitation to identify thi s particular saint as John of Her aclea. Nevertheless, such an identification is made all th e more likely by a mention of him in the Arabic inscription associated with St. Menas." There "Mari Mina" is named in association with "Mari Yuhana al-Harqly" (John of Heraclea), which may indic ate that the inscriber of the Arabic inscription understood the saint of N24 to be John of Heraclea. (Men as appears at N21 ) . This John is not included in the Coptic (Arabic ) Synaxary, but is in the Ethiopic." The word nb..~lfH!!I ("the alfesh") after John's name is another problem, for there is no such word in Coptic or Greek. But perhaps it is a deform ation of Arabic' al harqly ("of Heraclea"). Confusion of q and f is, in any case, easily un derstandable, for q and fin Arabic-are very similar (identical except that fh as one dot, q two). If this conjecture is accepted, we have confirmation of this saint's identity, John of Heraclea.

.Nb..[?] 2

Not enough is left to provide this boy's name. The boys are not given names in the extant versions of Theodor e's story. N23. SISINN IUS 1

To left and right of Sisinnius, in white: O'lfb..CIO C

225

63

Holy is

To right of the figure under the saint's horse, in white: €'lf T€X IOC

Eutychius.

3 Below the same figure, in black: €'lfT€X IOC IJ TO'lfZ

Eutychius the duke.

Presumably th is Eutychius would have been involved in the saint's martyrdom, but no such person is mentioned

T H E I N SC RIPTI ON S

in th e extant story concerning John . There is a count nam ed Eutyc hianus in the sto ry of St. Victor's martyrdom." N25. GE O R GE 1

His mother.

The lam ent of Phoebam rnons mother over his impending m art yrd om is part of his story.

69

To left and right of George's rais ed arm , in white:

4 Below, above the child held by its mother, in white:

Holy is

lO'lfiX]LJOC

nrKO'lf 2S.1 €q[t] 20

C€WP[C] IOC George. 2

The compound verb here translated "beseech" can

To right of George, in white: .[ 7 ]~ .[ . ]~ [ .. . l~[ .

.. ]€[

7 ]t X[ 7

I

Nfl 7 ] ~[ 7

There is nothing translatable in what is left of this inscrip tion. Coquin and Laferriere read: GpO ..\\[..\\OK] €tx [. .. ] N€ [, "Strengthe n [yourself ] to give . .. " 3 To left of the person between the hind legs of George's ho rse, in whi te: n"O'lf~iXl

also be translated "enco ur age." The bo y is probably th e fellow student healed by Phoebammon while he was still a school boy. 5 To left of the boy's mother, in white: 6..\\iX'lf ..\\nIKO~2S.J €Tt 20 €ry[ 7

The mother of the litt le boy who is beseeching [.. .J.

Perhaps read

"the martyr."

6 Above the church under the horse, in white: €K [K(\]HCliX [NcgIBl~..\\oN

The Jew who stole the [vessels] of the ....

martyr's death is part of his story.

George." 4 Above th e churc h port rayed under the horse's forele gs, in white: t f 15 15"0-':' [CliX] ~[ 7

r eeoprrocj,

wh ite and black, respe.ctively:

"of St, Geo rge.':"

5 In sid e the church 's open doo r, in red:

nlKiXTiXNTiXPXWC

The centurion.

n IKiXTiXJ:{ T iXPX WC

The centurion.

T his is pres uma bly th e com ma nder of the sold iers who behead ed Phoeba mmon .

The church .. .

.. [7

N26 . P H O E B A M M O N

N28 . SHENOUTE

72

To left and right of th e m ou nted saint's raised arm, in wh ite: [O'lf ]iXCI OC

Holy is

[ cgl]~ ~ ~