86 images Created 13 Dec 2008
Egypt - the Living Stones, the Coptic monasteries
Even after the visit of the Catholic Pope Francis, the skepticism of many Egyptian Christians has not changed. President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, Egypt's strongman, officially shows up as a strong defender of the Copts. Still, most of them have lost faith in a country that swings between apathy and discrimination against them. In many small towns and villages of Central Egypt, Islamist radicals often insult Christians and burn churches. Still today, the monasteries are true strongholds of faith, and a story began when St Mark arrived here in A.D. 64.
"If the monasteries are strong, the Faith is strong" it's a popular way of thinking for the Egyptian Copts, the most significant Christian minority in the Middle East. They account for one-tenth of the country's 92 million people and, like others, Eastern Churches are components of a fragmented galaxy of "living stones" of the oriental Christian churches. This world currently menaces to die down in the same places in which Christianity was born, but behind the walls of convents often isolated in deserts and mountains, rituals and stories similar to legends lost in time survive intact and, in these places, regain the strength of a living reality. In the middle of the Egyptian Desert, the monastery of Deir al Qaddis Antwan is where St. Antony in the Desert in the fourth Century built the first monastery in Christian history. Prominent figures like Antony the Great or Paul of Thebes and others founded hundreds of monasteries throughout the Egyptian Desert by the end of the 5th Century. The Egyptian Copts contributed immensely to the Christian tradition with monasticism's creation and organization, which influenced the Christian World. Since then, pilgrims visiting the Egyptian Desert Fathers have tried to emulate their spiritual lives. The Copts are one of the oldest Christian communities in the Middle East. Although integrated into contemporary Egypt, still are a Church that has been independent of the Roman Catholic Church for sixteen centuries and from the Protestant Churches. The Copts were the native Christians, the main religion of Egypt during the 4th to 6th centuries A.D. until the Muslim conquest of Egypt. Today still are the most significant religious minority in the country, but their number is continuously decreasing due mainly to the increasing religious radicalisation of Egypt. Official estimates are that Christians represent less than 10% of the population, while independent sources speak of much higher numbers, up to 23% of the 83 million Egyptians. In Nile's Delta politically sensitive area, the Coptic pilgrims flock to the great Moulid of St Damiana, one of the most important Coptic feasts between el Mansoura and Damietta (really difficult to have the permits for a foreigner), not far from Tanta, where a terrorist attack stroke the local Coptic church.
"If the monasteries are strong, the Faith is strong" it's a popular way of thinking for the Egyptian Copts, the most significant Christian minority in the Middle East. They account for one-tenth of the country's 92 million people and, like others, Eastern Churches are components of a fragmented galaxy of "living stones" of the oriental Christian churches. This world currently menaces to die down in the same places in which Christianity was born, but behind the walls of convents often isolated in deserts and mountains, rituals and stories similar to legends lost in time survive intact and, in these places, regain the strength of a living reality. In the middle of the Egyptian Desert, the monastery of Deir al Qaddis Antwan is where St. Antony in the Desert in the fourth Century built the first monastery in Christian history. Prominent figures like Antony the Great or Paul of Thebes and others founded hundreds of monasteries throughout the Egyptian Desert by the end of the 5th Century. The Egyptian Copts contributed immensely to the Christian tradition with monasticism's creation and organization, which influenced the Christian World. Since then, pilgrims visiting the Egyptian Desert Fathers have tried to emulate their spiritual lives. The Copts are one of the oldest Christian communities in the Middle East. Although integrated into contemporary Egypt, still are a Church that has been independent of the Roman Catholic Church for sixteen centuries and from the Protestant Churches. The Copts were the native Christians, the main religion of Egypt during the 4th to 6th centuries A.D. until the Muslim conquest of Egypt. Today still are the most significant religious minority in the country, but their number is continuously decreasing due mainly to the increasing religious radicalisation of Egypt. Official estimates are that Christians represent less than 10% of the population, while independent sources speak of much higher numbers, up to 23% of the 83 million Egyptians. In Nile's Delta politically sensitive area, the Coptic pilgrims flock to the great Moulid of St Damiana, one of the most important Coptic feasts between el Mansoura and Damietta (really difficult to have the permits for a foreigner), not far from Tanta, where a terrorist attack stroke the local Coptic church.
