This fascinating article provides us a sense of what is at stake in Egypt, Syria, Turkey and the Middle East, where Muslims openly threaten the complete eradication of Christian faith and culture. Islam's renewed war against Christianity is a threat to all Christians everywhere.
Ireland's ancient legacy from Egypt
by Valerie Cuthbert,
Catholic Herald Archives — h/t Fr A
Originally printed in the July 12, 1991 edition of Catholic Herald
Valerie Cuthbert looks at the long forgotten ties between the early churches of Alexandria and St Patrick.
EGYPT, one of the most fervent Moslem countries in the Middle East, was once famous as one of the corner-stones of early Christianity. Even today, large numbers of Egyptians, who regard themselves as the true descendants of the Ancients, are still practising Christians.
St Mark the Evangelist, who was martyred and buried in Alexandria, where his body remained until it was taken by stealth to Venice centuries after the Arabs had conquered Egypt, is generally believed to have founded the Egyptian — known as the Coptic — Church and its Patriarch is regarded as the successor of St Mark in the same way that the Pope is the successor of St Peter in the western church.
In the early days of Christianity, the patriarch of the Egyptian church was second only in authority to Rome. It was ruled from Constantinople until the fifth century when it separated itself from the western church because of a theological disagreement with the Byzantine emperor. This rift caused nearly two centuries of bloodshed as patriarchs representing either the Greek or Egyptian creeds succeeded one another on the throne.
In the end the Egyptian church split completely from the Greek church and each went its own way.
The Egyptian National Monophysite Church emerged and, because of the way they felt towards the Byzantine church, the Egyptians no longer wished to use Greek in their churches and the liturgy and the gospels were translated into Egyptian.
The Egyptian church still celebrates the Korbin or mass in the language of the Pharaohs or, rather, the debased form of it which was spoken in the fifth century.
When the Arabs occupied Egypt in the seventh century [i.e., when the Muslims conquered Egypt during the first wave of jihad], they tolerated their Christian subjects at first and called them Copts — a word which simply means Egyptians — and the label has stuck.
In the heart of Old Cairo, there is a Coptic museum where the most interesting and varied collection of early Christian relics have been carefully preserved. When these are examined, there is an amazing resemblance between many of the Coptic antiquities and those of the early Celtic church in Ireland.
There then emerged the probability that, although so far apart, the two Christian communities must have been in close touch with one another on religious matters during the first six centuries of the Christian era. Visits perhaps were exchanged during this period between the Irish and Coptic monks, and indeed seven Coptic monks are said to be buried at Disert Ulidh in Ireland.
