The Egyptians who carried the torch of Christianity into Europe
The Egyptians who carried the torch of Christianity into Europe
The epitaph “Pray for Olan the Egyptian” is engraved on a tombstone in a cemetery in Ireland. These words attracted the attention of Mounir Moussa Youssef, researcher at the Institute of Coptic Studies, and led to his unveiling of a section of our rich Coptic heritage and the part it played in the history of the West. Many Christian saints of the Egyptian Church travelled to the four corners of the world in the early days of Christianity, yet most of us are unaware of their heroism and legacy.
Olan the Egyptian turned out to be one of the seven Egyptian saints who left their monasteries in Upper Egypt in the fourth century to preach the word of God in the remoter parts of Europe as far as Ireland.
Presence in Europe
Youssef embarked on a four-year journey to see how it all began, and his studies prove that
our Coptic Orthodox Church was the first in the history of Christianity to send missionaries to Europe. Evidence of its presence from the fourth century suggests that it has been active for many centuries, long before the preaching missions that are now emanate from the West. Youssef’s master’s thesis, entitled The Pioneering Role of the Coptic Church in Europe Between the third and eighth Centuries AD, was presented to the Institute of Coptic Studies in Anba Rweiss, Cairo. The thesis, which took three years of research, was supervised by Professor Anthony Sourial Abdel-Sayed, professor of History at Sohag University and Chairman of the History Department at the Institute of Coptic studies. The thesis was discussed by a panel of professors and the researcher was granted the grade of Excellent.
Egyptian legionaries
During the course of his research Youssef was able to confirm that the first contact between the Egyptian Church and Western Europe dates back to the reign of Emperor Diocletian (c. 284 – 305). A legion, originally quartered in the Egyptian city of Thebes, was sent to Europe by order of the emperor to assist the Roman army against rebels in Burgundy. The Theban legion of 6,600 soldiers, led by the man who was later known in the Church as St Maurice, marched down the Nile to Alexandria before travelling to what is now Italy, Germany and Switzerland, and is thought this can be regarded as the first missionary delegation from the Coptic Church. The martyrdom of all its legionaries in 286 for refusing to sacrifice to the Roman gods sparked the flame of faith in the hearts of the inhabitants of the region. The tombstones of several of the Theban legion’s martyrs still exist in the Swiss city of Zurich.
Exiled to Europe
The second contact between Europe and the Coptic Church took place during the time of St Athanasius, the 20th Patriarch of Alexandria and one of the four great Doctors of the Church, who was twice exiled to Europe.
During his first exile in Northern Gaul (present day Belgium), St Athanasius succeeded in spreading Christianity and founding a church in the region.
Between 340 and 349, St Athanasius was exiled to Rome following a conflict with Emperor Constantius. He was accompanied on his second exile by two great monks, St Ammon and St Isidore of Pelusium. They lodged in the house of a wealthy Roman widow by the name of Marcella, who had devoted herself to charity, prayer and mortification of the flesh. After hearing the teachings of St Athanasius, Marcella (later known as St Marcella) formed a congregation of young girls, thought to be the first female monastic order in Europe. The teachings of St Athanasius also influenced a European monk, St Ambrose, who formed a male monastic order in Italy.
Alexandrian school
Most historians of the apostolic age agree that the Alexandria School of Theology established by St Mark the Apostle deserves much credit for the spread of Christianity. Many of the most notable scholars of Christianity in the East and West, such as St Basil the Great (c. 329 –379), his brother St Gregory of Nyssa (c. 330 – 395) and Gregory of Nazianzus (Gregory the Theologian, c. 329 –390), owe much of their knowledge and wisdom to the education they received at this school.
During the fourth century, seven Coptic monks were sent to Europe to preach Christianity and establish monasteries. They first laid foot in the French islands of Lerins. St Patrick, patron of the Irish Church, is said to have learnt the principles of the faith from these monks, and he eventually carried their teachings to Ireland. The bodies of the seven monks are buried in the old village of Disert Ulaidh, which is in Ulster, Northern Ireland; the seven monks are still invoked in the litanies of the Irish Celtic Mass.
A reference to the fourth-century Egyptian hermits in the Irish Stowe Missal—the oldest liturgical book of the Irish Church—proves that these monks were well reputed in Northern Europe. The Celtic Church is therefore the best example of a European church and still carries evidence of the Coptic heritage and influence.
Coptic cross
St Anthony the Great enjoyed an equal popularity in Europe in the early Middle Ages. Celtic art portrays him standing with the seven monks and holding small bells. In Switzerland, the coat of arms of the municipality of St Antony in the canton of Fribourg carries a Tau Coptic cross with two bells. The Tau cross is a symbol of St Antony the hermit.
In his research, Mounir Moussa Youssef used 72 references, mostly foreign-language books. In Two Thousand Years of Coptic Christianity, published by the American University in Cairo (AUC) press, world-renowned Coptologist Otto Meinardus quotes British Orientalist and archaeologist Stanley Lane-Poole: “It is more than probable that we are indebted to the remote hermits for the first preaching of the Gospel in England, where, till the coming of Saint Augustine, the Egyptian monastic rule prevailed. But more important is the belief that Irish Christianity, the great civilising agent of the early Middle Ages among the northern nations, was the child of the Egyptian Church.”
Remembered in St Moritz
Equally important in the history of Christianity in Europe is the St Maurice mentioned earlier, who preached in the city of Turicum (modern Zurich), and his sister, St Verena, who taught the local women the principles of hygiene and cleanliness. Their graves can still be seen in the Alpine town of St Moritz, along with the grave of St Victor (Boctor in Coptic). The graves of several Coptic martyrs can be seen in the German city of Trier (Roman Treverorum).
Coptic Church teachings
Many Fathers of the Coptic Church played a significant role in passing the heritage and teachings of the Coptic Church to the Fathers of the Western Church. The included St John Cassian, St Palladius, St Jerome, St Rufinus, St Ambrose and St Martin.
Professor Emrys George Bowen of the University of Wales states that the entire southwest region of Britain was under the influence of the Coptic Church during the fifth and sixth centuries. In the north side of the Bristol Channel, a large monastery was established in Cardiff by the patron saint of Wales, St David (c. 500 – 589). The renowned St David’s Cathedral now stands at the site of the old monastery. St David founded this monastery according to the Egyptian monastic model and rules after reading St Jerome’s translation of the biography of St Anthony the Great. The monastic rule of David prescribed that monks had to plough the land themselves without using animals, had to drink only water and eat only bread with salt and herbs and refrain from eating meat and drinking beer. They spent the evenings praying, reading and writing; they were not allowed to keep any personal possessions and thus lived the simple life of Egyptian asceticism.
Visiting Desert monasteries
Youssef also discovered during his research that many clerics of the Western Church acquired the knowledge and teachings of our Coptic Church and visited the various locations of monastic settlements in the Egyptian desert to study the Egyptian monasticism model and replicate it back home. Two of these were St Ambrose and St Jerome, who translated the Rule of St Pachomeus into Latin. This translation, dating back to 404, was the first translation of these rules and was later used by St Benedict (c. 480 – 550) in his own Rule of St Benedict. Other saints who visited Egypt’s desert monasteries were St Paula, St John Cassian and St Basil the Great of Caesarea, who also built their monasteries on the Pachomian monastic model. The book written by St Athanasius recounting the life of St Pachomeus, which was taught in Europe in the early Middle Ages, greatly encouraged the Fathers of the Western Church to visit the desert monasteries and copy from them.
In later centuries, the light of the Egyptian Church spread to cover the entire Byzantine Empire. In the seventh century, following the Islamic conquest of Egypt, some Egyptian monks fled their monasteries in the Desert of Nitria (Wadi Natrun) and found refuge in the monasteries of Mount Athos in Greece. After St John Cassian adopted the Egyptian monastic model, his followers moved to present-day Ukraine and established monasteries in this region.
Ships and trade routes
In an age when modern means of transport were non-existent, it is important to highlight the role that the Roman fleet played in carrying the monks to the remote areas of the world. Regular trade routes carried merchandise as well as passengers, and travelled through the major ports of the Eastern Mediterranean. Alexandria, one of the most important commercial cities since the Ptolemaic era, kept regular trade relations with the Western ports of Carthage, Sicily, Italy, Spain and Britain. The trade routes were enhanced during the Roman Empire and the Christian era as the Romans introduced faster fleets and ensured the safety of the travelling ships. The road was therefore paved for Egyptian monasticism to spread throughout the world.
As the centuries passed and means of transport were enhanced and modernised, the Word of God is still carried today by the Egyptian Church to the four corners of the globe. Egyptian monks carry the torch of their predecessors to spread the principles of true Faith way beyond the borders of Egypt.
WATANI International
9 September 2012