On 10 Kiahk on the Coptic calendar, 19 December Gregorian, the Coptic Church marked the feast of St Nicholas the Confessor, the 4th-century Bishop of Myra in Asia Minor, present-day Turkey. The loving, giving character of St Nicholas metamorphosed into that of the popular Santa Claus, the famous gift-giver of Christmas Eve. His full story is cited in the Coptic Orthodox Synaxarium.
The Church of St Nicholas in Banha, Qalyubiya, some 50km north of Cairo, is the only Coptic Orthodox church consecrated to the saint. It celebrated its patron saint with a week-long programme of spiritual activity that concluded on his feast day. It was led by Anba Maximos, Bishop of Banha and Quessna. The programme included Vespers services held every evening, sermons and praises for the saint, and daily Mass. On the sideline, a book fair of bibles and spiritual publications was held.
During Vespers, the relics of St Nicholas were carried in a deacon procession that marched around the church: three rounds in the sanctuary followed by three rounds in the nave and a final round back in the sanctuary, as praises for the saint where elatedly chanted, peppering with bouts of joyful ululations.
The Church of St Nicholas in Banha was established in 1910 as a Greek Orthodox church but, as the Greek congregation gradually dwindled, the church was purchased by the Coptic Orthodox Diocese of Qalyubiya in 1980. It houses the relics of St Nicholas as well as a portion of ‘mann’, an oil of miraculous healing power that drops from the saint’s tomb in the Italian city of Bari.
Watani International
20 December 2022