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Abib and Apollo | |
---|---|
Monks | |
Born | 4th century Akhmim, Egypt |
Died | November 4 (4th century) Egypt |
Venerated in | Coptic Orthodox Church Armenian Apostolic Church Ethiopian Orthodox Church Syriac Orthodox Church Oriental Orthodoxy |
Feast | November 4 |
Abib and Apollo were two Christian ascetics from Akhmim, Egypt. They are mentioned in the Synaxarion, das ist der Heiligen-Kalendar der Koptischen Christen. Their feast day is celebrated on November 4.
Apollo (also called Apollonios) [1] was born in the City of Akhmim. His father's name was Amani (Hamai) and his mother's name was Eyse (Isa). From his early years Apollo grew and developed in saintliness, studying the subjects of Divinity. He was prepared from his youth to his life in a monastery. This decision was confirmed when he met a friend Abib and together they joined the monastery in Upper Egypt and became monks. [2] They both tended to ascetic works and their life was full of good deeds. [3]
Abib became a deacon and later died. [4] Apollo, distressed, moved deeper into the desert, near Mount Abluj, followed by a group of ascetics. Macarius of Egypt wrote a letter to Apollo to confirm him and the monastery in their good works. [3] Apollo knew by the spirit that Macarius was writing them a letter and the time at which the letter was actually being drafted. He said to his followers: "Listen my brethren, behold the great Abba Macarius is writing to us a letter full of comforting and spiritual teachings." Apollo was the one who went to Ammonius and was one of the witnesses who saw the holy woman that "stood in the middle of the fire but did not burn". [4]
The author of the Historia Monachorum in Aegypto , the archdeacon Timothy of Alexandria (around 400), whose Latin translation of Rufinus was equally published by Rosweyde as book II of the Vitae Patrum, recounts the visit he made with his companions to Apollo. According to his recollections Apollo lived in the Tebaide, in the region of Hermopolis (today Asmunayn), not far from the sanctuary of Dayr Al-Muharrag. From this book it appears that after forty years, at the call of an angel, Apollo approached the inhabited places while continuing his life in an isolated cave. This happened under the reign of Julian the Apostate (361-363 AD). His reputation for sanctity quickly attracted numerous disciples around him, who built an immense monastery: 500 monks were there at the time of Timothy's visit. [5]
Anthony the Great was a Christian monk from Egypt, revered since his death as a saint. He is distinguished from other saints named Anthony, such as Anthony of Padua, by various epithets: Anthony of Egypt, Anthony the Abbot, Anthony of the Desert, Anthony the Anchorite, Anthony the Hermit, and Anthony of Thebes. For his importance among the Desert Fathers and to all later Christian monasticism, he is also known as the Father of All Monks. His feast day is celebrated on 17 January among the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic churches and on Tobi 22 in the Coptic calendar.
Pachomius, also known as Saint Pachomius the Great, is generally recognized as the founder of Christian cenobitic monasticism. Coptic churches celebrate his feast day on 9 May, and Eastern Orthodox and Catholic churches mark his feast on 15 May or 28 May. In Lutheranism, he is remembered as a renewer of the church, along with his contemporary, Anthony of Egypt on 17 January.
Pope Cyril VI of Alexandria also called Abba Kyrillos VI, Coptic: Ⲡⲁⲡⲁ Ⲁⲃⲃⲁ Ⲕⲩⲣⲓⲗⲗⲟⲥ ⲋ̅ ; was the 116th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark from 10 May 1959 to his death.
Macarius of Egypt was a Christian monk and grazer hermit. He is also known as Macarius the Elder or Macarius the Great.
Saint Macarius of Alexandria was a monk in the Nitrian Desert. He was a slightly younger contemporary of Macarius of Egypt, and is thus also known as Macarius the Younger.
Abune Tekle Haymanot was an Ethiopian saint and monk mostly venerated as a hermit. He was the Abuna of Ethiopia who founded a major monastery in his native province of Shewa. He is significant for being the only Ethiopian saint popular both amongst Ethiopians and outside that country. Tekle Haymanot "is the only Ethiopian saint celebrated officially in foreign churches such as Rome and Egypt." His feast day is 30 August, and the 24th day of every month in the Ethiopian calendar is dedicated to Tekle Haymanot.
Akhmim is a city in the Sohag Governorate of Upper Egypt. Referred to by the ancient Greeks as Khemmis or Chemmis and Panopolis, it is located on the east bank of the Nile, 6 kilometres (4 mi) to the northeast of Sohag.
Abdel Messih El-Makari was a Coptic Orthodox monk and priest, and a 20th-century Coptic saint. Pope Cyril VI of Alexandria testified as to his holiness and asceticism.
Pope Benjamin I of Alexandria, 38th Pope of Alexandria & Patriarch of the See of St. Mark. He is regarded as one of the greatest patriarchs of the Coptic Church. Benjamin guided the Coptic church through a period of turmoil in Egyptian history that included the fall of Egypt to the Sasanian Empire, followed by Egypt's reconquest under the Byzantines, and finally the Arab Islamic Conquest in 642. After the Arab conquest Pope Benjamin, who was in exile, was allowed to return to Alexandria and resume the patriarchate.
Samuel the Confessor was a Coptic Orthodox saint, venerated in all Oriental Orthodox Churches. He is most famous for his torture at the hands of the Chalcedonian Byzantines, for his witness of the Arab invasion of Egypt, and for having built the monastery that carries his name in Mount Qalamoun. He carries the label "confessor" because he endured torture for his Christian faith, but was not a martyr.
Gabriel IV was the 86th Coptic Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria from 1370 until his death.
Pope Macarius III of Alexandria (Abba Macari III) was 114th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark.
The Monastery of Saint Macarius The Great also known as Dayr Al-ʾanbā Maqār is a Coptic Orthodox monastery located in Wadi El Natrun, Beheira Governorate, about 92 km (57 mi) north-west of Cairo, and off the highway between Cairo and Alexandria.
Matta El Meskeen, born Youssef Iskandar, was a Coptic Orthodox monk. He was the key figure in the revival of Coptic monasticism, a movement which began in 1969 when he was appointed to the Monastery of St Macarius in the Wadi El Natrun in Egypt. By the time of his death the community had grown from 6 aged monks to 130 monks, and as many other monasteries were revived, new ones also began to open. He was twice nominated to become Coptic Pope, but was not chosen in either case.
The Monastery of Saint Anthony is a Coptic Orthodox monastery standing in an oasis in the Eastern Desert of Egypt, in the northern part of the Red Sea Governorate close to the border with the Suez Governorate.
The Lausiac History is a seminal work archiving the Desert Fathers written in 419–420 AD by Palladius of Galatia, at the request of Lausus, chamberlain at the court of the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius II.
Coptic monasticism was a movement in the Coptic Orthodox Church to create a holy, separate class of person from layman Christians.
Bishoy of Scetis, known in the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria as the Star of the Desert and the Beloved of our Good Savior, was a Coptic Desert Father. He is said to have seen Jesus, and been bodily preserved to the present day via incorruptibility at the Monastery of Saint Bishoy in the Nitrian Desert, Egypt. He is venerated by the Oriental Orthodox Churches and the Eastern Orthodox Church, and is known in the latter under the Greek version of his name, Paisios.