The Forty-Nine Martyrs of Scetis were Christian monks of the monasteries of Scetis in Roman Egypt who were massacred by Berbers during a raid in 444. Two laymen were martyred along with them. Their relics lie in the Monastery of Saint Macarius the Great. They are venerated in the Coptic Orthodox Church, but not in the Eastern Orthodox or Roman Catholic churches. [1]
The Berber raid took place during a period of general unrest in Egypt. Arsenius the Great fled to Canopus at about this time owing to raids by the Berber Mazices, while Nestorius was released from his imprisonment during a Blemmyan attack on the Kharga Oasis. The raid on Scetis also took place amidst a dispute between the monks and the Emperor Theodosios II over the emperor's desire for a male heir. Over three years earlier, the emperor wrote to the monks asking for their prayers, but the monk Isidhurus wrote back that God would deny him a son because of his heresy (dyophysitism). In 444, the emperor was estranged from his wife, Aelia Eudocia, according to the Chronicon paschale . According to the accounts of the Forty-Nine Martyrs, he was pressed by some advisers and by his sister Pulcheria to divorce her and remarry. He therefore sent a second letter to the monks of Scetis by the imperial courier Artemios. [1]
The Berber raid fell on Scetis while Artemios was there with his son Dios. Although Isidhurus had died, the monks placed the imperial letter on his grave and received a negative reply. The monks then composed a response to the emperor and Artemios and Dios had begun their return journey when the raiders arrived. The hegoumenos John, the head of the monasteries, reportedly refused to take refuge in the Tower of Piamoun and invited the brothers to share in his fate. He and 48 other monks were killed. The rest took refuge in the tower. Artemios and Dios were also killed after Dios reportedly saw the monks receiving the heavenly crowns of martyrdom and convinced his father to turn back and share their fate. [1] [2]
The account of the Forty-Nine provides the earliest reference to the Tower of Piamoun at Scetis. It seems that the tower was constructed in response to raids of 407 and 434. It allowed life at Scetis to return to normal immediately after the raiders had retired because there was no general dispersal of monks as in prior attacks. [1]
According to a late Arabic biography of Saint Pishoy, the raiders stopped at a spring near the monastery of Saint Pishoy to wash their swords and the spring was a source of miraculous healing thereafter. The martyrs were buried by their surviving brothers in a cave near the tower. Numerous miracles were reported at their grave and the Emperor Theodosios was so impressed that he built a martyrium for them in Constantinople. It was reports of their holiness that supposedly motivated Hilaria, daughter of the Emperor Zeno, to become a nun at Scetis. [1]
In 538, Patriarch Theodosios I of Alexandria had their relics moved to a different cave and a chapel built over them. Following the Arab conquest of Egypt in 642, Patriarch Benjamin I visited their shrine and established the 5th of the month of Meshir in the Coptic calendar as their feast day. The relics were moved again when the chapel fell into ruin and a final time in 1773 when a wealthy patron, Ibrahim al-Jawhari, built a new church for them at Dayr Anba Maqar. Their relics remain their today. [2] A chapel dedicated to the martyrs was built by Moses of Nisibis at Dayr al-Suryan in the 10th century. [3]
The martyrs are commemorated in the Copto-Arabic Synaxarium on the 26th day of the month of Tobi (corresponding to January 21 in the Julian calendar). [1] In the liturgy, they are referred to as "the forty-nine martyrs, the elders of Shiheet". [2] The main source for the martyrdom of the Forty-Nine is the account in the Synaxarium itself. There is also a short notice of the burial and afterlife of the martyrs, the Coptic Depositio XLIX martyrum (Interment of the Forty-Nine Martyrs). [1]
The historicity of the massacre is probable. The accounts contain circumstantial detail that, where it can be checked, is corroborated by other sources. Berber raiding was not uncommon in the Western Desert during the mid-5th century. The first consultation by Theodosios of the monks of Scetis is also mentioned in John of Nikiu's history (7th century), although he does not mention the second or the raid. The second, but not the first, is mentioned in Theopistos' life of Dioskoros of Alexandria (6th century). He mentions the dead Isidhurus, the hegoumenos John and the courier Artemios and his son, but does not mention the raid or massacre. It is probable that Theodosios' consultation of the monks and the massacre were distinct events separated in time that became conflated in the hagiographical tradition. [1]
Moses the Black, also known as Moses the Strong, Moses the Robber, and Moses the Ethiopian, was an ascetic monk and priest in Egypt in the fourth century AD, and a Desert Father. He is highly venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Oriental Orthodox Church. According to stories about him, he converted from a life of crime to one of asceticism. He is mentioned in Sozomen's Ecclesiastical History, written about 70 years after Moses's death.
Kellia, referred to as "the innermost desert", was a 4th-century Egyptian Christian monastic community spread out over many square kilometers in the Nitrian Desert about 65 km (40 mi) south of Alexandria. It was one of three centers of monastic activity in the region, along with Nitria and Scetis. It is called al-Muna in Arabic and was inhabited until the 9th century. Only archaeological sites remain there today.
A skete is a monastic community in Eastern Christianity that allows relative isolation for monks, but also allows for communal services and the safety of shared resources and protection. It is one of four types of early monastic orders, along with the eremitic, lavritic and coenobitic, that became popular during the early formation of the Christian Church.
Samuel the Confessor is 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.
John the Dwarf, also called John Colobus,John Kolobos or Abba John the Dwarf, was a Coptic Desert Father of the early Christian church.
Wadi El Natrun is a depression in northern Egypt that is located 23 m (75 ft) below sea level and 38 m (125 ft) below the Nile River level. The valley contains several alkaline lakes, natron-rich salt deposits, salt marshes and freshwater marshes.
The Monastery of Saint Macarius The Great also known as Dayr Aba 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.
The Monastery of Saint Pishoy in Wadi El Natrun, Beheira Governorate, Egypt, is the most famous monastery of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria named after Pishoy. It is the easternmost of the four current monasteries of Wadi el Natrun.
Paromeos Monastery, also known as Baramos Monastery, is a Coptic Orthodox monastery located in Wadi El Natrun in the Nitrian Desert, Beheira Governorate, Egypt. It is the most northern among the four current monasteries of Scetis, situated around 9 km northeast of the Monastery of Saint Pishoy. Ecclesiastically, the monastery is dedicated to and named after the Virgin Mary.
The Monastery of Saint Mary El-Sourian is a Coptic Orthodox monastery located in Wadi El Natrun in the Nitrian Desert, Beheira Governorate, Egypt. It is located about 500 meters northwest of the Monastery of Saint Pishoy.
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.
Abu l-Makārim Saʿdullāh ibn Jirjis ibn Masʿūd (d.1208) was a priest of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria in the thirteenth century. Abu al-Makarim is best known as the author of a famous work entitled History of Churches and Monasteries. This was written around 1200.
The Enaton was a monastic district in Egypt during the Middle Ages. It lasted into the 15th century, but it was at its height between the 5th and 7th centuries. It takes its name, which means "ninth", from its location at the ninth milestone southwest of Alexandria along the coastal road.
Mosesof Nisibis was a West Syriac monk and scribe. He was the abbot of Dayr al-Suryan, the Syrian monastery in the Wadi al-Natrun in Egypt, from 914 at the latest. He brought together and helped preserve one of the most important collections of ancient Syriac manuscripts, which is still of critical importance to scholars today.
The Mazices were Berbers of North Africa who appear in classical and late antique Greek and Latin sources. Many variants of the name are known: Maxyes in Herodotus; Mazyes in Hecataeus; Mazaces; Mazikes; Mazazaces; etc. They are all derived from the Berber autoethnonym Imazighen. These terms were used both for Berbers in general and for certain Berber tribes. It is not clear if the original Berber term was used to refer to all Berbers or only a tribe or other subset. The Egyptian term Meshwesh for a tribe of ancient Libyans is probably a cognate.
Theodosius was one of the leading Christian monks of Palestine opposed to the Council of Chalcedon (451). He was installed as bishop of Jerusalem in opposition Juvenal in 451 or 452, but was forced into exile by the emperor Marcian in 453.
The Legend of Hilaria is a Coptic romance, possibly a Christian version of the pagan Tale of Bentresh. It was written between the 6th and 9th centuries AD. During the Middle Ages, it was translated into Syriac, Arabic and Ethiopic. It tells the tale of Hilaria, daughter of the Roman emperor Zeno, who disguised herself as a man to become a monk and later heals her sister of an ailment. The tale was incorporated into the synaxaries of the Oriental Orthodox churches, and Hilaria came to be celebrated as a saint.
Mount Colzim, also known as the Inner Mountain of Saint Anthony, is a mountain in Red Sea Governorate, Egypt. It was the final residency of Anthony the Great from about AD 311, when he was 62 years of age, to his death in 356.
Meshir 4 – Coptic calendar – Meshir 6
