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Introduction

The observant and attentive visitor to the Coptic Orthodox Churches of the various cities, towns and provinces in Egypt and to those in the regions of the diaspora must notice the recent widespread dissemination of relics. According to the information of the local clergy they belong either to the so-called Fayyumi or to the Akhmim-martyrs. They are normally kept in a small octagonal, cylindrical tube covered with some precious textile. They repose in the choir on a table or in a specially constructed reliquary. Should the interested visitor inquire about the identity of those recent acquisitions, with all probability he would receive the standard reply: “They belong to the martyrs of the early persecutions, meaning those of the period of Diocletian and his colleague Maximian.” In 284 A.D. Diocletian ascended the imperial throne, a date which corresponds to the beginning of the Coptic Era of the Martyrs (A.M.) The severe persecutions, however, did not arise until 303 when the emperor issued an edict against the open profession of the Christian faith.

What is the reason for the sudden interest in the relics of relatively unknown martyrs? Furthermore, what is the purpose for the dissemination of ecclesiastical reminiscences of events that are said to have occurred 1600 years ago? In an age in which the Western churches have practically abolished the veneration of the relics of their saints, the Coptic Church seems to experience a fascinating resuscitation of a medieval cult. What should be attained with this reflection upon a rather distant past?

History does repeat itself! It occurred in 1578 that the ancient Roman Via Salaria collapsed, thereby giving access to the famous Roman catacombs and the subsequent widespread export of relics of such notable persons whose names are even mentioned in the Epistles of St. Paul. Just as the discovery of the relics of the Roman catacombs provided welcome spiritual support for the Tridentine Counter-Reformation, the discovery and almost global distribution of the relics of the Fayyum-and Akhmim Martyrs of 1989 and 1990 offered an additional “historical dimension” to the present renaissance of the Coptic Church.

Akhmim, An Ancient Upper-Egyptian Christian Center

According to a local tradition, Akhmim, the Panopolis of the Hellenistic period, was the oldest city of Egypt and was founded by Kush, the brother of Misraim (Gen 10:6.7). Both, local Coptic priests and laymen, assured me that on their flight to Egypt the Holy Family proceeded as far as Akhmim and found shelter in the Wadi leading to the Monastery of the Seven Mountains (Dair as-saba ‘at-gebel) and the bir al-ain.(2) The beduins of the wadi insisted that Jesus had blessed the spring. Since that time they mix the water from the well of Zemzem (Mecca) with the water of this spring! Furthermore, the Apostle Thomas is said to have stopped there on his way from the Red Sea, returning from India. Here the Virgin Mary had appeared to him. (3)

During the first decades of the 4th century, Artemidorus served as bishop of Akhmim. His successor was the orthodox Bishop Arius of Akhmim. He approached St.

Pachomius to establish monasteries in his diocese (346). Bishop Serapion of Akhmim occupied the see during the patriarchate of Theophilus (402-412) and Bishop Sabinus of Akhmim was one of the suffragen-bishops accompanying St. Cyril of Alexandria to the Third Ecumenical Council at Ephesus in 431. Throughout these years there existed very close relations between the Archimandrite Shenuda of the White Monastery (Dair al- Abiad) on the westbank of the Nile and the hierarchs of Akhmim. Shenuda was the only prominent original writer in the dialect of Atripe or Saídic. He also attended the Council at Ephesus and made himself remarkable by his violent bearing towards the Patriarch Nestorius of Constantinople. In 451 he joined the Coptic Patriarch Dioscorus to the 4^th Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon.

In 1731 the Franciscan Mission established the first Catholic monastery in Akhmim. Already fifteen years earlier 113 Coptic families had joined the Roman Catholic Church. In 1947 the Catholic Copts established the diocese of Thebes with the see of Sohag/ Akhmim. Since 1955 the Catholic lay-order “The Grail” maintains a social center in Akhmim for the education of women in home-economics and weaving. The Copts have in Akhmim (see of the metropolitan of Akhmim and Saqulta), four churches which are dedicated to St. Anthony, St. Damiana, the Holy Virgin and St. Mercurius (Abu ‘s-Saifain).

Akhmim, City of Ecclesiastical Exile

Already in the 3rd century Panopolis (Akhmim) gained fame as a renown place of exile for important ecclesiastical personages. Sabillius, the founder of the theological modalism - meaning that God had three “prosopa” or “statures” - denying the Orthodox teaching of the Holy Trinity, was anathematized by St. Dionysius of Alexandria (+264) (Euseb. Eccl. hist. VII, 6). He was exiled to Akhmim. According to Coptic tradition also the Patriarch Athanasius spent several months in exile in Akhmim (Bashons 7, May 15).

When the Emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363) started to persecute the Christians and ordered the arrest of Athanasins, the Patriarch left Alexandria in October 362 and sailed on the Nile, narrowly escaping some over-zealous officials who were anxious to please the emperor. Finally he settled in Akhmim where he was received with open rejoicings. After the death of Julian on June 20, 363, the new Emperor Jovian (363-364) requested Athanasius to return to Alexandria.

Following the excommunication of Nestoruius, patriarch of Constantinople from 428-431, he was sent into exile. After being deposed from his patriarchal see in 431 on account of his ‘unorthodox’ mariological views, denying that the Virgin Mary was the God bearer (theotokos), he as first banished to Petra in Arabia and later to the Oasis of al-Kharga. He was exposed to further persecutions from the Archimandrite Shenuda of the White Monastery at Sohag and exiled to the Monastery of the Seven Mountains east of Akhmim. He died in the village of Psoumbeled near Akhmim in 451.

Akhmim, Center of Upper Egyptian Monasticism

During the first period of Egyptian monasticism the movement grew in the Nile Valley on account of the ascetic zeal of the founding father Sts. Pachomius (+349) and Shenuda of Atripe (+466). In additional to the famous monasteries on the west bank of the Nile, the White and the Red monasteries west of Sohag, there existed in the 7th and 8th Centuries east of Akhmim the monasteries of Harpocrates (7th century), Christophrus (8th century) and Colluthus (7th century). Abû ‘l-Makarim (13th century) mentions three monasteries, that of St. Pachomius at Barjanus, Abû Halbanah east of Akhmim and St. Paul. Al-Maqrizi (15th century) still refers to the Monastery of the Seven Mountains at the entrance to Seven Valleys and the Monastery of Sabrah, dedicated to St. Michael, but there is only one monk there. (4)

Today, there are eight monasteries east of Akhmim, some of them were recently reactivated. These monasteries are dedicated to the Martyrs, the Holy Virgin, St. Michael at as-Salamuni, St. Thomas at Sawamiah Sharq, St. Pachomius the Martyr, St. George (Dair al-Hadid), St. Bisada opposite of Minsha and the Seven Mountains at Bir al-’Ain. (5)

Akhmim, City of the Martyrs

The persecutions of the Christians during the reign of Diocletian and Maximian resulted in the largest number of martyrs. In Upper Egypt, they were carried out by the Governor Arianus who had come to Akhmim from Lycopolis (Asyut) to hunt for Christians in the provinces of Panopolis (Akhmim) and Antaioupolis (Qaw al-Kebir). His arrival in Akhmim is commemorated by the Copts on Kihak 30 (Jan 8). The Vatican recension of the Coptic synaxar for Tubeh 1 (Jan 9) mentions 8140 Christians who refused to offer sacrifices to the Roman gods and subsequently suffered martyrdom in Akhmim. (6)

Whereas most of the Akhmim martyrs remained anonymous, some of them received special commemoration. Dioscorus and Aesclepius (Tubeh 1) were ascetics in the desert east of Akhmim. St. Michael appeared to them and ordered them to witness before Arianus. They were tortured and finally beheaded. Forty soldiers of the garrison including their captains Philemon and Akourius joined the saints in their martyrdom.

Both, Ananias and Chuzi of Akhmim laid down their lives for Christ and are commemorated on Kihak 16 (Dec 25).

However, not only the Romans persecuted the Christians. Mercurius and Ephraem (Abib 30, Aug 6), natives of Akhmim, were monks in the Thebaid and suffered martyrdom during the reign of the Arian Emperor Constantius (337-361) because they upheld the orthodox faith. Menas the “new martyr” (Amshir 17, Feb 24) lived in the 7^th century as a hermit near one of the monasteries east of Akhmim. He went to Hermopoplis Magna (al-Ashmunain) where the Arabs killed him.

The Monastery of the Martyrs

The Monastery of the Martyrs (Dair as-Shuhada’) is situated on an elevation at the edge of the desert east of al-Hawawish, 6 km northeast of Akhmim. On the desert ridge there are three monasteries, the northern one near as-Salamuni is dedicated to the Angel Michael, the central one to the Martyrs and the southern monastery to the Holy Virgin. (7)

A wall, built of mud-bricks about 3 m high, encloses the Monastery of the Martyrs. Upon entry through the western gate one reaches an extensive outer courtyard with 24 tombs of notable citizens of Akhmim and al-Hawawish. The inner court is separated from the outer court by another mud-brick wall. A passage leads from the inner court to the church, which extends to the eastern section of the outer wall. The altar-rooms and the nave are covered with altogether eight domes. Three domes cover the nave, five domes the four altars and the baptistery which occupies the southern section. Only the second altar from the north - dedicated to the Martyrs - has a wooden ciborium. The iconography of this ciborium corresponds to the altar-ciborium of the Church of St. Mercurius (Abû’s- Saifain) in Akhmim and should be assigned to the 18th or 19th century. (8) Only the walls of the altar-room (haikal) of the Martyrs are decorated with several paintings of Coptic crosses with the shroud. These designs are undoubtedly copies of the famous 11^th century apse-fresco of the Church of St. Shenuda in the White Monastery (Dai al-Abiad) west of Sohag. According to the information of the local clergy the altars are dedicated from the north to south to St. George, the Martyrs, the Virgin Mary and the Archangel Michael.

The present buildings date to the 18th/19th century. This is substantiated by the iconographical and calligraphic testimonies on the walls of the altar-rooms. The chancelscreen of the altar of the Martyrs has an inlaid Coptic text (18th/19th century). “Be greeted church, thou mansion of angels.” In 1740 (?) Richard Pococke mentioned that the monastery was inhabited. (9) In 1889, so U.Bouriant, only one priest lived in the monastery. (10) In 1904, the famous copy of the Book of Proverbs, the earliest complete papyrus text in the Akhmimic dialect (Berol. orient. Oct 98) was discovered in this monastery. This monastery is not to be identified with the 15th century Church of Asutir (Soter, Savior), in Akhmim, which according to al-Maqrizi (15th century) was also known by the name of the martyrs.

The monastery is built within a large necropolis.(11) Many tombs were desecrated and plundered. Obviously they belong to various periods. This necropolis provided the large quantity of Coptic textiles which are exhibited in the art-collections of Europe and America. Among these are, for instance, the famous 8th/9th century orbiculi with the history of the Old Testament Patriarch Joseph (Gen. 37, 9-36) of the Musée de la Mode et du Textile, Paris and the Puchkine Museum, Moscow.

The Necropolis east of Akhmim

According to the statement by Abuna Ghobrial al-Antuni of the Monastery of the Martyrs, a large number of mummies were discovered in March 1990 as they were preparing an olive-yard near the monastery.xii In the process of clearing the tombs, remains of mummies - supposedly to be Christian martyrs - were unearthed and subsequently dispatched to the archbishopric in Akhmim and from there to numerous dioceses and parishes for veneration.

The modern history of this necropolis begins with the reports about this vast burialsite by such European travellers as Paul Lucas (1714) Richard Pococke (1740), W.G. Browne (1797), M. Saint-Gènis (1798), N. l’Hôte (1839), etc. Their impressions of the necropolis are certainly informative. It was in March 1884 that G. Maspero and Schiaparelli entrusted the excavations of the necropolis east of Akhmim to the Reis Chalib of Qurna (Thebes) who engaged for the actual work of digging the local soldiery. Moreover, a number of licenses for digging in the necropolis were given to certain citizens of Akhmim. Maspero records the great success that in a short time as many as 8,000-10,000 mummies were unearthed “mais la plupart sans valeur.” Many mummies were subsequently sold to the Egyptian Railway as fuel for the engines, others were purchased by American paper-mills. At least during the years 1884-1888 the necroplis was thoroughly despoiled. In 1889, U. Bouriant described the devastations and destructions: “Aujourd’hui c’est une véritable pillage qu’il est impossible de réprimer. Tout est bouleversé, arraché, brisé...la nécrople copte, c’est une nécropole finie...” In 1895 R. Forrer visited the necropolis of Dair as-Shuhada’ at al-Hawawich. “As far as you can see, there are black holes, cavities, where tombs were opened, other black spots are bodies, mummies that were robbed of their textiles...everywhere the necropolis has been systematically plundered (Reisebriefe, 30 f).

There is no doubt that here and there some mummies and fragments of bones escaped the search of the late 19th century “excavators.” The history of the plunder of the necropolis is described in detail by Klaus P. Kuhlmann of the German Archeological Institute in Cairo. (13) It would be advisable for the members of the Reverend clergy of the diocese of Akhmim to consult this standards study on the tombs of Akhmim that produced the relics of the “Akhmim martyrs.”

(1) Meinardus, O., “The Enigma about the Coptic mummies of Naqlûn,” Coptic Church Review 15, 3, 1994, 73-80.

(2) Meinardus, O., “Bitr al-’Ain, eine volkstümliche Kultstätte bei Akhmim,” Ostkirchliche Studien 34, 2, 1985, 183-186.

(3) The Apostle Thomas should not be confused with St. Thomas the Anchorite of Shinshif, a contemporary of St. Shenuda.

(4) Timm, St., TAVO 1, 1984, 80-95.

(5) Viaud, G., Les Pèlerinages Coptes en Egypte. Cairo, IFAO, 1979. 57-59.

(6) Mai, A., Scriptorum veterum nova collectio. Roma 1825 f.

(7) This is not the 8th century Monastery of the Martyrs 6 km southwest of Esna.

(8) Meinardus, O., “Ein Oberägyptisches Altarziborium,” Thiasos ton Mouson, Fschr. Fink, Köln 1984, 159-164.

(9) Pococke, R., Description of the East. London 1743, 78.

(10) Bouriant, U., “Notes de Voyage, 3: Le Rocher de la Vallée d’Akhmini,” Recueil de Travaux 11, 1889, 145-149.

(11) According to Baedecker, K., Agypten und der Sudan. Leipzig 1928, 222, the tombs belong to the 5th/15th century.

(12) Mutraniya Beni Suef, Qummus Lûgâ al-Antûnî,

(13) Kuhlmann (preface by Anbâ Mattaus): The Akhmim Martyrs. Beni Suef 1990, Klaus P., Materialien zur Archäologie und Geschichte des Raumes von Achmim. Mainz,1983.

** Credit and Attribution

This article is reprinted with express permission from The Coptic Church Review and Dr. Rudolph Yanney.