Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/416

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EGYPT


362


EGYPT


Divine 'Evxo\6viov" (London, 1S75); (b) from a manu- script now in the library of Lord Crawford, by Rod- well, "The Liturgies of St. Basil, St. Gregory and St. Cyril from a Coptic manuscript of the thirteenth cen- tury" (London, 1870). The Ordo Communis and St. Basil's Anaphora in Latin, by Assemani, from Tuki's Arabic (op. et loc. cit.); in English from Renaudot's Latin, by Neale, "History of the Eastern Church" (London, 1S50), introduction, pp. 381 sqq., 532 sqq. The Ordo Communis and St. Cyril's Anaphora (from Bodleian manuscripts of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries), by Brightman (op. cit., pp. 144-lSS). Morning Incense, Ordo Communis, and St. Basil's Anaphora, by John, Marquess of Bute (op. cit.).

Horarium (Arab. Agbiah, Egbieh), corresponding to our Breviary, edited by R. Tuki under the following title (Coptic and Arabic): "A Book of the seven pray- ers of the day and of the night" (Rome, 1750), gener- ally referred to as " Diurnum Alexandrinum Copto- Arabicum" [Morning (Prime), Terce, Sext, None, Evening (Vespers), Sleep (Complin), Prayer of the veil (extra-canonical?). Midnight (Matins)]. This book is intended for private recitation and gives but an imperfect idea of the office as performed in the monasteries or even in the churches where a numerous clergy is in attendance.

Katameros (Gr. KotA ^pos, Arab. KutmSrus) con- tains the portions of the Psalms, Acts, Catholic Epis- tles. St. Paul's Epistles, and the Gospels which are read at the canonical Hoiu-s and Mass. It is divided into three volumes: (I) from Thoth to Mechir; (II) from the beginning of Lent to Pentecost inclusive; (III) from Pachon to the Epagomene days which the Copts called the " little month or in Arabic, the "for- gotten days". The Katameros for the two weeks from Pakn Sunday to Easter Sunday has been published under the Coptic and Arabic title of "Book of the Holy Pasch according to the rite of the Alexandrine Church" (Catholic Press of St. Mark, Cairo, 1899). This portion of the Katameros contains numerous les- sons from the Old Testament (see Versions of the Bible). Its arrangement is attributed to Gabriel Ibn Tureik, seventieth patriarch (d. 1145). Mai (Scripto- rum veterum nova coUectio, IV, Rome, 1831, pp. 15-34) gives a table of the Gospels for feasts and fasts and for Saturdays, Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fri- days of the year. Malan (Original Documents of the Coptic Church, IV, London, 1874) gives the Sunday Gospels and versicles for ^'espers. Matins, and Mass for the year. De Lagarde tabulated all the lessons and Psalms from AthjT to Mechir, and from Epiphi to the "little month", also those for Lent and the Ninevites' fast, for the Sundays of Eastertide, and for the principal feasts (.\bhandlungen d. histor-philol. Klasse d. Kgl. Gesellsch. d. Wiss. zu Gottingen, XXIV, 1879).

The Psalmodia. — This is a collection of poetical compositions in honour of Our Lord and the Blessed Virgin, the saints and the angels, sung during the vari- ous services, especially at Vespers, Jiatins, and Prime. They form two distinct systems, one of which, called Theotokia, is most elaborate, and, as its name indi- cates, deals exclusively with the Mother of God. The other, the Doiologia, extends to all saints. A com- pendium of this book has been published by Tuki, under the Coptic and Arabic title " Book of the Theo- tokia and Katataxis of the month of Choiac" (Rome, 1740), .344 pp. The book is the subject of an interest- ing study by Mallon, " Les Thtetokies ou office de la Sainte Vierge dans le rite copte" in "Revue de I'Orient Chretien" (1904), IX, pp. 17-31.

The Antiphonarium ('.\rab. AwHfnArt, Dijnari), a collection of anthems in honour of the saints. The composition or the arrangement of this book is attrib- uted to Gabriel Ibn Tureik. (See Mon.\sticism.)

Of the Sahidic recension (or recensions) of the Egj-ptian Liturgj- we have fragments from the various books, which books .seem to have been the same as in


the Bohairic recension. The most interesting of those relics belong to the Liturgy proper or Mass, to the Anaphoras principally. Of these the Churches of Upper Egvpt apparently had a large number, for we have portions of those of St. CyrU, St. Gregory, St. Matthew, St. James, St. John of Bosra, and of several others not yet identified. Some have been published and translated by Giorgi (Lat. tr.), Krall (Ger. tr.), and Hyvernat (Lat. tr. only). For the titles of the publications and further information on nature of fragments published, see Brightman, " Liturgies East- ern and Western" (Oxford, 1896), I, pp. Ixviii-lxix. There are also important relics of the Diaconicum, probably enough to reconstruct that book entirely (one fragment published by Giorgi, " Fragmentum Evangelii Sti. Joannis" etc., Rome, 1789, a very large number of fragments of the Katameros, lection- aries, and not a few hymns (some of them popular rather than liturgical) which of late have aroused the interest of students of Coptic poetrj- [see Junker, "Koptische Poesie des 10. Jahrhimderts" in "Oriens Christianus" (1906), VI, pp. 319-410; with literature on the subject complete and up-to-date]. The frag- ments in British Museum and Leiden Collections have been published in full in the catalogues of Crum (pp. 144-161, 969-978) and Pleyte-Boeser. A complete edition and translation of the Sahidic liturgy is being prepared (1909) by the writer of this article for the "Corpus Scriptormii Christianorum Orientalium".

VII.CopTo-AR-iBic LiTER.iTURE. — Loug before Cop- tic became extinct as a spoken idiom it had ceased to be a literarj' language. The change seems to have taken place about the tenth century. The old Coptic litera- ture continued for some centuries to be copied for the benefit of a few, but at the same time the work of translating it into Arabic was being carried on on a large scale and must have been completed early in the thirteenth century, at the latest. John of Sememld, who about 1240 composed a Coptic lexicon of the liturgical language, is highly praised by one of his suc- cessors, Abii Ishaq Ibn al-'Assal, for having realized the uselessness of composing, as used to be done be- fore, dictionaries extending to the whole literature. This remark would hardly be intelligible if the trans- lating of the non-liturgical part of Coptic literature had not then been completed, much less if it had not yet begun. Those early translations include not only the works already reviewed in the preceding section of this article, but a good many more now lost in the Coptic version or translated anew from the Greek or the SjTiac originals. Among the latter are quite a number of Nestorian writers, expurgated when neces- sarj'. But the glory of the Copto-Arabic literature lies in its original writings. We have already men- tioned (see above, V.) the three historians of the Cop- tic Church, Severus of Ashmljnein, Eutychius, and Al-Makin. The authors of new Canons are: Christo- dulos, sixty-sixth patriarch, 1047-77; Cyrillus II, sixty-seventh patriarch, 1078-92; Macarius, sixty- ninth patriarch, 110.3-29; Gabriel Ibn Tureik, seven- tieth patriarch, 1131—45; Cyrillus III Ibn Laqlaq, seventy-fifth patriarch, 1235-43, and Michael, Metro- politan of Damietta, twelfth centurj'. — Collectors of Canons: Abu Solh Ibn Bana, eleventh cent., Maca- rius, fourteenth cent, (if not to be identified with the Simeon Ibn Maqara, mentioned by Abii '1-Barakat). — Compilers of Nomo-Canons: Michael of Damietta, twelfth cent., Abfl '1-Fadail Ibn al-'Assiil, thirteenth cent., etc. (see Riedel, "Die Kirchenrechtsquellen des Patriarchats Alexandrien ", Leipzig, 1900). — Hagio- graphers are represented by Peter, Bishop of Melig, twelfth and thirteenth cent., credited by Abu '1-Bara- kat with the composition of the Sinaksari or martyr- ologj-, and Michael, also Bishop of Melig. fifteenth cent., to whom the same book is also attributed (prob- ably because he revised and completed the work of his predecessor). — Severus of Ashmtlnein, Peter of Melig,