Coptica 15, 2016

Athanasius’s Fighting Spirit Doubled in Shenoute 73 extended a sword of fire toward the temple and it collapsed and burned, killing all inside. After praising God, Athanasius prostrated himself at the feet of Michael, admiring his judgment against the town of Akhmim. Michael told Athanasius that the people of Akhmim and of Alexandria would soon recognize Athanasius as their true good shepherd, and he would be restored with honor to his position in Alexandria on the seventh of the Coptic month of Bashans (equivalent to May 15th). On that very day an infant would be born in a village called Shinalulah, and he would be named Shenoute. What is more, the angel tells Athanasius, “At the moment when Shenoute will be born your soul will be doubled for him, for he is worthy of it, just as in ancient times the soul of the prophet Elijah was doubled for Elisha the prophet.” 6 It would be likewise on the seventh of Bashans at the same hour in which Shenoute had been born, that Michael would return to carry Athanasius to the Lord. 7 But Shenoute would live on and become famous for his miracles and prophecies, and “in his time, when many faithless ones and heretics will be annihilated, many people will be saved by his hand.” 8 Here Shenoute is presented as a direct spiritual successor of Athanasius and Athanasius is presented as an admirer of those who destroy pagan temples, as Shenoute would do on at least one occasion. 9 In one of his acephalous discourses, titled A26, Shenoute claims credit for smashing the images in a pagan temple in the village of Atripe, near his monastery and near Akhmim, and then burning the temple. 10 Stephen 6 Ibid ., 301. 7 Although Shenoute’s birth and Athanasius’s death are in fact both commemorated on the seventh of Bashans, the year of Shenoute’s birth is generally considered to be around 348, not 362, as it would be if the action of this story took place during Athanasius’s third exile. Athanasius’s restoration to his see after his third exile happened on the 27 th of Amshir (February 21 st ), not the seventh of Bashans. But accurate dating is not the point of the story. For these commemorative dates, see Otto Meinardus, Two Thousand Years of Coptic Christianity (Cairo and New York: American University in Cairo Press, 1999), 302; René Basset, Le Synaxaire arabe jacobite (rédaction copte) IV , Patrologia Orientalis 78 (16.2), 360-362; Ugo Zanetti, “Un Index liturgique du monastère Blanc,” in Christianisme d’Égypte: Hommages à René-George Coquin , ed. Jean-Marc Rosenstiehl, Cahiers de la Bibliothèque copte 9 (Paris and Louvain: Peeters, 1994), 68; Iacobus Forget, Synaxarium alexandrinum II , Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium 67, Scriptores arabici 11, pages ۱۰٦ - ۱۰۷ ; Forget, Synaxarium alexandrinum II , CSCO 90, Scriptores arabici 13, pages 105-107; Eugène Tisserant, Le Calendrier d’Abou’l-Barakât , PO 48 (10.3), 270; Leo Depuydt, Catalogue of Coptic Manuscripts in the Pierpont Morgan Library , vol. 1, #54, Corpus of Illuminated Manuscripts 4, Oriental Series 1 (Louvain: Peeters, 1993), 96; and Archibald Robertson, Select Writings and Letters of Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria , Nicene and Post- Nicene Fathers, second series, vol. 4 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1987), lviii. 8 Amélineau, Vie de Schnoudi , 301-302. 9 Athanasius’ role as shepherd is also taken up by Shenoute in the Arabic Life of Shenoute . The episodes immediately following the story of Athanasius in Akhmim have to do with Shenoute’s childhood job as a shepherd. 10 Shenoute, A26 , in Selected Discourses of Shenoute the Great: Community, Theology, and Social Conflict in Late Antique Egypt , ed. David Brakke and Andrew Crislip (Cambridge,