SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

During the Vespers of Saturday and Sunday, and during Paschaltide, the monks did not kneel. On Saturdays and Sundays they all used to meet at the Third Hour to partake of the Holy Communion. Historical and Patristic Citations In the Vita of Abba John Khame, it is mentioned that he (St. John) set up a place for his monks, where they met in the middle of the night, and sang the psalmody (i.e. psalms ) and spiritual songs until dawn. In another place it is written that as he was singing with his brethren at night, Abba Athanasius the Apostolic appeared to him. This segment concludes with a quote from St. Shenouda the Archimandrite, in his monastic writings:

contained 12 psalms followed by two lessons (from the Old and New Testament). On Saturdays, Sundays, and Paschaltide (the period following the Feast of the Resurrection of Christ), both lessons were taken from the New Testament. The first lesson came from either the Apostolos (Pauline epistles) or from the Acts , and the second one was taken from the Gospels. Each psalm was recited by only one person. The 12 psalms were divided equally among a maximum of four brethren, who recited them separately (and in a loud voice), while the others remained seated and listened. There were never more than four monks participating in the recitation of the psalms. The psalms were not all concluded with Alleluia , but only those that were marked with the inscription of Alleluia in their title. frase gar #p jc $ ej n netswr p m mwou erof e@saje eneto n sor p etekkl/cia h@tooue auw hi rouhe m n pnau m meere m n pnau etesse n hoou nim. (Amélineau, Oeuvres de Shenoudi ,T.2, p.233) Coptic ( Sahidic )

Translation

For the Lord rejoices over those who come early to Him, I am speaking of those who are the first at the church in the morning, in the evening, at noon-time, and at the proper time in every day.

THE APOCALYPSE OF ST. SAMUEL OF KALAMOUN (by Ashraf Hanna w/Introduction by Hany N. Takla)

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter Introduction: This is an excerpt from the Arabic version of the Apocalypse of St. Samuel of Kalamoun. The Coptic dialect of the original text, upon which this version is based, is not known. This is due to the existence of no identifiable fragment in any Coptic dialect of such work. The discussion of the authenticity of the text is beyond our scope here. It suffices to say that, according to Prof. Samir Khalil, the renowned Christian Arabic literature scholar, the language quality of this text is coarse enough to suggest a date probably on or before the 9th century AD. After which coarse but still better quality Arabic translations were produced in Egypt. This supposition would bring us close enough to the 7th century time of the repose of St. Samuel to justify not ascribing the term Pseudo to this work. The Excerpt translated below is included in a manuscript of a mixed collection of hagiographic and literary Arabic texts, dated 1322 AM (1606 AD). This manuscript was brought to France by Vansleb, the famous French traveler and eventually became part of the extensive manuscript collection of the National Library of Paris. The call no. of this manuscript is 'Arabe 150'. It occupies folios 20-30 of this 333-folio paper manuscript.

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