SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

travel to Los Angeles, because he had to undergo a surgical intervention. In spite of his health problems, however, Van Moorsel spent a lot of time on the preparation of the lecture he intended to give here. At his death, the lecture was almost finished, and through the quick intervention of some of his friends and colleagues we are now able to read his text and to show the slides that Van Moorsel had selected himself. Who was Paul van Moorsel, or Abuna Bulos, as he was called by his many Coptic friends? He was both a priest and an art historian, Dutch by birth, but in the last years of his life almost Coptic in mind. He was a Roman Catholic parish priest in the city of Alphen (south of Amsterdam), but until 1989 he was also professor of Early-Christian art at the University of Leiden in The Netherlands. His activities as an art historian led him to Egypt, where he was surprised by the unexpected riches of the Coptic cultural past. In 1981 Van Moorsel was charged with the responsibility of a project of the French archaeological institute in Cairo, which aimed at the documentation of wall paintings in Coptic monasteries and churches. His book on the wall paintings in Saint Anthony's Monastery was recently published, while he finished the manuscript of the study about the murals of Saint Paul's Monastery; this will now be published posthumous. In 1986, he and his team of Dutch scholars started with the documentation of icons in the Coptic Museum in Old Cairo, as well as in several monasteries and churches. The result of this work was the catalogue of the icon collection of the museum, that was published in 1994 (and will hopefully have a second edition in the next future). At that moment Paul van Moorsel was already one of the most important authorities on Coptic art. In the last years before his retirement in 1991, he even was appointed at his university as professor of Coptic art - the only one in the world until now! During his visits to Egypt Van Moorsel had developed very warm feelings for the Coptic community and the Coptic Orthodox Church. He realized that for the preservation of Coptic art

objects something more than scientific work alone was needed. He saw that in this matter help from western scholars was not enough. The real work should be done by those who are responsible for the Coptic artistic heritage: the Copts themselves. So, in 1991 the project Egyptian-Netherlands Cooperation for Coptic Art Preservation (ENCCAP) was created. Now, almost ten years later, scholars from The Netherlands and Coptic monks and staff-members of the Coptic Museum are working side by side on the same matter: to save the many Coptic murals, icons, and other witnesses from the past for the future generations. Van Moorsel was the godfather of the ENCCAP project. Even after his retirement he continued his scientific activities in close collaboration with the scholars of the University of Leiden who are continuing his work. Characteristic for his enormous zeal is the fact that he did not only spend the last weeks of his life on the final editorial work of the reprint of all his articles, but also on the preparation of the lecture he intended to give here. He wanted to share his knowledge with the Copts, in Egypt as well as abroad, and he was convinced that a better understanding of ancient Coptic art was only possible if one was open to the present- day Copts. One particular example illustrates the way in which he was able to combine his activities as a scholar, those as a Roman Catholic priest and his love for everything that was Coptic. He learned that the Coptic Orthodox Church was the only one who keeps the chalice of the Eucharist in a kind of box, which was put on the altar: the Qursi. Not only did he write several scientific articles on this 'Throne of the chalice', he also asked a Coptic monk to produce a Qursi for his own use, in his parish church in Alphen. On the sixth of July, during the funeral liturgy for Paul Van Moorsel, this Qursi was standing on the altar. It was a silent but clearly visible witness of what he meant for the Copts. They have lost a good friend. Ma'asalama Abuna Bulos. May God bless you.

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

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