SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

the able guardians of the Coptic collection of the museum. Through my extended, pleasant conversation with her, I was able to get a clear picture of what was there. I also learned that the responsibility for the study of literary and documentary material is now delegated to Dr. Anne Boud'Hors. The collection can be divided into four major groups: Written material, Bawit material, Textiles, and other miscellaneous art objects. The first two groups were collected over a short span of time with little or no growth potential. The last two, however, are the expanding parts of the collection. There is a variety of call numbers used at the Louvre. Items in the Coptic collection mostly start with E (Entry) or AF (Ancien Fonds) designations. Only the more interesting pieces are displayed in the Museum, as will be discussed later. The written material consists of over 1000 Ostraca, mainly from Baouit, Coptos (Qift), and other sites; about 225 Parchment and Papyrus manuscripts, mostly fragments or single leaves, and over 500 wooden tablets. The parchment fragments have been identified as belonging to the White Monastery library, and they all came to the museum at about the same time in the 19th century. The texts include many Old and New Testament texts, writings of St. Shenouda, other literary texts, liturgical texts, and magical texts. many of these fragments have related ones in other libraries around the world. The papyrus fragments are mostly documentary texts and private letters which made their way into the museum by the end of the 19th century. The wood tablets includes a very interesting codex of several tablets that is on display at the Coptic Room of the museum as part of the display case for Coptic writings. Material not displayed are preserved in a temperature and humidity-controlled environment at the Museum basement. Parchment and papyrus are mostly preserved in mylar sleeves and grouped in specially-marked cardboard boxes, which are in turn kept in a locked steel cabinet. Fragile Papyrus are preserved between glass or plexiglass plates and kept in the same steel cabinet. The other

outskirts of the city in a district called Villejuif. There I found two services being celebrated on Sunday. The early one is in Arabic and Coptic, and the later is in French with probably some Coptic. Other services during the week, including major feast days are also prayed. The church is served by three monks from Egypt. The other church in the North, the oldest of the two, have similar services but it is served by priests ordained from among the community. The newest church is served by a new priest from the community, ordained originally by the French bishops mentioned above, but now under the same jurisdiction as those of the other two churches. The sociological composition of these congregations is very similar to those found in other traditional West European cities. Doctors and college professors are the ones with permanent status. Others have to intermarry with French citizens or those from past French colonies to gain residency in the country. This of course makes for a turbulent and unpredictable future for the church. A good number of them have no permanent status which force them to pursue lower-skilled professions to be able to live. So as far as educational and professional level, it is either feast of famine there. However it is their poor, for the most part that helped the community there to establish and support these churches. I sincerely hope that one of Copts there would contribute a paper during the 2004 Paris Coptic Congress, dealing in more details about this community. A paper, in a scholarly format, that would address the development history, composition, and vision for such a community. The Society would also welcome such a submission to be presented at our Coptic conferences in Los Angeles. In this case, an English version would be required. Coptic Collection in the Louvre: One of my primary goals of the trip to Paris was to acquaint myself with the Coptic collection at the Louvre Museum. There I met on a couple of occasions with Madame Dominique Bénazeth, who along with Madame Marie-Hélène Rutschowscaya are

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

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