SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

vigil of Holy Saturday (Bright Saturday). The presenter discussed the text of this blessing from some of the manuscripts that he has collated, most notably those of Vatican Copt. 16 (AD 1345) and Ryland Ms. 423 (AD 1375). He noted the presence of 'fill-in-the-blank' formulas for the names of current abbot, bishop, or patriarch. Such practice is traditionally followed in many Coptic liturgical texts to allow for a wide-scale use. He dealt with some of the names found in common and unique to some of these manuscripts. The text discussed here reminds one of the commemoration text typically found in the Coptic Office of the Psalmodia. A microfilm copy of the Vatican manuscript is available for consultation at the Society's Los Angeles Coptic Center (CML 1155C). Takla, H. N. (USA). Copto (Bohairic)-Arabic Manuscripts: Their Role in the Tradition of the Coptic Church. This presentation provided an attempt to investigate the types of liturgical Copto- Arabic that survived. This yielded a grouping of three distinct types: Coptic with Arabic Rubrics, Coptic and Arabic in parallel, and Coptic text in full or abbreviated followed by the Arabic translation. This work was done primarily as a study of the Coptic manuscript tradition from the 12th to the 20th century. The presenter showed that although these types have survived simultaneously for the past few centuries, they originated at different times in an evolutionary but not superseding fashion. These types appeared in the 12th century, 13-14th century, and the 17th century, respectively. The presentation also included a discussion of the purpose of the Arabic column in the two-columned Copto-Arabic manuscripts. This yielded the conclusion that Arabic was being used as a reference translation and was not intended for use in the service. This was based on its consistent narrow dimension, its lack of text division common to liturgical manuscripts, and the concurrent presence of Arabic Manuscripts of the same subject. This in particular applied to the Coptic Euchologion and the Coptic Psalmodia.

The use of this grouping to establish a dating criteria for such manuscripts is useful and not yet accurate. More accuracy can be achieved using a finer classification within these major types identified above. Bishop Thomas (Egypt). Ancient Folklore and the Modern Coptic Church. This presentation was more a call for researcher on ancient folklore than a regular study of the subject. Its significance was not only because of the subject matter but rather by the call being made by such a prominent representative of the Coptic Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. In short, the bishop called for anthropologists to study some of the lay religious traditions or customs that the church was forced to abandon in an effort to modernize and purify the religious practices. Such customs are very important to the history of the Copts. Their purging was a result of the ordination of clergy that are either more educated or not native to these areas or both. The bishop emphasized the urgency of scientifically documenting such practices before their live witnesses take such knowledge to the grave with them. The bishop also shared a number of customs that he actually witnessed their disappearance in his diocese. It is refreshing to have a Coptic bishop express the importance of preserving Coptic Folklore even if it does not fit the current ecclesiastical practices. We hope that scholars would take on such a challenge in an urgent fashion. Youssef, Y. N. (Australia). A Contribution to the Coptic Biography of Severus of Antioch. The presenter has employed a novel approach of authenticating and recovering hagiographical material from liturgical sources. The object of the presentation was the Coptic biography of Severus of Antioch which survived in a few Sahidic fragments. He compared texts from Bohairic doxologies and Bohairic and Sahidic Antiphonarion (Difnar) to those of the different and later extant lives. The presenter introduced the geneology of as the text from its Greek original by the Syrian Patriarch Athanasius to Coptic to Arabic to Ethiopian of which the latter being the most

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