SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

Codex Contents: The Codex has lections for 47 commemorations in addition to one for meals and another for burial. The commemorations are arranged as follows: Tut (5), Hatur (6), Kiahk (3), Tuba (6), Amshir (1), Lent (12), Holy Week, including Easter (3), Paschaltide (6), Baramuda (1), Baunah (1), Abib (3). The following is observed:  Each set of readings include lections from the Pauline Epistles, Catholic Epistles, Acts of the Apostles, Psalms, and the Gospels.  Archangel Michael is commemorated on three different days, including two consecutive days in Hatur  Saturday and/or Sunday readings are included for the Lent and Pascaltide periods only.  Lent readings start with the Saturday and Sunday just before the official beginning of Lent.  Lent is referred to as the "40 Holy Days".  Only Saturday and Sunday readings are included during Lent for the Preparation Week and the first four weeks. Beginning with the fifth week, only Sunday readings are available.  The Sixth Sunday is referred to as "Sunday of Baptizing"  The Seventh Sunday, or Palm Sunday, is referred to as "Sunday of Zion".  Readings for the Paschaltide period are only for Monday, Tuesday, Saturday, and Sunday of the First Week; Feast of the Ascension, and the Pentecost.  The commemoration for St. Mark falls within the Paschaltide period, just before that of the feast of Ascension. Interestingly, the text refer to him as "St. Mark the Evangelist and Archbishop"  St. Shenouda is referred to as "our holy father the prophet Apa Shenoute"

mm in 2 columns with 29-34 lines each, and having 80 folios (160 pages). Its colophon reads: "Donation memorial by Pahoma; to the small Church of Apa Timothe at Tmouou", located not far from the present-day Hamouli 4 . Codex Publication: Although this manuscript was never published, it was included in Prof. H. Hyvernat's monumental 1922, 57-volume Photographic facsimile edition of the Hamouli manuscripts, including the related fragments, found in Europe and Egypt 5 . This publication was made when they were being restored and rebound in the Vatican during the period of 1912-1929. Our manuscript occupies volume 12 of the collection. If you are interested in viewing this publication, there are only 13 places in the world that hold the printed edition of this work. The first copy was personally presented by J. P. Morgan Jr., in a private audience, to Pope Pius XI, who was involved in the early history of the preservation in the Vatican in his earlier post of the vice-president of the Vatican Library. In the US there are five copies that were graciously donated by Mr. Morgan Jr. to key libraries in the East and Midwest, and they are: Harvard University (Cambridge, Mass), University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI), New York Public Library, Library of Congress (Washington, DC), the Catholic University of America (Washington DC). The other American copy was of course housed in the Pierpont Morgan Library (NYC, NY). Abroad, five sets were originally do ated to key international libraries at the time with a sixth set commissioned in the 1960's. The recipient libraries were those of the Coptic Museum (Cairo, Egypt), Cambridge University Library (Cambridge, UK), the British Museum (now in the British Library in London, UK), The Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium), the Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris, FR), the Vatican Apostolic Library (Pope Pius), and the new one went to the University of Durham (Durham, UK). A microfilm-converted microfiche copy of the entire set is housed at the St. Shenouda Center for Coptic Studies.

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter  The commemorations concluded with one for Abib 25 for "Enoch the Scribe" not known otherwise!

 The presence of a lection for Mealtime does support the monastic use or origin of this Lectionary.

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