SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

Comparison to Other contents of the Library: The monastic library found includes an extensive written vitae, martyriologies, and eulogies. Many names are peculiarly absent from the list of the commemorations in this codex. The absent names include the following: St. Macarius of Tkoou (M609 & Cairo Hamouli B) St. Cyprian (M609) St. Victor of Shu (M591) SS Paese and Thecla his sister (M591) St. Coluthus (M591) St. Theodore the General (M591) St. Theodore the Oriental (M613, 584) St. Mercurius (M588-89) St. Samuel of Qalamun (M578) St. Petoleme (M581) St. Archelites the Anchorite (M579) St. Longinus the Ascete (M579) St. Athanasius (M579)

 The current Evening and Morning readings are missing in our codex, indicating an early stage of development where such services were not performed or no fixed readings were assigned to them. Around the year 1300 in Wadi 'N Natrun we see such readings included in a Bohairic lectionary in the Manuscript collection of the Austrian National Library (Ms 6)  Lections in the current system are generally longer than the ones found in our Codex. The above mentioned manuscript tends to agree with our codex in the compactness of the readings though not always with the content.  Readings for the Maunday Thursday service are strangely missing, though the Bright Saturday one is included.  There are daily readings for the Lent and Paschaltide periods in the current system, but only Saturdays and Sundays of Lent and some during the Paschaltide period in our codex.  The Annual Lectionary of the current system include 69 sets of readings as opposed to some 26 ones that are available in this codex. Conclusions: This codex provides us with a glimpse of the liturgical practices in the region of the monastery. It seems like it was not the primary one in-use in the monastery, judging by its good state of preservation for these type of manuscripts. Its lack of the annual Sunday Readings points to the existence of a separate volume for such readings, which probably was used extensively and thus did not survive. Its lack of many important commemorations would lead me to believe that it was just housed in the monastery library. Its arrival in the monastery did not seem to have been planned. We do not have any donation subscription to that effect. The church to which this codex was donated to may have been deserted and someone transferred it to the monastery to keep it from meeting the same fate as the church. One probable scenario would be that the manuscript was a copy of a more ancient and primitive predecessor at the monastery. When it was brought back to the monastery, it was deemed to be too outdated to be put back in use. Thus it

St. Apollo the Archimandrite (M579) SS. Maximus and Dometius (M584) St. Leontius the Arab (M585) St. Philotheus (M583) St. Shenoufe (M583) St. Hilaria (M583) SS. Apaioule & Ptoleme (M583) St. Isidore (Cairo Hamouli) St. Helias (Cairo Hamouli) St. Phobammon (M582) St. Claudius of Antioch (M587) St. Onuphrius (M580) St. Epima (M580) St. Nabraha (Cairo Hamouli E) SS. Kosma & Damian (M586) Seven Sleeperes of Ephesus (M633) St. Phib the Anchorite (M633)

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

Comparison to Current Liturgical Cycle: Our Codex in essence contains the entire Lectionary System of the Coptic Church, except for the regular Sunday readings: Annual Lectionary, Lent, Pascha, Paschaltide. Many interesting contrasts are found between the current system and the contents of our codex. Among these we find the following:

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