SSCN Voumes 1-10, 1994-2004

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

Depictions of Monastic Genealogy at the Monastery of St. Antony" . It took the audience on an excursion to the Eastern Desert of Egypt to the newly restored St. Antony Church in his monastery near the Red Sea. There, Dr. Bolman introduced the audience, through colorful slides, to the influence of Wadi al-Natrun outside its borders, as evidenced by the iconography found in that church. These beautiful 13 th century wall paintings depicted many of the pillars of Wadi al-Natrun monasticism. This is a great testimony for them to have such a prominent place in the ancient church of the monastery that the father of monasticism has founded. The wonderful work done on that church is now available in a book titled, Monastic Visions, Wall Paintings in the Monastery of St. Antony at the Red Sea, published by Yale University Press, 2002 and is available through Amazon.com (ISBN No. 0300092245). Session Four, February, 3, 2002; Chairman: Prof. L. van Rompay: This session included five papers which dealt primarily with Art and Art motifs found on this site plus the ethnic makeup of its community over the centuries. The first paper was by Prof. L-A Hunt, titled, "Art at Wadi al-Natrun" . In this paper, the author surveyed the main Art categories found in the area monasteries. This included Woodwork, Wall Paintings, Icon Paintings (or Icon Writing as the iconographer passionately refers to it), and manuscript illuminations. She made very important observations and comments on these art elements. For example in the case of woodwork, a remark was made about the existence of such work, as displayed there, in both Egypt and Syria. A Coptic origin from Wadi al-Natrun however was suggested. Much analytic work on the material is still lacking. In the area of Wall Paintings, a special emphasis was given to the images of the Virgin Mary found in Deir al-Surian. On Icon Paintings, she suggested a 13 th century Western influence, which probably would be attributed to the contact with the European Crusaders. Her remarks about illuminations found in one of the manuscripts, housed in the Mingana Collection in

the stone/brick altar, underground vault (possible crypt), some wall paintings, gold coins, and inscriptions. Also some domestic installations were uncovered in the adjoining area. The third paper was by Dr. P. Grossmann, titled, "Architecture at Wadi al-Natrun" . It dealt with a survey of the architectural features found in the monastic settlements of the area and the purpose they served. He paid special attention to the excavation of St. John the Little's monastery, introduced previously in the paper by Prof. Van Elderen. In that respect, he traced three stages of construction in the Church as evidenced by the archaeological finds. One other statement worthy of mention here is that the Khurus (the first section west of the Sanctuary in the Coptic Church) became extinct during the Mamluk Period, circa 14 th century. The fourth paper was by Prof. S. K. Samir, titled, "Wadi al-Natrun and the Christian Arabic Literature of the Copts" . In this paper, the author tried to answer the question of what did the monks of Wadi al-Natrun read in Arabic. His survey of the contents of the libraries in the area concentrated on that of St. Macarius Monastery, which Fr. Zanetti has studied and published an inventory of its contents. There, over half of the contents are liturgical works and a little more than 5% are theological works. He also remarked about the absence of any Islamic, Arabic literary texts, or scientific texts there even though some of these are found in Syrian monasteries. Among the theological and biblical commentary works found in the library were those of Severus of Ashmunain, Bulus al-Bushi, Ibn Katib Kaisar, Ibn al-Assal, Ibn al-Tayyib (Nestorian), and of course the translations of St. John Chrysostom. He also indicated that the monastery provided a bridge between different cultures as evidenced by the presence of works of Nestorian writers and the Vatican Psalm Polygott manuscript that Dr. Richter referred to in his paper on the Coptic literature of the area. The fifth and last paper of this session and the day was by Dr. E. Bolman, titled, "Scetis at Red Sea:

St. Shenouda Coptic Newsletter

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