Category Archives: Coptic Church

From the Introduction to the Feast of the Cross by His Grace Bishop Serapion: The Holy Cross held a prominent and revered place in early Christian life and worship. It was a sign of protection, holiness, worship, and blessing to believers everywhere, even before The Empress Helen discovered its location. In the early third century, for example, Christians made the sign of the Cross on their foreheads three times daily as a sign of protection. In 211, the scholar Tertullian wrote,

“At every forward step and movement, at every going in and out, when we put on our clothes and shoes, when we bathe, when we sit at table, when we light the lamps, on couch, on seat, in all the ordinary actions of daily life, we trace upon the forehead the sign [of the Cross].” Read the rest of this entry »

The present Feast, commemorating the Nativity in the flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, was established by the Church. Its origin goes back to the time of the Apostles. In the Apostolic Constitutions (Section 3, 13) it says, “Brethren, observe the feastdays; and first of all the Birth of Christ, which you are to celebrate on the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month.” In another place it also says, “Celebrate the day of the Nativity of Christ, on which unseen grace is given man by the birth of the Word of God from the Virgin Mary for the salvation of the world.”

In the second century St Clement of Alexandria also indicates that the day of the Nativity of Christ is December 25. In the third century St Hippolytus of Rome mentions the Feast of the Nativity of Christ, and appoints the Gospel readings for this day from the opening chapters of St Matthew.

In 302, during the persecution of Christians by Maximian, 20,000 Christians of Nicomedia (December 28) were burned in a church on the very Feast of the Nativity of Christ. Read the rest of this entry »

The first Church did not celebrate the birth of Christ. And the actual date of his birth was and still is unknown. The earliest known indication to such a celebration comes in a passing statement by St. Clement of Alexandria who mentions that the Egyptians of his time celebrated the Lord’s birth on May 20. At the end of the 3rd century, the Western Churches celebrated it in the winter, and this was only accepted in Rome in the middle of the 4th century.

Around that time it was agreed by the Church all over the world to celebrate the nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ on 25 December (29 Kiahk in the Coptic calendar), most probably to take the place of a pagan feast that even Christians continued to celebrate until then.

At that time, and until the sixteenth century, the civil calendar in use the world over was the Julian calendar, introduced by Julius Caesar in the year 46 B.C. Read the rest of this entry »

The church celebrates the appearance of the glorious Cross of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ twice:

The First on the sixteenth day of the month of tute (27th September), 326 A.D. by the hands of the righteous Empress St. Helen, the mother of Constantine the great the righteous emperor. This Saint when her son Constantine accepted the Faith in the Lord Christ, she vowed to go to Jerusalem. Her righteous son prepared everything needed to fulfill this holy visit.

When she arrived to Jerusalem with multitude of soldiers, she asked about the place of the Cross but no one would tell her. She took one of the jewish elders and pressured him by hunger and thirst until he was forced to direct them to the place where they might find the Cross at the hill of Golgotha. She ordered them to clear out the site of Golgotha where they found three crosses and that was in the year 326 A.D. However, they did not know the cross Read the rest of this entry »

The Coptic New Year is the very first calendar ever known by man on planet earth! It goes back 4241 BC.The word “Nayrouz” is of Coptic origin. The stem is niiaro-oo meaning: “the rivers.” The suffix “ouz” is Greek, thus, the word “Niiaroouz.”

Mid September is usually where the waters of the Nile river rises, so the prayers are lifted to God for the rising of the waters of the rivers for irrigation and ask for His blessings at the beginning (crown) of the Coptic Calendar year.

When the Persian ruled Egypt from 525-405 BC, they adopted the word and incorporated it in their language and took it to mean “the beginning of their Persian year,” and called it “Nayrouz.” The word “Nayrouz” in Persian, means “the new year.” Read the rest of this entry »

St. Mark the Founder

The Coptic Orthodox Church is an Apostolic Church.  It was founded by St. Mark the Apostle and Evangelist in the first century.  It is also known as “The Church of Alexandria” or “The See of St. Mark.”  It was one of the earliest four “sees” or “patriarchates”: Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, and Rome.  The see of Constantinople was founded in the fourth century.

With the establishment of the Church in Alexandria, St. Mark ordained deacons, priests and a bishop to assist him in his ministry.  Through an unbroken chain of apostolic succession, the present day patriarch, His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, is the 117^th successor of St. Mark. Read the rest of this entry »