# Mercurius of Caesarea

Source: https://coptic-lore-forge.lovable.app/wiki/mercurius-of-caesarea — Coptic Orthodox Wiki (updated 2026-10-04)

Mercurius of Caesarea is a third-century Roman army officer and Christian martyr associated with Caesarea in Cappadocia. Known in Arabic as Abu Sayfayn, “Father of Two Swords,” he is commemorated by the Coptic Church on 25 Hatur and honored through miracle narratives, relic commemorations, and churches and monasteries bearing his name.

## Overview

**Mercurius of Caesarea** is a Roman soldier-martyr associated with Caesarea in Cappadocia and with the persecution under Emperor Decius. The Coptic tradition commemorates him on **25 Hatur** and credits him with numerous appearances and miracles after his death. He is also known as **Philopater**, **Marqurah**, and **Abu Sayfayn**, the last meaning “Father of Two Swords.”[^1][^2][^3][^4]

His importance in Coptic Christianity extends beyond the narrative of his martyrdom. Coptic and Arabic sources preserve accounts of his life, panegyrics, and collections of miracles; churches, monasteries, and a women’s convent bear his name. Michel van Esbroeck’s encyclopedia account, citing Hippolyte Delehaye, identifies Egypt as the country in which his veneration became most widespread.[^7][^11][^12]

Mercurius of Caesarea must be distinguished from other saints named Mercurius. The supplied calendar material separately lists an ascetic and bishop commemorated on 1 Baramhat, while another entry names Mercurius and Ephraem, monks from Akhmim commemorated on 30 Abib.[^2][^36]

## History and origins

### Family, conversion, and military service

The traditional life begins with a pagan Macedonian family of hunters in the third century. The child originally bears the name Philopater. His father, Gordianus, is miraculously rescued from mortal danger through an angel’s intervention and consequently seeks conversion to Christianity. At the family’s Baptism, the local bishop gives the child the name Mercurius.[^4]

At twenty years of age, Mercurius serves in the Roman war in Armenia, in the cohort of Martenses commanded by Saturninus. The Coptic forms of the commander’s name include Sardonicus and Bartonikos. Gordianus is also described as an officer in the same cohort. Mercurius receives supernatural assistance through the appearance of a dazzling man, identified as an angel, and distinguishes himself in battle; Decius subsequently promotes him to general.[^4]

The Arabic *Life of the Martyr Philopater Mercurius* gives a fuller battlefield episode. After prolonged fighting between Romans and their opponents, a majestic figure appears with a drawn sword, assures Mercurius of assistance, and gives him the weapon. Mercurius initially supposes that the visitor is one of the ruler’s officials. Upon receiving the sword, he is filled with the Holy Spirit, attacks the opposing force, kills its leader and many soldiers, and contributes to its defeat. The account emphasizes the intensity of the fighting by describing his exhaustion and his hand becoming fixed to the blood-covered sword hilt.[^5]

In that Arabic account, Decius rewards Mercurius with command over the army, distributes money among the soldiers, and arranges celebrations on the return toward Rome. The emperor attributes the victory to his gods. The narrative then begins another angelic appearance, this time at night, in the form of the figure Mercurius had seen during the battle.[^5]

### Confession and martyrdom

In the encyclopedia’s account of the life, the angel explicitly tells Mercurius that his victory came from the Lord, the God of the Christians, about whom he had learned from his father in childhood. When Mercurius refuses to join those sacrificing to Artemis, identified in the account as the moon goddess, Decius summons him. Mercurius throws his weapons at the emperor’s feet in order to take up “the arms of Christ.”[^4]

The ensuing sufferings belong to the traditional Passion narrative. Mercurius is fastened by his arms and legs above a fire, which his blood extinguishes, and is subsequently healed in prison. Further tortures include suspension upside down with a stone around his neck, beating with four-ply cords, and burning with heated iron. Decius finally orders him returned to Cappadocia for execution by the sword.[^4]

The journey to execution is described as proceeding in long stages. At his death, the saint’s body becomes white and gives off heavenly fragrances. The account identifies 25 Hatur as the commemoration of this execution; the introductory notice places his martyrdom at Caesarea in Cappadocia during the third century.[^1][^4]

## Theology and meaning

The military narrative contrasts two explanations of the same victory. Decius understands it as evidence of his gods’ power, while the angel directs Mercurius to acknowledge the God of the Christians. In the Arabic narrative, the gift of the sword and the filling with the Holy Spirit make divine assistance, rather than military ability alone, central to the saint’s success.[^4][^5]

Mercurius’s surrender of his weapons gives the account its decisive change of direction. The soldier who has gained imperial favor relinquishes that favor rather than participate in sacrifice, exchanging service to the emperor for the “arms of Christ.” Within the narrative, his military distinction prepares the contrast between worldly promotion and fidelity maintained through suffering.[^4]

The saint’s activity does not end with his death in the literary tradition. Miracle collections connect his appearances with the construction of his martyrium at Caesarea, while another tradition assigns him a role in the death of Julian the Apostate. These accounts present martyrdom as the beginning of a continuing supernatural agency, not simply the conclusion of a military biography.[^7][^8]

## Texts, terminology, and literary transmission

### Names and titles

The sources preserve several forms of the saint’s name. **Philopater** is his name before baptism in the traditional life; the *History of the Patriarchs*, when discussing Mark VII, uses the form **Philopator Mercurius**. **Marquriyus** occurs in the description of his principal church, and **Marqurah** appears as an alternative name in the martyr catalogue.[^2][^3][^4][^13]

**Abu Sayfayn**, also written **Abu al-Sayfayn**, is translated as “Father of Two Swords” or “the father with the two swords.” The title passes from the saint to churches and monastic enclosures dedicated to him. Numerous icons portray him with the two weapons.[^3][^11][^12]

The Old Cairo church illustrates the variety of written forms. Arabic manuscripts call it the church of **Abu Marqurah**, while a Garshuni manuscript—Arabic written in Syriac characters—uses **Mar Quryus**. Two late Coptic manuscripts describe it as “Mercurius at the tetrapylon of the river.” Western travelers called it the church of “Mari Moncure” or “Saint Macarius”; the source suggests that the latter designation arose through confusion between Marqurah and Maqarah.[^37]

### Coptic Passions and miracle collections

The Coptic material includes a *Passion Under Decius* substantially agreeing with the principal Greek text, *Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graeca* 1274. The encyclopedia reports five manuscript witnesses and identifies among them Morgan Library M 588, whose relevant witness dates to the ninth century; British Museum Or. 6801; Paris fragment 129.15, 19; and Morgan M 589, containing a tenth-century Fayyumic version.[^7]

Another Passion survives fragmentarily at the beginning of an anonymous text in Or. 6802. An abridged Passion appears within an incomplete panegyric attributed to Acacius of Caesarea in Morgan M 588 and M 589. The same Morgan manuscripts preserve seven miracles associated with construction of Mercurius’s martyrium, material also represented in another version of the Acacius panegyric in Or. 6802.[^7]

Additional miracle fragments survive in Paris manuscript 129.15, 20, from Dayr Anba Shinudah, and in Vienna manuscripts K9456 and K7655 a–b. The encyclopedia identifies Or. 6802 as the sole complete witness of the panegyric attributed to Acacius. It also records a panegyric attributed to Basil the Great, apparently belonging to a pseudo-Basilian cycle characterized by recurring references to the Sarmates tribe in Lazica.[^7]

The literary survey places Mercurius among saints whose narratives took the form of classical epic Passions. It also connects a miracle in his Passion with the cycle concerning Julian, alongside the Passions of Judas Cyriacus and Eusignius. This classification situates his story within a larger process of connecting individual martyr narratives into literary cycles.[^10]

### The disputed attribution to Acacius

The authorship of the Coptic *Encomium of the Martyr Mercurius* is uncertain. The encyclopedia distinguishes the historically recognized Acacius of Caesarea in Palestine, bishop in 340–366, from an Acacius of Neocaesarea mentioned in the work attributed to Dioscorus concerning Macarius of Tkow. The Palestinian bishop succeeded Eusebius, preceded Gelasius, and represented Arian theology.[^6]

The second Acacius, according to pseudo-Dioscorus, was deposed at Ephesus in 431 for disobedience rather than heresy, replaced by Firmo, and restored after Firmo’s death. The source does not decide which figure the person responsible for the Mercurius attribution intended. It places that act of attribution within the seventh- and eighth-century period of Coptic homiletic “cycles.”[^6]

The encomium survives in a shorter form regarded as probably original and an expanded derivative. The shorter title names “Saint Apa Acacius, Bishop of Caesarea”; the expanded form specifies “Neo-Caesarea of Cappadocia.” The shorter recension is preserved in British Library Oriental 6802.25–43, a Sahidic manuscript of the eleventh–twelfth centuries, and consists of a brief prologue followed by a lengthy exposition that is essentially a modest reworking of the Passion.[^6]

### Arabic transmission

Arabic witnesses include a nineteenth-century Passion in Paris, Arabic 4781, folios 108–117, and a fourteenth-century manuscript from Saint Catherine’s Monastery at Sinai, now Paris Arabic 397, folios 193–210. The Sinai manuscript follows the Passion with an account attributed to Basil concerning Mercurius and Julian.[^11]

Miracle collections differ in extent: Paris Arabic 4781, folios 118–151, contains eleven miracles, while seventeenth-century Arabic 4793, folios 49–122, contains fifteen. An eighteenth-century manuscript in the Coptic Museum, Cairo, Graf 479, folios 172–191, preserves an Arabic translation from Coptic of a panegyric attributed to Acacius.[^11]

### Julian and the comparison of traditions

An account of Mercurius’s miraculous execution of Julian is appended to the Passion under Decius in Or. 6801 and appears in the Acacius panegyric in Morgan M 588. The latter claims to derive the account from chapters 10 and 11 of Eusebius’s *Ecclesiastical History*; this is a claim made within the transmitted text, not an independently established attribution.[^8]

The comparative discussion also describes a narrative in which the saint’s lance in an icon is found covered with blood after Julian’s execution. This appears in the *Life of Basil* attributed to Amphilochius. Orlandi notes that the work had already been translated into Latin in the ninth century; related miracle material occurs in a Georgian Sinai manuscript dated 864, while the miracle concerning Peter of Sebasteia is witnessed in an Arabic manuscript dated 855.[^9]

Orlandi distinguishes two centers in the development of the Julian legend: Antioch, where the Forty Martyrs are the protagonists, and Caesarea, where Mercurius executes Julian. The proposed explanation for the Syriac form involves harmonization and wordplay on **Mar Qurus**, since Cyrus is the name of one of the Forty Martyrs. The source contrasts the absence of a Syriac Passion of Mercurius with the substantial Armenian and Georgian transmission of his martyrdom under Decius.[^9]

One sentence in the Arabic-tradition discussion reverses the relationship, referring to “Mercurius’s execution by Julian,” although the surrounding accounts present Mercurius as Julian’s supernatural executioner and place his own martyrdom under Decius. The sources therefore do not offer a fully consistent explanation of the swords’ iconographic origin; the separate Arabic life explicitly describes the gift of a sword in battle.[^2][^5][^8][^11]

## Liturgical commemoration and practical use

### Feast days and relics

Three commemorations are recorded: **25 Hatur**, the martyrdom; **9 Ba’unah**, the arrival in Egypt of portions of the saint’s relics through Patriarch John XIII, whose patriarchate is given as 1484–1524; and **25 Abib**, their preservation in a church dedicated to Mercurius in Old Cairo. Another passage identifies 25 Abib as the dedication day of Patriarch Abraham’s church and dates the movement of the relics there to **1488**.[^1][^12]

These notices connect the saint’s remembrance to both his Passion and the history of his Egyptian shrine. The annual dates distinguish the martyr’s death from the arrival and housing of his relics, while the dedication tradition associates his commemoration with the establishment or renewal of a local church.[^1][^12]

### Worship spaces and furnishings

The ambo of the Old Cairo church bears Psalm 107:32: “Let them extol him in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders.” A. J. Butler described its pillars and wedges as covered with minute mosaics of colored marble and shell-pearl. Another church of Mercurius, in Harit Zuwaylah, possesses a notable eighteenth-century wooden pulpit.[^19]

The architectural survey explains that an ambo is used for Gospel reading and ecclesiastical addresses, with particular use during Holy Week when clergy ascend it bearing crosses, candles, and Crucifixion icons. These are general functions described by the source, rather than a separate Mercurius-specific liturgical rite.[^19]

The Old Cairo church also provides evidence for the arrangement of the **khurus**, the room between sanctuary and nave. Its broad central opening contains columns with wooden framing, interpreted as possibly supporting a curtain. Full-height grilles fill the spaces between gallery columns. In Barsum’s former dwelling at the church’s north wall, an altar was installed at a later date.[^17][^18][^20]

## The principal shrine in Old Cairo

### Enclosure and setting

Dayr Abu Sayfayn is a Christian enclosure named after its principal church. It includes churches of Saint Shenute and the Virgin Mary and a convent of nuns dedicated to Mercurius. The source locates it north of Qasr al-Sham‘, in Jami‘ ‘Amr Street, near the Hilwan railway and northwest of the mosque of ‘Amr ibn al-‘As.[^3]

The site’s historical descriptions preserve its character as a walled Christian quarter. Vansleb in 1672 described a rampart-enclosed domain of the Coptic patriarch called Haret il Batrak. Butler in 1884 placed the enclosure half a mile beyond Mari Mina; Jullien in 1891 called it a small town surrounded by ramparts, and Casanova in 1919 described an important group of buildings in ancient Fustat.[^16]

Construction of the enclosure is tentatively assigned to the twelfth century and to Ibn Abu al-Fada’il ibn Faruj. Butler described a heavy entrance door plated with iron bands and bolt-heads, followed by a dim passage turning toward the Virgin’s church and a short internal street. Until the late Middle Ages, the Nile flowed farther east than it does in the source’s modern description, placing the riverbank in front of Mercurius’s church.[^16][^14]

### Foundation, rebuilding, and damage

The architectural account calls Mercurius’s church the largest ancient church in the Babylon area. Its surviving foundations, portions of the outer wall, and eastern sanctuary indicate a broad building with a northern annex, perhaps a baptistery. That account cautiously suggests a pre-Muslim foundation; the saint’s encyclopedia entry assigns the Old Cairo church a sixth-century origin.[^13][^12]

Following partial destruction and secularization, the church was rebuilt under Patriarch Abraham in the late tenth century, reusing much of the older structure. Another account specifies Abraham’s patriarchate as 975–978 and describes the building’s intervening use as a sugarcane warehouse.[^13][^14]

The *History of the Patriarchs* connects the restoration with the legend of the mountain moved through faith during the reign of al-Mu‘izz. In that narrative, the caliph permits Abraham’s church-building program after the miracle. The encyclopedia distinguishes this legendary explanation from the uncertain question of funding: the patriarchal history reports state support, while the encyclopedia author considers Abraham’s own resources a more likely source.[^15]

Patriarch Christodoulus made the church his residence in the eleventh century. During Mark III’s patriarchate, 1167–1189, a mob burned and pillaged it. Reconstruction financed by Abu al-Barakat ibn Abu Sa’id Hablan permitted reopening in **1175**. The church was closed in **March 1301**, together with Egypt’s other churches according to the account, and reopened in **1312–1313**; further restorations occurred in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.[^12][^14]

Descriptions differ about what escaped the fire. The architectural survey reports that only Saint George’s chapel at the east end of the south gallery remained intact. The church history names both Saint John the Baptist’s and Saint George’s chapels as spared, probably locating them in the south nave and its corresponding upper gallery.[^13][^14]

### Surviving architectural phases

The south-wall windows and the rows of nave pillars are assigned to Abraham’s rebuilding. The khurus is a later insertion into the older church, and its dome belongs to reconstruction after the twelfth-century fire. Two northeastern chapels were probably added in the twelfth century; the nearer follows a reduced four-column design, with irregularities arising from its integration with the original northern annex.[^13]

The detailed church entry describes the principal church together with northeastern oratories on two levels and northwestern chapels above the north vestibule and **mandarah**, or reception hall. The differences in emphasis between these descriptions reflect their treatment of different portions and phases of the complex.[^14]

Immediately south stands the Church of Saint Sinuthius, or Anba Shinudah, mentioned by the middle of the eighth century. The third church, the Virgin’s al-Damshiriyyah, is associated in al-Kindi’s account with buildings demolished under ‘Ali ibn Sulayman al-‘Abbasi in the eighth century, although the survival of material from that period remains uncertain.[^13][^38]

## Saints and church figures connected with the shrine

### Barsum the Naked

Barsum the Naked made his hermitage in a small, gloomy, serpent-inhabited cave within the Church of Mercurius. The encyclopedia gives twenty years for this residence but records fifteen in the Arabic Synaxarion and thirty-three in the Ethiopian account. During oppression of Christians he moved to the roof, enduring heat and cold, before arrest and a short imprisonment.[^21]

After release he took refuge at Dayr Shahran, south of Cairo, another monastery dedicated to Mercurius that later received Barsum’s name. Ibn al-Suqa‘i places his residence there from 1300 for seventeen years. Barsum died on 5 Nasi A.M. 1033, given as 28 August 1317, and was buried before the monastery church’s door. His former dwelling in the Old Cairo church remained identifiable in the encyclopedia’s description.[^21]

### Patriarchs and institutional use

Gabriel VII’s father, the hegumenos Jirjis ibn Rufa’il, served as parish priest of the Church of Mercurius in Old Cairo. Gabriel himself, patriarch from 1525 to 1568, was buried there after dying at the Monastery of Saint Antony on 26 October 1568. His body was transported to Cairo on 25 November, and the burial took place in the presence of eighty-five bishops and priests.[^22][^23]

John XVII was consecrated patriarch in the church after being escorted to Cairo in 1727. The encyclopedia’s index also records consecrations there of Peter V and Gabriel VIII, a patriarchal consecration of Ignatius IX, and the consecration of Bishop Yuhanna. These references establish the church’s use for major ecclesiastical events beyond the annual commemoration of its patron.[^24][^25][^26][^27]

## Regional and historical traditions

### Tamwayh

Dayr Abu al-Sayfayn at Tamwayh lies on the Nile’s left bank, approximately 25 kilometers south of Cairo. Its earliest surviving mention appears to be al-Shabushti’s account from the late tenth or early eleventh century. Abu Salih reports that its church was destroyed by troops of al-Saffah pursuing Marwan II in **750** and restored in **1102–1130**; in Abu Salih’s own time it supported a substantial monastic community.[^29]

Abu Salih associates the church with the body of Saint Paphnutius, an anchorite and superior commemorated on 15 Amshir, but also assigns his relics to Dayr al-Sham‘. Al-Maqrizi names Saint George as patron, which the encyclopedia interprets as probable confusion with another church in the Tamwayh district. These notices leave genuine uncertainties about the identification of relics and dedications.[^29]

Yaqut mentioned the monastery in 1200, and al-Maqrizi repeated earlier descriptions, including al-Shabushti’s praise of it as one of Egypt’s most beautiful places. The source notes the form **Tammuh** as closer to the Coptic vocalization. The *History of the Patriarchs* records restoration during Demetrius II’s patriarchate, 1862–1870; travelers also described the site under the forms “Abouenemora” and “Abou Nemrus.”[^29]

### Akhmim

The Church of Abu Sayfayn occupies a walled enclosure in southeastern Akhmim. Its larger division contains an Ottoman-period cemetery, while the smaller gives access to two adjoining churches: a twentieth-century, three-aisled basilica with rectangular sanctuaries and an older domed hall church representing a local architectural tradition developed in the Mamluk period.[^30]

The older church originally measured five bays across and three deep, with three sanctuaries flanked by rectangular rooms. Construction of the adjoining church removed its northern row of bays and corner room. Domes on windowed squinches cover the bays before the central sanctuary, while pendentives support the side-bay domes.[^30]

The sanctuaries have straight sides ending in semicircular apses with rounded niches. Wooden screens contain central doors and side windows, with inlaid geometric decoration on the left screen and painted designs on the others. Fired-brick columns, arches, and domes carry black-and-red cross patterns; other walls are mud brick, plastered and whitewashed. A marble **laqqan**, or Epiphany tank, stands beside the entrance, and the bishop’s throne is behind the central altar.[^30]

### Idfu and other foundations

A Monastery of Saint Mercurius at Idfu is associated with twenty-two manuscripts acquired by the British Library in 1913 and 1923, mostly parchment manuscripts of the tenth and eleventh centuries. Their colophons name several establishments, including the *topos* of Saint Michael, the *topos* of Apa Aaron, and Mercurius’s monastery. The source accordingly cautions against treating the surviving monastery near Idfu as the region’s only historic monastic site.[^31]

Its changing recorded names also complicate identification: the *Description d’Egypte* gives “Mahallet Mangourah,” tentatively interpreted as Marqurah or Mercurius, while other descriptions use Michael, Pachomius, or George. Elsewhere, al-Maqrizi locates a Dayr Marqurah east of Daljah in the stony desert margin, and the encyclopedia separately lists an Abu Sayfayn foundation at Qus.[^31][^34][^35]

In Cairo, the saint’s entry distinguishes three churches: the Old Cairo foundation, one associated with the women’s convent Dayr al-Banat, and another at Harit Zuwaylah. The small church later named for Anba Ruways, in the former Dayr al-Khandaq at Abbassiyyah, had previously been dedicated to Mercurius; Ruways was buried in its crypt with four patriarchs.[^12][^32]

## Significance in Coptic Orthodox life

The evidence presents Mercurius’s Egyptian reception through several connected forms: calendar commemorations, relics, literary traditions in multiple languages, recognizable two-sword imagery, and religious buildings used by both monastic communities and church leadership. The Old Cairo enclosure combines the saint’s principal church with a women’s convent, while historical records continue to name that convent into the nineteenth century.[^1][^3][^7][^11][^12][^33]

His churches also preserve the memory of other holy figures, especially Barsum the Naked, and of patriarchal residence, consecration, and burial. The resulting heritage is therefore not limited to retelling the ancient Passion: it includes successive episodes of Egyptian Christian worship, rebuilding, ascetic life, and institutional history.[^12][^14][^21][^23][^24]

The encyclopedia documents surviving buildings, furnishings, and communities at the time of its descriptions. Those accounts provide a basis for understanding the saint’s continuing Coptic importance, but they should not be treated as a current survey of every foundation or its present-day activities.[^3][^19][^30][^33]


## Frequently asked questions

**Who was Saint Mercurius of Caesarea?**
Mercurius was a Roman army officer and Christian martyr of the third century, associated with Caesarea in Cappadocia. His traditional life recounts military distinction followed by martyrdom under Emperor Decius after he refused to participate in pagan sacrifice.

**What does Abu Sayfayn mean?**
Abu Sayfayn means “Father of Two Swords,” an Arabic epithet of Saint Mercurius. His two swords appear in many icons, and an Arabic account of his life describes him receiving a sword through supernatural assistance in battle.

**When is Saint Mercurius celebrated in the Coptic Church?**
His principal commemoration is 25 Hatur. The sources also record 9 Ba’unah for the arrival of portions of his relics in Egypt under Patriarch John XIII, and 25 Abib for their preservation in his church in Old Cairo.

**Where is the Church of Abu Sayfayn?**
The principal Church of Abu Sayfayn stands within the Christian enclosure of Dayr Abu Sayfayn in Old Cairo, north of Qasr al-Sham‘ and near the mosque of ‘Amr ibn al-‘As. The enclosure also contains churches of Saint Shenute and the Virgin Mary and a convent dedicated to Mercurius.

**What is the connection between Mercurius and Julian the Apostate?**
A later miracle tradition represents Mercurius as the supernatural executioner of Emperor Julian. The sources distinguish this narrative from Mercurius’s martyrdom under Decius and discuss its transmission in several languages.

## Sources
[^1]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 603)
[^2]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 513)
[^3]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 3, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 125)
[^4]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 604)
[^5]: سيرة الشهيد فيلوباتير مرقريوس, كرستين فوزي عياد (p. 27)
[^6]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 122)
[^7]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 603)
[^8]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 604)
[^9]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 606)
[^10]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 4, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 469)
[^11]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 606)
[^12]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 607)
[^13]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 6)
[^14]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 566)
[^15]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 33)
[^16]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 3, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 125)
[^17]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 513)
[^18]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 533)
[^19]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 285)
[^20]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 529)
[^21]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 79)
[^22]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 4, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 318)
[^23]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 4, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 320)
[^24]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 4, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 886)
[^25]: The Coptic Encyclopedia — Index, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 92)
[^26]: The Coptic Encyclopedia — Index, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 187)
[^27]: The Coptic Encyclopedia — Index, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 360)
[^29]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 3, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 129)
[^30]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 206)
[^31]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 3, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 381)
[^32]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 1, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 330)
[^33]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 712)
[^34]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 754)
[^35]: The Coptic Encyclopedia — List of Articles, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 20)
[^36]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 130)
[^37]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 566)
[^38]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 2, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 7)