Saint Papohe

Overview

Saint Papohe, whose name also appears as Papohé, is remembered as a disciple of Apa Apollo and as the steward associated with Apollo and Saint Phib. A brief notice in The Coptic Encyclopedia says that he was the author of a Life of Apa Phib, but qualifies the attribution with the words “said to be.” The longer account of Phib describes Papohe’s practical role more firmly: he relieved Apollo and Phib of the material necessities of life.¹⁶

The surviving account therefore presents Papohe through his relationships and service rather than through a continuous biography of his own. The encyclopedia’s index directs readers from “Papohé” to “Phib,” while its article on Phib identifies Apollo, Phib, and Papohe as the three principal figures in the Coptic Life. That article also observes that the Life actually teaches the reader more about Apollo than about Phib, despite its title.²⁵

History and origins

An incompletely documented life

Papohe’s birthplace is unknown, as is Apollo’s. The age at which any of the three companions became a monk is also unknown. The evidence thus establishes a monastic association without supplying the beginnings of Papohe’s personal history.⁵

The encyclopedia tentatively identifies the three figures in the Life with three monks bearing the same names in Coptic inscriptions discovered at Bawit at the beginning of the twentieth century. This proposed connection is important for locating their remembrance at Bawit, but the source presents it as an identification that “appears” likely, not as an unqualified conclusion.⁵

The chronology likewise requires care. The Life’s depiction of wandering monks is compared with forms of monastic life attested in documents of the fourth and fifth centuries; this comparison is not itself an explicit date for Papohe’s birth, death, or period of activity. Similarly, the year 994 belongs to the colophon of the surviving manuscript, not to Papohe’s lifetime.³⁶

Apollo, Phib, and Titkooh

The background to Papohe’s association with Apollo and Phib is supplied principally through the histories of his companions. According to the Coptic Life, Phib came from Psinemoun in the nome of Shmun. The encyclopedia interprets the latter place as probably Hermopolis Magna in Middle Egypt, noting its proximity to Bawit.⁷

Apollo and Phib appear to have spent five years as disciples of a certain Petra, or Peter, before separating from him and taking up residence in Titkooh. The encyclopedia tentatively identifies Titkooh with Titkois, a village attested in papyri from the second century, and explicitly states that the monastery of Titkooh could not have been founded by this Apollo. The account assigns the five-year discipleship to Apollo and Phib; it does not include Papohe in that particular episode.⁷

This distinction matters because Papohe’s own discipleship is attached to Apollo in the shorter encyclopedia notice. His connection with the group should not be expanded into a claim that he shared every stage of Apollo’s and Phib’s earlier formation.¹⁷

Wandering and return

The three monks appear initially to have lived as itinerants. The Life describes this manner of existence with the phrase “in all the mountains, like wild animals,” language that the encyclopedia notes was also applied to Saint Onophrius. Within this setting, Papohe’s work as steward freed Apollo and Phib from material concerns.⁶

Phib died at Titkooh on 25 Babah, apparently while still young. After his death, Apollo and Papohe continued wandering in the mountains until, according to the Life, they received a command from the Lord to return to Titkooh and remain there. Apollo submitted reluctantly; the passage does not describe a corresponding reluctance on Papohe’s part.⁸

The account also indicates that the monks sometimes lived apart, at a distance both from the monastery and from one another, each retaining his independence. Their association therefore did not necessarily entail uninterrupted residence together in a single place. Papohe’s stewardship belongs to a narrative in which common relationships coexist with periods of physical separation and solitary living.⁸

Theology and meaning

Stewardship and the pursuit of solitude

Papohe’s distinctive contribution is practical service. The Life characterizes Phib as peaceful, a lover of tranquillity, and desirous of solitude, while explicitly explaining that Papohe’s stewardship released Apollo and Phib from the material necessities of life. Read together, these details show how the narrative connects Papohe’s work with the conditions that allowed his companions to pursue their chosen ascetic lives.⁶

This is a more specific portrait than a general designation of Papohe as a monk: the text gives him a defined responsibility within the group. It does not describe the particular goods he managed or the daily tasks he performed, but it makes the purpose of his office clear through its effect on Apollo and Phib.⁶

Solitude and obedience

The command to return to Titkooh introduces a tension between continued wandering and obedience to divine direction. The Life says that Apollo and Papohe received the command together, while singling out Apollo’s unwillingness to comply. For Papohe, the episode establishes participation in the return without supplying an independent account of his motives or response.⁸

The Life also preserves an enigmatic description of Phib as “loving the image of God, as a man alone.” The encyclopedia does not resolve its meaning. The phrase belongs to the spiritual portrait surrounding Papohe, but it cannot securely be treated as an explanation of Papohe’s own teaching or as a doctrine formulated by him.⁶

Liturgical and practical use

The commemoration associated with Phib

The liturgical date supplied for Papohe’s circle is 25 Babah, the feast of Phib, also called Abib. The narrative identifies the same date as the day of Phib’s death at Titkooh. Neither the short notice of Papohé nor the detailed narrative supplies a separate feast day for Papohe.¹⁸¹¹

After Phib’s death, his tomb became the focus of a penitential observance. According to the Life, anyone who prostrated himself in faith at the tomb on the anniversary of Phib’s death would receive remission of sins. The text calls this prostration a “penance of salvation.” These claims concern Phib’s resting place and should not be transferred to a supposed tomb or observance of Papohe.⁹

A church was built over Phib’s tomb, and religious offices were celebrated there. The narrative then reports a divine command to construct a great church, interpreted by the encyclopedia as a martyrium. It repeatedly attributes the gift of remission of sins to God’s grant to Phib, while leaving unexplained why that gift had been bestowed.⁹

These developments belong to the same account that records Apollo’s and Papohe’s return to Titkooh. Nevertheless, the passage does not assign Papohe a specific responsibility for building the church, conducting its offices, or administering the penitential observance.⁸⁹

Texts, names, and terminology

Papohe and the attributed Life

The supplied English-language passages use both Papohe and Papohé. The shorter notice calls Apollo and Phib “Apa Apollo” and “Apa Phib,” respectively, while the longer account identifies Papohe by his function as “the steward.” These are the forms and designation preserved in the supplied material; no original Coptic spelling of Papohe’s name is given there.¹⁵

The attribution of a Life of Apa Phib to Papohe is an important part of his literary remembrance, but it remains qualified. The brief entry says that he is “said to be the author”; the detailed account describes the surviving Coptic Life without establishing its authorship. The evidence therefore supports reporting an attributed work, not asserting that Papohe’s authorship has been demonstrated.¹³

The surviving Coptic manuscript

A Coptic Life of Phib survives in the Pierpont Morgan Library as Manuscript M 633, original pages 47–68. The codex also contains the story of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, and its colophon dates it to 994. T. Orlandi and A. Campagnano edited the Life in 1975.³

These details establish a dated manuscript witness and a modern edition of the text through which Papohe is known. They do not establish the date when the Life was first composed. The encyclopedia references the manuscript’s colophon through A. van Lantschoot’s work, fascicle 1, number 114, and fascicle 2, pages 80–81.³

Other witnesses and versions

The tradition is not confined to the Morgan manuscript. The encyclopedia identifies papyrus fragments in the A. C. Harris collection at the British Library, Or. 7.561, pages 135–48, with a reference to E. Galtier’s 1906 publication, pages 88–91.⁴

A summary appears in the Copto-Arabic Synaxarion, but the encyclopedia notes that it contains several divergences from the Coptic Life. An Arabic version was made from a Coptic text different from the one that survives. Witnesses of that version are listed in the National Library in Paris as Arab. 4787, folios 126v–158, and Arab. 4888, folios 139–75, and in the library of the Monastery of Saint Antony on the Red Sea as Hist. 67, 130, and 140. The account refers readers to Troupeau’s 1972–1974 publication, pages 38–63, for this material.⁴

The different witnesses thus cannot simply be treated as identical copies of one account. The supplied passage establishes that textual variation exists, but does not enumerate the Synaxarion’s divergences or explain precisely how the Arabic version changes the portrayal of Papohe.⁴

Historical interpretation and open questions

The identification of Apollo is a central difficulty in reconstructing Papohe’s setting. The encyclopedia observes that other sources, including the Historia Monachorum in Aegypto, speak at length about an Apollo but give different details. It does not resolve those differences by assuming that all the accounts describe the same person in the same way.⁵

The relationship between Titkooh and Bawit is consequently a matter for historical investigation rather than effortless harmonization. The account tentatively links the three companions with the Bawit inscriptions, while placing important events at Titkooh and rejecting the claim that this Apollo founded its monastery. Its bibliography includes R.-G. Coquin’s 1977 study, “Apollo of Titkooh and/or Apollo of Bawit?”, reflecting the importance of that identification problem.⁵⁷¹⁰

Within these limits, Papohe’s clearest profile remains that of Apollo’s disciple, the steward who supported Apollo and Phib, and the surviving companion who continued with Apollo after Phib’s death. His reputed authorship adds a literary dimension to that remembrance, but the sources leave his origins, personal chronology, and the certainty of the attribution unresolved.¹⁵⁶⁸