Ancient Diocese of Memphis
In late antiquity, the ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis (Manf) was the seat of a Christian bishop.[1] According to Athanasius of Alexandria, the city had a Melitian bishop named John around 325. In that year, its Orthodox bishop, Antiochus, attended the Council of Nicaea.[2] John was still in power around 335.[1]
Around 340, according to a Coptic Life of Athanasius, the Orthodox bishop of Memphis was Nestorius.[1][3] A later bishop named Philip is credited with composing a biography of Saint Maharati.[2] Some sources list a bishop Ptolemy around 700, but this may be due to confusion with an eponymous bishop of Onouphis (Manuf).[1]
The first known bishop after the Arab conquest of Egypt is Mennas, who took part in a prayer service organized by the Patriarch Kha'il I (r. 744–767) to seek the rising of the Nile. In 798, Bishop Apa George was in the company of Patriarch John IV on a visit to Alexandria. Documents from the monastery of Dayr Apa Jeremiah list a Jacob as bishop of Memphis under Patriarch Joseph I (r. 830–849) and a bishop Antony of an undetermined period. The last record of a bishop of Memphis is from 1240, when a certain Mark is recorded as bishop of Awsim and Memphis. According to the early 13th-century report of Abu al-Makarim, there were then only two churches in what was left of Memphis.[2]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d Klaas A. Worp (1994), "A Checklist of Bishops in Byzantine Egypt (A.D. 325 – c. 750)" (PDF), Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 100: 283–318, at 302.
- ^ a b c Randall Stewart (1991), "Memphis", in Aziz Suryal Atiya (ed.), The Coptic Encyclopedia, vol. 5, Macmillan, cols. 1586b–1587b.
- ^ Francesco Rossi (1884), Trascrizione di alcuni testi copti tratti dai papiri del Museo egizio di Torino, Ermanno Loescher, p. 77.