Apostolic foundation According to tradition, the Coptic Church was founded by St.
Mark the Evangelist ; it regards itself as the subject of many
prophecies in the
Old Testament. Today, most Copts speak
Arabic as their first language, the official language of Egypt. The theological college of the catechetical school was re-established in 1893. The school became a leading center of the
allegorical method of biblical interpretation, espoused rapprochement between Greek culture and the Christian faith, and attempted to assert orthodox Christian teachings against
heterodox views in an era of doctrinal flux.
Role and participation in the ecumenical councils Council of Nicaea In the 4th century, an Alexandrian
presbyter named
Arius began a theological dispute about the nature of Christ that spread throughout the Christian world and is now known as
Arianism. The
Council of Nicea in AD 325 was convened by
Emperor Constantine I after
Pope Alexander I of Alexandria proposed holding a council to respond to heresies. A council under the presidency of
Hosius of Cordova attempted to resolve the dispute. This eventually led to the formulation of the Symbol of Faith, also known as the
Nicene Creed.
Council of Constantinople In AD 381, Pope
Timothy I of Alexandria presided over the second ecumenical council known as the
First Council of Constantinople, to judge Macedonius, who denied the Divinity of the Holy Spirit. This council completed the
Nicene Creed with this confirmation of the divinity of the
Holy Spirit: We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified who spoke by the Prophets and in One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic church. We confess one Baptism for the remission of sins and we look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the coming age, Amen
Council of Ephesus , Jerusalem Another theological dispute in the 5th century occurred over the teachings of
Nestorius, the patriarch of Constantinople who taught that God the Word was not
hypostatically joined with human nature, but rather dwelt in the man Jesus. As a consequence of this, he denied the title "Mother of God" (
Theotokos) to the
Virgin Mary, declaring her instead to be "Mother of Christ"
Christotokos. The council confirmed the teachings of
Athanasius and confirmed the title of Mary as "
Mother of God". It also clearly stated that anyone who separated Christ into two hypostases was anathema, as Cyril had said that there is "One Nature for God the Word Incarnate" (
Mia Physis tou Theou Logou Sesarkōmenē). The introduction to the creed is formulated as follows: We magnify you O Mother of the True Light and we glorify you O saint and Mother of God
(Theotokos) for you have borne unto us the Saviour of the world. Glory to you O our Master and King: Christ, the pride of the Apostles, the crown of the martyrs, the rejoicing of the righteous, firmness of the churches and the forgiveness of sins. We proclaim the Holy Trinity in One Godhead: we worship Him, we glorify Him, Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy, Lord bless us, Amen. When, in AD 451, Emperor
Marcian attempted to heal divisions in the church, the response of
Pope Dioscorus–the Pope of Alexandria who was later exiled–was that the emperor should not intervene in the affairs of the church. It was at
Chalcedon that the emperor, through the imperial delegates, enforced harsh disciplinary measures against Pope Dioscorus in response to his boldness. In AD 449, Pope Dioscorus headed the 2nd Council of Ephesus, called the "
Robber Council" by Chalcedonian historians. It held to the
Miaphysite formula which upheld the Christology of "One Incarnate Nature of God the Word" (
Greek: μία φύσις Θεοῦ Λόγου σεσαρκωμένη (
mia physis Theou Logou sesarkōmenē)). By anathematizing Pope Leo because of the tone and content of his tome, as per Alexandrine Theology perception, Pope Dioscorus was found guilty of doing so without due process; in other words, the Tome of Leo was not a subject of heresy in the first place, but it was a question of questioning the reasons behind not having it either acknowledged or read at the
Second Council of Ephesus in AD 449. Pope Dioscorus of Alexandria was never labeled as a heretic by the council's canons. Copts also believe that the pope of Alexandria was forcibly prevented from attending the third congregation of the council from which he was ousted, apparently the result of a conspiracy tailored by the Roman delegates. Before the current positive era of Eastern and Oriental Orthodox dialogues, Chalcedonians sometimes used to call the non-Chalcedonians "
Monophysites", though the Coptic Orthodox Church in reality regards Monophysitism as a heresy. The Chalcedonian doctrine in turn came to be known as "
Dyophysite". A term that comes closer to Coptic Orthodoxy is Miaphysite, which refers to a conjoined nature for Christ, both human and divine, united indivisibly in the Incarnate Logos.
From Chalcedon to the Arab conquest of Egypt Muslim conquest of Egypt n wall painting depicting a Nubian bishop and
Virgin Mary (11th century) The
Muslim invasion of Egypt took place in AD 639. Relying on eyewitness testimony, Bishop
John of Nikiu in his Chronicle provides a graphic account of the invasion from a Coptic perspective. Although the Chronicle has only been preserved in an
Ethiopic (Ge'ez) text, some scholars believe that it was originally written in Coptic. John's account is critical of the invaders who he says "despoiled the Egyptians of their possessions and dealt cruelly with them", and he details the atrocities committed by the Muslims against the native population during the conquest:And when with great toil and exertion they had cast down the walls of the city, they forthwith made themselves masters of it, and put to the sword thousands of its inhabitants and of the soldiers, and they gained an enormous booty, and took the women and children captive and divided them amongst themselves, and they made that city a desolation. Though critical of the Muslim commander (
Amr ibn al-As), who, during the campaign, he says "had no mercy on the Egyptians, and did not observe the covenant they had made with him, for he was of a barbaric race", he does note that following the completion of the conquest, Amr "took none of the property of the Churches, and he committed no act of spoilation or plunder, and he preserved them throughout all his days." Despite the political upheaval, the Egyptian population remained mainly Christian. However, gradual conversions to
Islam over the centuries had changed Egypt from a Christian to a largely Muslim country by the end of the 12th century. Another scholar writes that a combination of "repression of Coptic revolts", Arab-Muslim immigration, and Coptic conversion to Islam resulted in the demographic decline of the Copts. Egypt's Umayyad rulers taxed Christians at a higher rate than Muslims, driving merchants towards Islam and undermining the economic base of the Coptic Church. Although the Coptic Church did not disappear, the Umayyad tax policies made it difficult for the church to retain the Egyptian elites.
Under Islamic rule (640–1800) In 969, Egypt entered the
Fatimid dynasty (in Egypt from 969 to 1171), who adopted a largely favorable attitude toward the Christians. The major exception to this was the persecution led by Caliph al-Hakim between 1004 and 1013, which included clothing regulations, prohibition of publicly celebrating Christian festivals, and dismissal of Christian and Jewish functionaries. However, at the end of his reign al-Hakim rescinded these measures, allowing the Copts to regain privileged positions within the administration. The Coptic patriarchal residence moved from Alexandria to Cairo during the patriarchate of
Cyril II (1078–92). This move was at the demand of the grand vizier
Badr al-Jamali, who insisted that the pope establish himself in the capital. In 1798, the French invaded Egypt unsuccessfully and the British helped the Turks to regain power over Egypt under the Muhammad Ali dynasty.
From the 19th century-1952 revolution The position of Copts began to improve early in the 19th century under the stability and tolerance of the
Muhammad Ali Dynasty. The Coptic community ceased to be regarded by the state as an administrative unit. In 1855 the
jizya tax was abolished by Sa'id Pasha. Shortly thereafter, the Copts started to serve in the Egyptian army. Towards the end of the 19th century, the Coptic Church underwent phases of new development. In 1853,
Pope Cyril IV established the first modern Coptic schools, including the first Egyptian school for girls. He also founded a printing press, which was only the second national press in the country. The pope established very friendly relations with other denominations, to the extent that when the Greek Patriarch in Egypt had to absent himself from the country for a long period of time, he left his church under the guidance of the Coptic patriarch. In the 1990s, the Orthodox Church of the British Isles (formerly the
Catholicate of the West) joined the Coptic Orthodox Church as a diocese named the
British Orthodox Church. By 2015, it formally separated with the Coptic Orthodox Church as a non-canonical, autocephalous church. In the summer of 2001, the Coptic Orthodox and Greek Orthodox patriarchates of Alexandria agreed to mutually recognize baptisms performed in each other's churches, making re-baptisms unnecessary, and to recognize the sacrament of marriage as celebrated by the other. In
Tahrir Square, Cairo, on Wednesday 2 February 2011, Coptic Christians joined hands to provide a protective cordon around their Muslim neighbors during
salat (prayers) in the midst of the
2011 Egyptian Revolution.
Continued persecution into the 21st century While Copts have cited instances of persecution throughout their history,
Human Rights Watch has noted growing religious intolerance and sectarian violence against Coptic Christians in recent years, and a failure by the Egyptian government to effectively investigate properly and prosecute those responsible. More than a hundred Egyptian copts were killed in sectarian clashes from 2011 to 2017, and many homes and businesses destroyed. In
Minya, 77 cases of sectarian attacks on Copts between 2011 and 2016 were documented by the
Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. Coptic Christian women and girls are often abducted and disappear. In 2015, 21 men traveled to Libya to support their families. There, they would be
kidnapped and beheaded by the Islamic State in Libya.
Continued church reforms Under Pope Shenouda III, from 1971 to 2012, the church underwent a large transformation. Writing in 2013, the
theologian Samuel Tadros stated "Today's Coptic Church as an institution is built solely on his vision". For the first time in its history, the synod codified its internal laws. It also established numerous coptic institutions within and outside of Egypt. Shenouda raised the number of bishops from 26 to 117 and ordained hundreds of priests, which greatly reduced the influence of any one bishop. Shenouda also instituted a yearly meeting of the synod, which greatly expanded the number of laws governing the church. This included instituting church curriculums for the education of new priests, new deacons, and newly weds. For the first time in the Coptic Church's modern history, women could become ordained as deacons. The synod also adopted a model for community development, dramatically increasing the scope of community services provided by the church, including: hospitals, adult literacy schools, orphanages, libraries, and community centres. Much of this work was fuelled by donations from wealthy Coptic industrialists and Copts from abroad. Shenouda also held talks with the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches, in an effort to promote ecumenism . Pope Shenouda also increased the church's involvement in politics, seeing it as a way to advocate for the interest of Copts, during the rise of Islamism in Egypt and increase in terrorist attacks. The president of Egypt,
Anwar Sadat ordered that Shenouda be put into exile in a Coptic Monastery far away from Cairo in 1981. This exile was short lived, ending when Sadat was assassinated by Muslim extremists a few months later. Under president Hosni Mubarak, Shenouda continued his political stance and often protested persecution of Copts by leaving Cairo and staying in seclusion, which often caused the regime to quickly address issues. Shenouda's political involvement drew criticism from some church members, including the prominent monk
Father Matta El Meskeen. On 17 March 2012, Pope Shenouda died, leaving many Copts mourning and worrying as tensions rose with
Muslims. Shenouda constantly met with Muslim leaders in order to create peace, his death resulting in concerns that without his mediation good relations would break down. Many were worried about increased Islamic control of Egypt as the
Muslim Brotherhood won 70% of the parliamentary elections. Shenouda's approach to church leadership has, in part, been adopted by the current patriarch.
Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria maintains relations with the Egyptian government and other churches. However, while Shenouda was critical of the expanded influence of Protestant teaching and books in Coptic churches, Tawadros has increased ecumenical dialogue with several Protestant churches. In 2013, Tawadros supported the movement demanding the removal of Egyptian Islamist president
Mohamed Morsi. However, Tawadros has been a relatively less political figure than his predecessor and has expressed support for the Egyptian government's institutions during crises. On 10 May 2023, Pope Tawadros visited the Vatican to celebrate Coptic-Catholic Friendship day and the 50 year anniversary of the meeting between Pope Paul VI and Pope Shenouda III. In this same year Pope Francis announced that the 21 Coptic Martyrs killed by ISIS in Libya in 2015 would be added to the Catholic Roman Martyrology, and Pope Tawadros gifted relics from each of the
21 martyrs to the Vatican. == Fasts, feasts, liturgy and canonical hours ==