- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Illustrations
- Contributors
- Maps
- Foreword
- Introduction
-
1 The Monastery of Apa Thomas at Wadi Sarga: Points of Departure for a Relative Chronology -
2 Intellectual Life in Middle Egypt: The Case of the Monastery of Bawit (Sixth–Eighth Centuries) -
3 Christianity and Monasticism in al-Bahnasa according to Arabic Sources -
4 Mesokemic or ‘Middle Egyptian’—the Coptic Dialect of Oxyrhynchos (?) -
5 The Monastery of Apollo at Bala’iza and Its Literary Texts -
6 “Twenty Thousand Nuns”: The Domestic Virgins of Oxyrhynchos -
7 Anba Isaac, Bishop of the Fayoum, al-Bahnasa, and Giza, 1834–81 -
8 The Monastery of the Holy Virgin Mary at al-Muharraq, Mount Qusqam: History and Heritage (Reflections of Its Monks) -
9 John of Shmoun and Coptic Identity -
10 Christianity in Asyut in Modern History -
11 The Place of Qusqam in the Textual Data on the Flight into Egypt -
12 John of Lykopolis -
13 Discerning the True Religion in Late Fourteenth-Century Egypt -
14 Egyptian Gnosticism from Its Cradle in the Alexandrian Quarters of the Second Century to Its Jar Tomb in the Upper Egyptian Town of Nag‘ Hammadi -
15 Notes on the Arabic Life of Ibrahim al-Fani: A Coptic Saint of the Fourteenth Century -
16 Snippets from the Past -
17 Liturgy of the Monastery of al-Muharraq -
18 L⋆ as a Secret Language -
19 Bawit in the Twenty-first Century: Bibliography 1997–2014 -
20 Children’s Burials from Antinoopolis -
21 Recent Excavations at Bawit -
22 Funerary Aspects in the Paintings from the Apollo Monastery at Bawit -
23 The Cave of John of Lykopolis -
24 Al-Shaykh Sa‘id Revisited -
25 Toward the Documentation of the Monastery of the Holy Virgin at al-Muharraq, Asyut -
26 The Monastery of the Holy Virgin Mary at al-Muharraq, Mount Qusqam: Reflections of Its Monks Today -
27 An Overview of Rock-cut Coptic Sites in Asyut -
28 Architectural Typology of Historic Coptic Churches from Oxyrhynchos to Dayr al-Ganadla - Abbreviations
- Bibliography
The Cave of John of Lykopolis
The Cave of John of Lykopolis
- Chapter:
- (p.255) 23 The Cave of John of Lykopolis
- Source:
- Christianity and Monasticism in Middle Egypt
- Author(s):
Jochem Kahl
- Publisher:
- American University in Cairo Press
John of Lykopolis (310/320–394/395) was a seer and prophet who lived as an ascetic and recluse in a cave in the western mountain of Asyut (Greek: Lykopolis). Many people consulted him, including Emperor Theodosius who trusted in John to foretell his future. This chapter describes new archaeological discoveries that found the famous three cells that literary sources claim were used by St. John of Lykopolis. As a result of the identification of Tombs II, III, and IV as the hermitage of St. John, a cross-cultural continuity in relation to the veneration of saints becomes evident: the owners of Tombs III and IV (or possibly of the neighboring Tomb V), Iti-ibi and Khety, were venerated as saints in the second millennium BC. Their tomb inscriptions formed part of the cultural memory of ancient Egypt as late as the second century AD, as findings of papyri in Tebtynis in the Fayoum attest. The tombs with their function as memorial sites for ancient Egyptian saints also served as memorial sites for a Christian saint, and the fact that Dayr al-Meitin was constructed in close vicinity to Tombs II, III, and IV in the fifth century AD, that is, immediately after the death of St. John, is unlikely to be a coincidence.
Keywords: John of Lykopolis, Asyut, tombs, caves, Iti-ibi, Khety, ancient Egyptian saints
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- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Illustrations
- Contributors
- Maps
- Foreword
- Introduction
-
1 The Monastery of Apa Thomas at Wadi Sarga: Points of Departure for a Relative Chronology -
2 Intellectual Life in Middle Egypt: The Case of the Monastery of Bawit (Sixth–Eighth Centuries) -
3 Christianity and Monasticism in al-Bahnasa according to Arabic Sources -
4 Mesokemic or ‘Middle Egyptian’—the Coptic Dialect of Oxyrhynchos (?) -
5 The Monastery of Apollo at Bala’iza and Its Literary Texts -
6 “Twenty Thousand Nuns”: The Domestic Virgins of Oxyrhynchos -
7 Anba Isaac, Bishop of the Fayoum, al-Bahnasa, and Giza, 1834–81 -
8 The Monastery of the Holy Virgin Mary at al-Muharraq, Mount Qusqam: History and Heritage (Reflections of Its Monks) -
9 John of Shmoun and Coptic Identity -
10 Christianity in Asyut in Modern History -
11 The Place of Qusqam in the Textual Data on the Flight into Egypt -
12 John of Lykopolis -
13 Discerning the True Religion in Late Fourteenth-Century Egypt -
14 Egyptian Gnosticism from Its Cradle in the Alexandrian Quarters of the Second Century to Its Jar Tomb in the Upper Egyptian Town of Nag‘ Hammadi -
15 Notes on the Arabic Life of Ibrahim al-Fani: A Coptic Saint of the Fourteenth Century -
16 Snippets from the Past -
17 Liturgy of the Monastery of al-Muharraq -
18 L⋆ as a Secret Language -
19 Bawit in the Twenty-first Century: Bibliography 1997–2014 -
20 Children’s Burials from Antinoopolis -
21 Recent Excavations at Bawit -
22 Funerary Aspects in the Paintings from the Apollo Monastery at Bawit -
23 The Cave of John of Lykopolis -
24 Al-Shaykh Sa‘id Revisited -
25 Toward the Documentation of the Monastery of the Holy Virgin at al-Muharraq, Asyut -
26 The Monastery of the Holy Virgin Mary at al-Muharraq, Mount Qusqam: Reflections of Its Monks Today -
27 An Overview of Rock-cut Coptic Sites in Asyut -
28 Architectural Typology of Historic Coptic Churches from Oxyrhynchos to Dayr al-Ganadla - Abbreviations
- Bibliography
