G. Schenke, The Healing Shrines of St. Phoibammon: Evidence of Cult Activity in Coptic Legal Documents (original) (raw)
A group of 8th century Coptic child donation documents addressed to the monastery of Apa Phoibammon on the mountain of Jeme in Upper Egypt has been the subject of much discussion. The exclusively male children donated by their parents have always been understood as gifts to the monastery itself, a place where they were, however, not intended to grow up as monks, but to remain as lifelong servants. The reason stated for these donations were miracle healings granted by Apa Phoibammon, the patron saint of that monastery, in his local healing shrine. Such donations of cured former patients are a common feature especially to shrines of healing saints as demonstrated by their frequent descriptions in miracle stories circulating widely in the early Arab period. Juxtaposing phrases used in these Coptic legal texts with those from miracle stories of famous Egyptian healing saints, such as Coluthus, Menas, and Phoibammon himself, can demonstrate the impact hagiography had on daily experience and vice versa. The documentary evidence from Jeme thus forms the missing link between hagiog-raphy and reality as it emphasizes the practicalities involved when people were donated as living testimonies of a saint's miraculous healing power. Due to the desire to legalize such donations, a written contract could only have been drawn up with the saint's legal representative, in this case the abbot of the monastery at Jeme, who ran the healing shrine of Apa Phoibammon where the donated children would serve.1
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The Healing Shrines of St Phoibammon. Evidence of Cult Activity in Coptic Legal Documents
Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum (ZAC) , 2016
A group of 8th century Coptic child donation documents addressed to the monastery of Apa Phoibammon on the mountain of Jeme in Upper Egypt has been the subject of much discussion. The exclusively male children donated by their parents have always been understood as gifts to the monastery itself, a place where they were, however, not intended to grow up as monks, but to remain as lifelong servants. The reason stated for these donations were miracle healings granted by Apa Phoibammon, the patron saint of that monastery, in his local healing shrine. Such donations of cured former patients are a common feature especially to shrines of healing saints as demonstrated by their frequent descriptions in miracle stories circulating widely in the early Arab period. Juxtaposing phrases used in these Coptic legal texts with those from miracle stories of famous Egyptian healing saints, such as Coluthus, Menas, and Phoibammon himself, can demonstrate the impact hagiography had on daily experience and vice versa. The documentary evidence from Jeme thus forms the missing link between hagiography and reality as it emphasizes the practicalities involved when people were donated as living testimonies of a saint’s miraculous healing power. Due to the desire to legalize such donations, a written contract could only have been drawn up with the saint’s legal representative, in this case the abbot of the monastery at Jeme, who ran the healing shrine of Apa Phoibammon where the donated children would serve.
Monastic Family Values: The Healing of Children in Late Antique Egypt (Pre-pub)
2011
Prepublication PDF of article in Coptica. What are the Apophthegmata Patrum's "family values"? This collection of late antique sayings about primarily male ascetics might seem to have none. Some of the most memorable anecdotes eschew family and children. This essay argues, however, that family—the traditional ancient family, children and all—remained a core value for the monks of late antique Egypt. I will examine the phenomenon of holy people who heal children in the Apophthegmata Patrum, evidence from Shenoute's monastery, and documentary sources from late antique Egypt. Children in the Roman world were viewed as containing society's future potential, symbolic of the family's and culture's legacy and inheritance. Monasteries, in their care for children, acted as alternative, nonbiological family systems and as agents in the support and continuation of traditional families. People brought their children to monks to be healed, and these communities of respected ascetics ensured the survival of the next generation of Christian families through their acts of healing and exorcising. Published in Coptica 10 (2011)
Healing in Christian Liturgy in Late Antique Egypt: Sources and Perspectives
Trends in Classics, 2021
Health and healing were of constant interest for Christian communities in late antique Egypt. Accordingly, a broad range of therapeutic rituals were on offer by the clergy, by monks, and in martyr shrines. Of all these, this paper explores prayers and gestures performed and substances consecrated in a liturgical context as well as some related practices, with a focus on the fourth and fifth centuries, from which most relevant sources hail. Besides reconstructing the rites themselves as far as the evidence allows-including intercessions for the sick, prayers for laying on of hands, and the consecration of oil (and water and bread) and the anointing of the sick in various liturgical contexts-, I also consider them as interpersonal therapeutic rituals and attempt to evaluate them through the lens of medical and anthropological placebo theories. With due attention to the methodological difficulties, I argue that the decline and transformation of liturgical healing rites after the fifth century may partially be explained with their modest 'placebogenic potential' compared to other rites on offer in the late antique 'market of healing'.
Monasticism: Care After Cure (Healing, Medical Care & Wellbeing in Early Egyptian Monasticism
I bridge two areas of scholarship: the history of medicine and the study of early Egyptian monasticism, against the backdrop of early Christian theology and spirituality. In so doing, I hope that this initial research justifies the inauguration of an Introduction to Medical Theology. Such an interdisciplinary study would be similar to other science branches that fuse two different fields together such as biochemistry, physical chemistry, bioengineering or Christian counseling. Such a study, furthermore, could inspire new ways of studying professional theology, relating Christianity to various occupations, such as engineering, law, teaching and the arts.
"The Political and Philanthropic Role of Monastic Figures and Monasteries as Revealed in Fourth-Century Coptic and Greek Correspondence." Pages 353-63 in Studia Patristica XCI, Volume 17: Biblica; Philosophica, Theologica, Ethica; Hagiographica; Ascetica. Edited by Marcus Vinzent Stpatr 91. Leuven: Peters 2017. Monastic letters of the fourth century constitute an important, but often neglected, body of evidence relating to early monasticism in Egypt. Collections include those written to the anchorites Apa Iohannes and Paphnoute, the correspondence of a Melitian monastery known as ‘Hathor,’ involving Apas Paieous and Nepheros, and the letters addressed to Sansnos found amongst the cartonnage fragments of the Nag Hammadi codices. These collections, written in both Coptic and Greek, contain primary evidence for the emergence of monasticism at this period, yet many nevertheless remain untranslated into English and, as a consequence, are overlooked as valuable source material. This paper examines these letters with a focus on the social and philanthropic activities demanded of these figures by their local communities and the role of monasteries and monastic figures in the provision of social welfare. It will be found that the letters contain further confirmation for the argument that monks and monasteries in Egypt in the fourth century played a far more significant role in influencing social and political life than has often hitherto been acknowledged.
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