Coptic Monks?

[Gideon4God]

CopticOrthodox,

Are Coptic monks like other Orthodox monks?  (without orders like the latins, etc.)  The Copts were the first to have hermits could you shed a little light on this topic for us?

gideon

 

[CopticOrthodox]

I don't really know too much about our monks, and less about other monks, but I'm not aware of any significant differences with the EO. I think the EO have something about uncreated light in their meditation that came about in the 1100's or so that isn't our way of going about things, but that's all I can think of.

I have a friend who goes to monastaries all the time. He said on a typical retreat they have daily Divine Liturgy, pray all the hours, have a full day of work, have a spiritual meeting in the evening, a couple free hours, and get up at 3:00 am to pray the Midnight Praise. He said the monks have a little more sleep in their schedule than the visitors who are only there for a few days, since you'd get burned out pretty fast that way, but they do all that stuff too.

Pope Kyrollos VI, the Pope before Pope Shenouda prayed the Divine Liturgy every day of his life until he became ill shortly before departing. He was a force in encouraging the daily prayer of the Divine Liturgy.

www.tasbeha.org has three real media movies, 1.5 hr - 2 hr of the life stories of monks. They're cheesy, in arabic with english subtitles, and I have no idea how acurate a picture they paint, but I enjoy them. This site also has recodrings of Divine Liturgies, and the Midnight Praise.
http://tasbeha.org/video/
http://tasbeha.org/audio/tasbeha.html#stanthony-monastery-tasbeha

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/4606/monasticism.html
http://www.stmark.toronto.on.coptorthodox.ca/copt_his.html

 

[sklippstein]

I've never heard of coptic monks before, ty for the information!

 

[Gideon4God]

Coptic monks were the first monks...

 

[CopticOrthodox]

There have been Christian virgins since the earliest times. For example, St. Mary the Virgin lead a house of virgins until her Dormition. But monasticism as we know it today was started by St. Antony, who was a Copt (Egyptian). He started living celebatly at the outskirts of the city like the other celebates, but it wasn't enough for him. He moved progressively further out into the desert in search of solitude. He thought to himself that he was the first on to do this, and so God told him to walk 3 days into the desert, where he found St. Paul the Anchorite, who had been living without seeing another human being for 8 decades. St. Paul is the first anchorite, and St. Antony is the first monk, since he was the first one to be a father of children in a rudimentary monastary. St. Athanasius the Apostolic was a friend of St. Antony, and wrote the book "The Live of St. Antony" which he propogaed while he was in exile at the Church of Rome. Through this book a love for monasticism spread rapidly throughout the Church. People flocked to the deserts of Egypt to learn about this way of live, and then take it back to their homelands. St. Jerome was one notable Western Father who visited the monastaries in the Egyptian desert.

The life of Antony is available in most bookstores, or from amazon.com. It's a very easy to read and fun book, telling the story of an amazing saint, written by an amazing saint.

The lives of St. Antony and St. Paul can be read from the Coptic Synexarium (the Chronical of the Saints) at http://saintmark.com/topics/synexarion/antony.html and at http://saintmark.com/topics/synexarion/stpaulus-hermit.html

All our bishops and the Pope are selected only from the monks, and continue to be monks.  H.H. Pope Shenouda travels all over the world, consecrating every church, visiting all the churches, and he ordains all the priests in Egypt, he has also written over 100 books, and yet he spends 1/2 of every week in his monastary.  Every bishop's residence is at a monastary, and in addition to his diocese, the bishop is usually the abbot of the monastary.

 

[brewmama]

I didn't know St. Anthony was Coptic! I assume that was before we split, since he is a big time saint for us as well.

 

[Gideon4God]

Today at 04:53 AM brewmama said this in Post #6

I didn't know St. Anthony was Coptic! I assume that was before we split, since he is a big time saint for us as well.

St. Anthony the Hermit/of the desert.

http://www.magnificat.ca/cal/engl/01-17.htm

 

[Talmid HaYarok]

I don't know about Copts, but I know the Ethiopian Tawahedo Monks don't have orders. I used to visit the Ethiopian Monastery in Jerusalem a fair amount as its one of the few places in the Old City where one can feel any sort of peace and relaxation from the divisive and religious spirits there.

I wish I knew more, they have a very old and rich history of monastics. Ethiopian (and I've been told Coptic too) have a lot of very well educated monks as well (many having college degrees or even doctorates).

Peace

 

[CopticOrthodox]

No, we don't have any orders either. And it's generally a requirement to have a bacholers degree at least before becoming a monk, to discourage people to do it to give up the world, not to escape from it. Exceptions can be made for holy people seeking to follow God who cannot get the education first, but it is desirable to live in the world to have something to give up first.