Prologue: The Renaissance of the Red Monastery

El-Antony, Maximous

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Prologue: The Renaissance of the Red Monastery

Maximous El-Antony

The Red Monastery Church: Beauty and Asceticism in Upper Egypt

The Red Monastery has undergone a tremendous change in the last ten years. Not only has its ancient church been conserved, which has revealed the beauty of its unique wall paintings, but the monastery itself has been repopulated for the first time since the middle ages. It has been transformed from a dilapidated and unoccupied archaeological site into a...

Author

Maximous El-Antony

PublisherYale University Press

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-23718

Prologue: The Renaissance of the Red Monastery

Maximous El-Antony

The Red Monastery has undergone a tremendous change in the last ten years. Not only has its ancient church been conserved, which has revealed the beauty of its unique wall paintings, but the monastery itself has been repopulated for the first time since the middle ages. It has been transformed from a dilapidated and unoccupied archaeological site into a thriving community of modern Coptic monks (fig. 4). This prologue is an account of that transformation. It is informed by the more than ten years that I worked at the site as part of the arce conservation project and is enriched by interviews I conducted during that time with the monks of the Red Monastery and the surrounding Coptic community.

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Description: Red Monastery church, Sohag, Egypt, looking east

4. The Red Monastery today looking east: the historic church sits in the midst of modern buildings, near agricultural land. The village of Nag al-Dayr is in the background, and the Nile and early morning mist are beyond. The faint profile of the eastern mountains can be discerned.

The Red Monastery, or Dayr al-Ahmar in Arabic, is the popular name for the early Byzantine monastery founded by Saint Pshoi, who is today known as Bishay. The Monastery of Saint Pshoi was an active community until sometime in the fourteenth century, when it was abandoned. By the end of the nineteenth century little existed of this once great establishment except its monumental church. Even this building was in a deteriorated state. At some point in the church’s medieval history, the roof of the nave collapsed, leaving the western part of the building an empty shell. The triconch sanctuary was subsequently enclosed and thereafter functioned as a self-contained church. At an unknown moment in the early modern period, the open nave was filled by multistoried, mud-brick dwellings, which served as the homes of priests and their families. In the Coptic Orthodox Church, parish priests must be married when they are ordained. Monks, on the other hand, are celibate and never marry, although they too can become priests. In fact, it is the monks who fill the higher ecclesiastical positions of the church. These married priests served the local village of Nag al-Dayr, which had grown up around the church. Their primary responsibility was to conduct various rites such as baptisms, weddings, the unction of the sick, and funerals, along with celebrating the liturgy and feasts of the saints, which they performed in the reduced church once associated with the Red Monastery. The village still survives today. It remains a fairly small community consisting of about 1,600 inhabitants, most of whom are farmers, blue-collar workers, and a small number of government employees. Their homes were originally made of mud brick, but in the 1990s many were rebuilt with red brick and concrete.

In 1909 the Comité de Conservation des Monuments de l’Art Arabe, the official Egyptian organization in charge of ancient monuments, undertook the restoration of the Red Monastery church. The first task was to purchase the houses in the easternmost end of the nave, which were demolished. The Comité then constructed a wall separating the remaining buildings in the nave from the new open space in front of the sanctuary (see Warner and Meurice, Chapter 19, for more details). This division was to last for most of the twentieth century. Although the church was at that point classified as a historic monument, the priests and their families continued to live in the western half of its nave. A similar situation also existed at the neighboring White Monastery church.

Among the priests who served at the Red Monastery church during this period were Hegemon Hasaballah, Hegemon Bishay, Hegemon Shenoudah, Hegemon Faltaous, Hegemon Wissa, and Hegemon Boulos. These men were members of the al-Nagagra, al-Quzamna, al-Tanayasa, and the Abdel Nour families, who together formed the priestly lineage that controlled the Red Monastery church. All of them had their living quarters within the ancient church walls. The priests’ families subsidized their livelihood by raising farm animals such as goats, cows, buffaloes, donkeys, and chickens in a designated area within the nave. Interestingly, if one travels throughout Upper Egypt, one often encounters a similar tradition whereby large families live together in a walled enclosure that is usually named after the family. In the case of the Red Monastery church, the early Byzantine nave portals were shut each night and reopened every morning, for many years, by a blind cantor named Zikri Ghobrial, who faithfully carried out this task until the 1990s.

In 1973 His Holiness Pope Shenouda III (r. 1971–2012), the 117th patriarch of the See of Saint Mark, visited Sohag and expressed to Botrous, the metropolitan of the region, his desire to revive monastic life at the White and Red Monasteries. He suggested that Metropolitan Botrous begin by relocating the priests’ living quarters outside the walls of both the ancient churches. The metropolitan, however, was unable to persuade the families to leave their homes. Nevertheless, the pope persevered with his plan and in 1984 appointed Father Piladius al-Bishoi, a monk from the Monastery of Saint Bishoi in the Wadi al-Natrun, to serve as a priest at the White Monastery (Saint Shenoute’s Monastery). Furthermore, he named Bishop Kyrillos of Nag Hammadi the papal representative of both monasteries. A great amount of effort was devoted to reviving the White Monastery because of the enormous popularity of the annual celebration of the feast of Saint Shenoute, which lasts for a month and attracts many thousands of pilgrims. This joyful occasion is of tremendous importance to Copts, who travel great distances to attend. They pray to obtain the blessing of the saint, and they often baptize their infants at the ancient church he built in the fifth century. As a matter of fact, Pope Shenouda, who was born near Asyut in Upper Egypt, was himself baptized in the White Monastery church in the 1920s. This may have contributed to his interest in repopulating both of the ancient monasteries in the Sohag region. Unfortunately, at that time, the Red Monastery church was not part of these extensive celebrations, although the distance between the two monastic sites is quite short.

Father Piladius’s service lasted only six months, after which he returned to his monastery in the Wadi al-Natrun, leaving the married priests once again in charge of both churches. In 1986, however, Pope Shenouda sent Father Basilius al-Bishoi to Sohag to establish a permanent monastic community at the White Monastery. Within a short time, Father Basilius appointed as curator of the Red Monastery church Father Eulogious al-Bishoi, a monk who had been one of the first novices at the reestablished White Monastery. The full status of both the White and Red Monasteries was not yet officially recognized by the church, so the new monks took the name of the parent monastery of Anba Bishoi in the Wadi al-Natrun.

In 1990 Father Basilius, acting with the authority of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (sca), demolished the priests’ mud-brick homes in the nave of the ancient Red Monastery church, as well as those built up against the outer walls. In addition, parts of the nave wall on the northeast side were restored, and the foundation of the sanctuary area was reinforced with concrete. This phase of restoration also resulted in the demolition of the Church of the Virgin, a small mud-brick chapel located in the southwestern corner of the Red Monastery church nave. It was rebuilt later that year on its original site in more permanent red bricks, following the original plan and with the same dimensions.

By this time the role of the married priests had diminished greatly and was now limited to serving alongside the monks during the celebration of the liturgies on Sundays in the ancient Red Monastery church. In 1996 Father Basilius returned to his monastery in the Wadi al-Natrun, and he was replaced by Father Wissa al-Bishoi. The following year, on 14 June, the Holy Synod of the Coptic Church officially acknowledged the (White) Monastery of Anba Shenouda (Shenoute) as a fully recognized monastic community. Thenceforth, new monks would take the name al-Shenoudi rather than al-Bishoi. Father Eulogious continued to serve as a priest at the Red Monastery church under the supervision of Father Wissa, with the help of a novice from the White Monastery named Mikhail, who was later ordained as Father Antonious al-Shenoudi in 1997. With the death of the last three parish priests (Father Boulos in 1987, Father Faltaous in 1993, and Father Wissa Faheem in 1999) the era of the married priests at the Red Monastery church came to an end.

In 1999 Father Antonious al-Shenoudi was permanently relocated from the White Monastery to the Red Monastery, where he assumed full responsibility under the supervision of His Grace Bishop Youannis, the episcopal overseer of the Sohag monasteries. Father Antonious’s presence at the site marks the true beginning of the revived (Red) Monastery of Saint Bishay. At the request of Father Antonious, the monastery was renamed to include Saint Pcol (Bigol in Arabic), the founder of the White Monastery, during a visit by Pope Shenouda in 2007. Thus, the official name of the new community became the Monastery of Saint Bigol and Saint Bishay (fig. 5). Father Antonious organized daily celebrations of the liturgy, along with prayer gatherings and Sunday school activities for the laity who lived in Nag al-Dayr, as well as those traveling from Sohag. His inspiring sermons were extremely popular and attracted many people to his church services. In addition, he purchased the land surrounding the monastery and erected walls to encompass both the old and new properties, including an adjacent Coptic cemetery. He also built a guesthouse for visiting pilgrims on the east side of the ancient church, as well as a retreat house.

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Description: Icon of Shenouda, Bishay, and Bigol (Shenoute, Pshoi, and Pcol)

5. An early modern icon of Shenouda, Bishay, and Bigol (Shenoute, Pshoi, and Pcol). Collection of the Red Monastery.

Thus, monastic life began to flourish once again at the Red Monastery, which in time attracted a number of young men from the surrounding areas who wished to become monks. The ordination of the first monks to join the monastery took place during Pope Shenouda’s 2007 visit, in conjunction with the consecration of a new church dedicated to Saint Bigol and Saint Bishay. This building is located near the modern cells of the monks in an area on the west end of the monastery. It is now known as the Monks’ Church. In 2012 Bishop Youannis ordained seven more monks and elevated three of the earlier group to the priesthood. Because the monastery was not yet fully recognized, these new monks all took the name al-Shenoudi, referring to the (White) Monastery of Saint Shenoute.

While the monastic population continued to grow, more and more new buildings were constructed within the compound. These included a two-story guesthouse adjacent to the Monks’ Church for the arce team, who conserved the wall paintings of the ancient church between 2002 and 2012. Before the completion of this building, the conservators had stayed in the first guesthouse, directly behind the eastern wall of the historic church. A large reception hall with second-story guest quarters was constructed on the south side of the ancient church, which also provided lodging for Father Antonious, who had previously used the medieval keep attached to the walls of the early church as his cell.

The liturgy continued to be celebrated in the ancient church during the arce conservation work, as well as in the small Church of the Virgin within the ancient enclosure walls. A tent was erected in the nave to accommodate the large numbers of parishioners who attended the Friday and Sunday liturgies, as well as various prayer meetings. When the conservation work intensified, and it was no longer possible to have the altar within the sanctuary, a new wooden altar was erected near the entrance of the sanctuary, and a wooden shelter replaced the tent in the nave. Thus, the restoration activities never conflicted with the spiritual ones at any time during the arce project. Nevertheless, the continuing growth of the monastic community and the even larger congregation necessitated another church outside the confines of the ancient one. Consequently, the second floor of the reception hall was converted into a permanent church dedicated to Saint Karas the Anchorite. The temporary wooden church in the ancient nave was removed. In 2010 the construction of a new structure began that would house two more churches, one on the ground floor dedicated to Saints Maximous and Domitious, and another on the second floor dedicated to Saint Iskhirun of Qalin. When this building is completed, the Red Monastery will have four functioning modern churches, as well as the small Church of the Virgin and the ancient church. Besides its churches and the other buildings already mentioned, the repopulated Monastery of Saint Bigol and Saint Bishay also contains an archeological area, an office for the Egyptian antiquities inspectors, monastic cells, a gift shop, a bakery, a tile workshop that sells its products to the public, and a number of agricultural fields that are cared for by the monks.

Life for the monks at the Red Monastery follows a highly structured and rigorous routine. They rise daily at four o’clock in the morning to perform the Midnight Praises, followed by the celebration of the liturgy. Their public service activities include officiating at the other daily liturgies held in the various monastic churches, which are attended by a large number of visitors from all over Egypt, especially from the Sohag region. The services performed on Fridays and Sundays are particularly popular. The monks hold weekly Sunday school classes in the nave of the ancient church for the laypeople of Nagal-Dayr, as well as spiritual gatherings for the youth and the elderly of the village. The monastery continues to serve the community by conducting various services such as weddings and baptisms, which were performed in times past by the married priests.

In 2004 His Holiness Pope Shenouda III visited the monastery and observed the early stages of the arce conservation project in the ancient church. Almost ten years later, on April 20, 2013, His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, the 18th patriarch of the See of Saint Mark, came to the monastery and witnessed the completion of these restoration efforts (fig. 6). Although the revitalized (Red) Monastery of Saint Bigol and Saint Bishay has yet to be officially recognized by the Holy Synod of the Coptic Church, it is surely just a matter of time before it joins the ranks of the great monasteries of Egypt.

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Description: Pope Tawadros II and Father Antonious al-Shenoudi in the Red Monastery church,...

6. Pope Tawadros II and Father Antonious al-Shenoudi in the Red Monastery church, 20 April 2013. Photograph: Father Athanasios al-Shenoudi.

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