Anecdota Oxoniensia. Semitic series.

84 CHURCHES AND MONASTERIES OF EGYPT.'

The Patriarch Demetrius.
~ The first who appointed bishops for the land of Egypt and its
provinces was Demetrius', the twelfth patriarch.
Restoration of Churches of Al-Fust.t.
~ The history of the church, in the biography of Anba2 Mark
the Younger, the forty-ninth patriarch, testifies that the churches of
This statement is borrowed by our author from Eutychius:
l oa.j Ju eiD Ager an dWJS, J.- Jr jlA
'From the time of Ananias (Annianus), who was appointed patriarch of Alexandria
by Mark the Evangelist, until Demetrius the eleventh patriarch of Alexandria, there
were no bishops in Egypt, and the predecessors of the last-named patriarch
appointed none. But when Demetrius became patriarch, he appointed three
bishops, and he was the first patriarch of Alexandria who made bishops. When
he died, Heraclius was constituted patriarch of Alexandria after him, and appointed
twenty bishops.' (Annales, ii. p. 330.)
The assertion of Eutychius is contradicted by the patriarchal history of Severus
of Al-Ushmfinain, which not only states that St. Mark himself consecrated Annianus
(Uy~ L.L1) bishop of Alexandria, and left him there in that capacity during his
sojourn in Pentapolis, but also mentions bishops in Egypt, other than the patriarch,
in the lives of Avilius ((,L) the third patriarch, of Celadion (.~lS. ) the ninth,
and of Julian (,jWU.) the eleventh; see Brit. Mus. MS. Or. 26,1oo, p. 21, line I8;
p. 24, line 5; p. 25, lines 9 and 19. I use the word 'patriarch' here as being
that employed by Severus.
2 Occupied the see from A.D. 799 to 819 (?). See Renaudot, Hist. Pair.
pp. 246-266. This date of the restoration of the churches corresponds closely
enough with my estimate of the date of, e.g. the church of Abu Sirjah in the
Roman fortress at Al-Fustat; see Coptic Churches, i. p. I8i. (A. J. B.)