Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Communicants of the Coptic Orthodox Church use a breviary known as the Agpeya to pray the canonical hours at seven fixed prayer times while facing in the eastward direction, in anticipation of the Second Coming of Jesus; this Christian practice has its roots in Psalm 119:164, in which the prophet David prays to God seven times a day.
Coptic icon of St. Mark Portrait of a Coptic Christian woman by Bertha Müller, circa 1850 The Copts are one of the oldest Christian communities in the Middle East. Although integrated in the larger Egyptian nation state, the Copts have survived as a distinct religious community forming around 5 to 20 percent of the population.
Over the centuries, many Coptic historians recorded the history of the Copts and that of the Coptic Church. The most prominent of these Coptic historians are: John of Nikiu (fl. 680-690), bishop and historian; Severus Ibn al-Muqaffa (died 987), bishop, theologian, and historian; first compiler of the History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria
Coptic Christians lost their majority status in Egypt after the 14th century and the spread of Islam in the entirety of North Africa. Today, Copts form a major ethno-religious group whose origins date back to the Ancient Egyptians. [4] The Coptic Christian population in Egypt is the largest Christian community in the Middle East. [5]
The "Coptic period" is an informal designation for Late Roman Egypt (3rd−4th centuries) and Byzantine Egypt (4th−7th centuries). This era was defined by the religious shifts in Egyptian culture to Coptic Christianity from ancient Egyptian religion , until the Muslim conquest of Egypt in the 7th century.
The oldest Coptic liturgy, the liturgy of Saint Mark, was the main liturgy of the Coptic church until the 8th-9th centuries. The Church of Constantinople actively fought against the liturgy of the Apostle Mark and the Coptic rite as such, trying to achieve the unification of worship in the East. By the 12th century, in the Coptic churches ...
Coptic nationalism does not have a claim for a Coptic nation but asks for an equal position for Copts in Egypt. [2] Most Copts live in the south of Egypt but the largest concentrations of Copts lives in Cairo and Alexandria. [3] The Copts, like the rest of Egyptians, are descended from the pharaonic inhabitants of Egypt.
The Copts (Christians of Egypt), who belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church, observe fasting periods according to the Coptic calendar.In Coptic Orthodox Christianity, fasting is defined as going without water and food from midnight to sunset; after that time, the consumption of water and one vegetarian meal is permitted. [1]