Our Lady of Zeitoun (1968–1971)

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-99
Author(s):  
Donald A. Westbrook
Keyword(s):  
Public Transit ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Bright Light ◽  
Virgin Mary ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Secondary Literature ◽  
Coptic Orthodox ◽  
Muslim Majority ◽  
Marian Apparitions ◽  
The Church

This article situates the mass mariophanies reported at Zeitoun (Cairo), Egypt, from 1968 to 1971 in their historical, political, interfaith, and ecumenical contexts. The series of luminous apparitions above St. Mary’s Coptic Orthodox Church were first observed by nearby Muslim public transit workers. Soon after, the site attracted tens of thousands of Christian and Muslim pilgrims, many of whom observed bright light in the form of the Virgin Mary in addition to other manifestations, such as dove-shaped lights hovering above or near the church. Miraculous healings were also reported. The Zeitoun apparitions serve as a unique instance within the broader study of Marian apparitions by providing a non-Catholic example that took place within a Muslim-majority nation over a span of nearly three years. Moreover, full contextualization of the events in Zeitoun requires interdisciplinary attention spanning Middle Eastern, Islamic, and ecumenical studies; as such, the apparitions invite further and fuller examination in the secondary literature.

Mary in the Hymnody of the East

2019 ◽  
pp. 105-121
Author(s):  
John Anthony McGuckin
Keyword(s):  
Literary Tradition ◽  
Virgin Mary ◽  
Eastern Orthodox ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
The World ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Unbroken Line ◽  
The Church

Beginning with a notice of the major Marian hymnal elements in the New Testament text, this study goes on to consider how the most ancient Christian tradition of celebrating the role of the Virgin Mary in the salvific events the Church commemorates at prayer runs on in an unbroken line into the earliest liturgical examples from the Byzantine Greek liturgy. The study exegetes some of the chief liturgical troparia addressed to the Theotokos in the Eastern Orthodox Church ritual books. It analyses some of the more famous and renowned poetic acclamations of the Virgin in Byzantine literary tradition, such as the Sub Tuum Praesidium, the Akathist, and the Nativity Kontakion of Romanos the Melodist, but also goes on to show how the minor Theotokia (or ritual verses in honour of the Virgin), taken from the Divine Liturgy and from the Eastern Church’s Hours of Prayer, all consistently celebrate the Mother of God’s role in the salvific work of Christ in the world.

scholarly journals The Marian Apparition of Seuca/Szőkefalva in the Context of Religious and Ethnical Interferences

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lehel Peti
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Virgin Mary ◽  
Local Parish ◽  
History Of ◽  
Marian Apparitions ◽  
The Village ◽  
The Church ◽  
Ways Of Life ◽  
The Way

Seuca became a known place for pilgrimage due to a blind Gypsy woman's public visions about the Virgin Mary in the first years of the new millennium. The author presents both the history of the ethnical and confessional co-existence in the village and the economic and social problems which affected the whole community. Then, the attitudes towards the apparition of the different denominations are highlighted by also presenting the way the seer attempts to question the different denominational opinions. The legitimating strategies of a Gypsy woman significantly influenced the aspects of the vision of the Virgin Mary from Seuca. In the history of Seuca, we find the practice of ethnic groups making well-defined boundaries between them, functioning as important parts of the communities. The artificial change of the ethnic structure during the Communist dictatorship changed the patterns of relations between the ethnic groups and made ethnic coexistence more problematic. The local parish that tried to expropriate the Marian apparitions has successfully integrated their messages into the ideology of ethnic reconciliation. The traditional onto- logical systems of religion in the communities still work and the frequent crossing of the ethnic and denominational boundaries have also promoted the strategies of the Church. In addition, the apparitions in Seuca earned the village a distinguished reputation in the region where enormous changes have taken place and where people have been forced to develop more complex strategies, or ways of life, without any pre-existing concrete models.

scholarly journals Religiøs ikonografi og politisk agitation

1986 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carsten Riis
Keyword(s):  
Virgin Mary ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Considerable Degree ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Historical Aspect ◽  
Explanatory Text ◽  
The City ◽  
The Church ◽  
Religious Aspect

About the painting “The Siege of Constantinople” as found on six churches from the 16th century in Moldavia. In the first decades of the 16th century the late Byzantine iconography flourished in Moldavia on church exteriors. On six churches within a radius of 30 kilometres are found a siege scene, “The Siege of Constantinople”, in connection with a painting of the Akathist Hymn. The article seeks the historical background of the painting in the siege of Constantinople by the Turkish army in 1453. In uncovers, through an interpretation of the painting from the Moldovita Monastery, the Moldavian painters’ knowledge of the fall of Constantinople. At the same time, this was the defeat of the centre of the Orthodox Church to which Moldavia belonged. From the connection with the Akathist Hymn and the explanatory text which follows the painting on the church in Arbore, the religious aspect of the paintings is connected to the Persian siege of Constantinople in 626, where an intervention by Virgin Mary was believed to have saved the city. During the Turkish pressure in the 1530’s, this tradition is moulded into an anti-Turkish ideological manifest in Moldavia. This takes place by altering the historical scene for the events in 626, and in this manner the situation of Moldovia is incorporated into the paintings. The church of Arbore has been painted as the last one and has an account which varies in considerable degree from the five others regarding the historical aspect, because at that time Turkish control of the area increased. However, its religious aspect is still Christian and anti-Turkish. After 1541 the picture is no longer painted, probably because of even stronger Turkish control.

scholarly journals Matthew the Poor: Towards Modern Birth Control Methods in the Coptic Orthodox Church

Family Forum ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 173-190
Author(s):  
Jaroslav Franc
Keyword(s):  
Birth Control ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Control Methods ◽  
Bioethical Issue ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Coptic Orthodox Church ◽  
Coptic Orthodox ◽  
The Church

The paper is focused on the Matta el-Meskeen (Matthew the Poor) and his reflection of selected bioethical issue: birth control. The paper deals with the forming stages of the bioethical discussions within the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt. The research is based on Matthew the Poor´s articles and books. The first part presents his teachings about theosis as an key concept of his theology in general and bioethics in particular. The second part brings analysis of his birth control reflections and presents his observations about the role of the Church and the state in the decision making process of Christian believers.

COPTS AND THE MILLET PARTNERSHIP: THE INTRA-COMMUNAL DYNAMICS BEHIND EGYPTIAN SECTARIANISM

2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 491-509 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Sedra
Keyword(s):  
Political Leader ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Political Role ◽  
Coptic Orthodox Church ◽  
Coptic Orthodox ◽  
Modern Egypt ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
The Church ◽  
Egyptian Politics

AbstractThe sparse scholarship on the political role of Coptic Christians in modern Egypt almost always takes the Coptic Orthodox Church as a point of departure, assuming that the head of the church, the Coptic patriarch, is not only the spiritual leader of the community but its political leader as well. This article argues that the disproportionate attention afforded to the Coptic Orthodox Church in this scholarship has obscured intra-communal dynamics of the Copts that are essential to an understanding of their political role. Through an analysis of historical struggles between the Coptic clergy and the Coptic laity for influence in Egyptian politics, as well as a particular focus on how these struggles have played out in the arena of personal status law, the article demonstrates that Egyptian politics and Coptic communal dynamics are deeply intertwined, to a degree often disregarded both by Copts and by Egypt analysts.

Divorce and Remarriage of Orthodox Copts in Egypt: The 2008 State Council Ruling and the Amendment of the 1938 Personal Status Regulations

2011 ◽  
Vol 18 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 356-386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathalie Bernard-Maugiron
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
State Council ◽  
National Courts ◽  
Personal Status ◽  
Coptic Orthodox Church ◽  
Coptic Orthodox ◽  
The Church

AbstractIn June 2008, the 1938 Personal Status Regulations for the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt were amended to limit the grounds for divorce to adultery and change of religion. This revision followed a ruling of the State Council requiring Pope Shenouda III, the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, to grant a divorced Orthodox Copt a license to remarry. The amendments ended a long-standing conflict between the Egyptian national courts and the Coptic Orthodox Church regarding the effects of judicial divorce: prior to the revision, thousands of couples divorced before the courts were considered by the Church to be still married. However, by restricting the possibilities for Orthodox Copts to obtain a divorce, the 2008 amendments may lead to an increase in conversions to other religious faiths to escape application of the revised 1938 regulations. In this essay, I analyze the 2008 amendments, the State Council ruling, landmark decisions of the Court of Cassation, comments by legal scholars and articles in newspapers, in an effort to assess the current status of divorce and remarriage among Orthodox Copts in Egypt and the problems generated by the application of conflicts rules between non-Muslim personal status laws in case of inter-religious marriages. At the end of the essay, I mention developments that took place in June 2010 after the release of a new ruling by the State Council.

scholarly journals Whose Heritage Counts? Narratives of Coptic People’s Heritage

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Monier
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Church Leadership ◽  
The Body ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Middle Ground ◽  
Coptic Orthodox Church ◽  
Coptic Orthodox ◽  
The Church ◽  
Church Buildings

This paper examines whose voices narrate official Coptic heritage, what the in-built biases in representations of Coptic heritage are and why, and some of the implications of omissions in narratives of Coptic heritage. It argues that the primary narrator of official Coptic heritage during the twentieth century was the leadership of the Coptic Orthodox Church. The Coptic Orthodox Church is the body that holds authority over the sources of heritage, such as church buildings and manuscripts, and also has the resources with which to preserve and disseminate heritage. The Church hierarchy’s leadership was not entirely uncontested, however, a middle ground was continually negotiated to enable lay Copts to play various roles and contribute to the articulation of Coptic heritage. Ultimately, though, alternative voices must operate within the limits set by the Church leadership and also negotiate the layers of exclusion set by society and state.

Apparitional Movements as Sites of Religious Experimentation

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-58
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Halemba
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Virgin Mary ◽  
The Other ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Marian Apparitions ◽  
The One ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

Based on an analysis of existing literature on Marian apparitions and field research-based case study from contemporary Transcarpathian Ukraine, this article asserts that an interpretation of Marian apparitional movements as a form of acquiescence to the authoritarian and conservative vision of the Catholic Church is too simplistic. The Virgin Mary appears in moments of crisis that are often caused or exacerbated by conflicts, especially ecclesiastical ones and it is also true that the sites of apparitions often do give a voice to those critical of modern changes. However, they are not always instrumentalized in support of conservative ideas. To the contrary, Marian apparitions are often sites of religious experimentation and innovation. On the one hand the Church can be extremely skeptical of or even hostile to apparitional events, still on the other hand the Church makes use of them as places of religious modernization with an aim to revitalize religious adherence.

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