Heortology : $b A history of the Christian festivals from their origin to the present dayKellner, K. A. Heinrich (Karl Adam Heinrich)
Religion
Heortology : $b A history of the Christian festivals from their origin to the present day
Kellner, K. A. Heinrich (Karl Adam Heinrich)
Church year; Fasts and feasts
and there is also a _Symon Apostolus_ on 19th October as well. Although
traces of later influence appear in this martyrology, it has still
preserved the independent character of the early Christian Calendars.
6. _Egyptian (Coptic) Calendars and Synaxaria_
The anglican archeologist, John Selden († 1634), has given us the
earliest Egyptian calendars in his work on the Jewish Sanhedrin which
was left unfinished when he died. In the third book of this work, Selden
intended to deal with the rite for the dedication of Christian churches,
although this lay beyond the immediate purpose of his investigations,
and he thought that some Arabic Calendars in his possession might have
some bearing on the question.[786] Unfortunately, he gave no information
concerning the MSS. from which these calendars were taken, and they seem,
moreover, when discovered, to have been by no means in a good condition.
Ludolf declared himself dissatisfied with these publications, and
Wüstenfeld remarked: “The Arabic MSS. employed, must have been faulty,
and were made still worse by the faulty reading and transcribing of the
editor and the printing is so incorrect that some words would be almost,
and others quite unintelligible, were there not other helps to their
meaning at hand.”[787] Still, in spite of these well-founded criticisms
from specialists, Selden’s work cannot be over-looked. There seem also to
have been gaps and undecipherable passages in the MS. itself.
There are three calendars edited by Selden: two short, and one long,
the latter being of later date than the others. The two first have a
supplement to each month, called _ordo alter_, both appear to have been
originally drawn up for the use of monasteries, but are distinguished
from one another in important points. We shall designate them by the
letters A and B. A is at any rate of Egyptian origin and is monophysite
in character, because the heresiarch Severus, who lived in the sixth
century, twice appears in it, on 8th February and 29th September. Other
peculiarities in the document are: 1. It has two feasts of the Holy
Cross, on 6th March _Inventio Crucis_, by which doubtless the recovery
of the Cross by Heraclius in 629 is meant, and _festum crucis gloriosæ_
on 14th September. 2. The Nativity of our Lady is on 26th April. 3.
The commemorations of the Mother of God in use in Egypt, are given on
the 21st of the months January, March, May, July, and October: B omits
these feasts. 4. A has the archangel Gabriel on the 18th December, but
no festival of the Annunciation, while B places _Evangelismus_ on the
25th March, and no feast on the 18th December pointing onwards to the
impending Nativity of our Lord. 5. A has the four living creatures of
the Apocalypse on the 4th November who appear also later on in Coptic
calendars: B omits them. 6. In A the conquest of Egypt by the Mahometans
is seven times mentioned, _e.g._ 26th May, 10th December, etc. 7. A
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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