Egypt is a common destination for Christian pilgrimage trips, and no wonder: its importance in the times of early Christianity was very great, and the Coptic community keeps alive the flame of this religion that penetrated deep here in the first centuries of our era. In this post we collect some of the main Christian saints of Egypt, who helped to spread and establish the message of Christ in this territory and who, later, became universal saints for all believers in this religion.
Saint Paul the Hermit
One of the main achievements of early Coptic Christianity was the creation of the monastic movement. And in this, there was a great precursor: St. Paul of Thebaida, better known as St. Paul the Hermit. He was the first to retire in search of a contemplative and eremitical life, in this case to a cave in the middle of the country’s Eastern Desert . After his death, that sacred grotto became the epicenter of a monastery dedicated to the saint.
San Antonio Abad
But the honor of ‘first monastery in the world’ goes to the monastery of St. Anthony Abbot, located about 40 km from the Red Sea coast, next to the Gulf of Suez, also in the Eastern Desert. In this case, the monastery was founded by the followers of St. Anthony Abbot around the year 300, thus giving worship to this other great Christian saint of Egypt, considered the first monk of Christianity. In fact, between one monastery and the other there are barely 20 km in a straight line (80 km by road) and according to medieval scholars such as Jacob de la Voragine (13th century), St. Anthony Abbot visited his contemporary St. Paul in his cave.
Saint Catherine of Alexandria
In addition to being a pioneer in the monastic movement, the territory now occupied by Egypt also saw some of its first Christians martyred, in episodes that later tradition has not wanted to forget. One of the most famous saints to die in this way was St. Catherine of Alexandria: she was a noblewoman of this city who refused to perform pagan cults before the Roman imperial authorities, being subsequently martyred on a wheel with blades and beheaded. Her remains were carried by angels near Mount Sinai and today are kept in another monastery of reference for Christianity, especially Orthodox, in the south of the Sinai Peninsula. Moreover, she is a saint very well established in the Christian saints’ calendar and, therefore, frequently represented by European artists, some of the stature of Caravaggio.
St. Maurice and the Theban legion
Another important Egyptian saint martyred was St. Maurice, a native of Thebes and head of a large Roman legion. All of them were sent to Gaul to put down a revolt against the Roman Empire, refusing to persecute Christians. For this, or perhaps also for refusing to perform pagan sacrifices, both he and the members of his legion were beheaded. All this did not happen in Egyptian territory but in Europe, which is why he is a very widespread saint on this continent, especially in Switzerland, where he is the patron saint of various towns.
St. Mark the Evangelist
Finally, we refer to St. Mark who, although he was not a native of Egypt, but of Cyrene (today Libya), has a very close relationship with this country, as he was bishop of Alexandria and a character very close to Peter. His importance in Christianity lies in the fact that he is attributed the authorship of the Gospel that bears his name. In addition, in the ninth century, his relics were transferred to Venice, resting in the basilica where he is worshipped, one of the most famous in the Christian world.
