Pope Dioscorus, mural in the Monastery of St. Anthony from the 13th century
The Panegyric of Macarius, Bishop of Tkôw, is available in both Bohairic and Sahidic manuscripts. The Bohairic version was translated by E. Amélineau into French in 1888,[1] and the Sahidic version was translated into English in 1980 by D. W. Johnson.[2] The Panegyric was attributed to Dioscorus I, the Archbishop of Alexandria (r. 444 – 454), who had been exiled to Gangra in Paphlagonia, on the Black Sea, in 451 AD for his resistance to Marcian (r. 450 – 457), the Byzantine Emperor, at the Council of Chalcedon, as Marcian was attempting to force the Tome of Leo I (r. 440 – 461), Archbishop of Rome, on all Christendom. When the imperial command reached Alexandria, ordering the Egyptian bishops to come to Constantinople to discuss the Tome, all Egyptian bishops abandoned Dioscorus, and by a trick took a separate ship and then returned back to Alexandria, leaving Saint Dioscorus on his own, except for the brave saint and miracle-worker, Macarius, Bishop of Tkôw, who accompanied Dioscorus on the same ship. This Macarius is considered in the Coptic Church as one of the Three Great Macarii: the desert father, Macarius the Great (295 – 392)[3]; Macarius of Alexandria (c. 300 – 395), another desert father[4]; and Macarius of Tkôw (d. 451/452), whose feast is celebrated in the Coptic Church on 27 Babah. Tkôw (Greek, Antaiopolis) is the Coptic town now known as Qaw al-Kabir in Upper Egypt, halfway between Asyut and Akhmim. When still in Constantinople, Dioscorus heard rumours of the intention of Marcian to kill Macarius, and he so sent him home. But Marcian and his courtiers would not leave Macarius in peace: after the Council of Chalcedon, Marcian sent a courier to Egypt to get all Egyptian bishops to sign the Tome. Macarius refused and the courier kicked him in the groin which led to the elderly saint’s death on the spot, and so he became a martyr. The Egyptian Christians laid his body in the tomb that contained the remains of John the Baptist and Elisha the Prophet. His remains are now kept at the Monastery of Saint Makar (Macarius) in the Western Desert of Egypt, where it is being venerated together with those of the two other Macarii.[5]
According to The Panegyric of Macarius, it was delivered as sermon or discourse by Dioscorus himself in praise of Macarius once he knew of his martyrdom; however, the original might have been expanded upon by others. D. W. Johnson, in his Introduction, gives a terminus a quo no earlier than the second or third decade of the sixth century. I think that composition was based on a prior nucleus which most probably included the original discourse. It seems that the Panegyric was composed originally in Greek somewhere near Alexandria.
The Panegyric of Macarius together with The Histoire de Dioscore,[6] which is dated to 455 (but with another layer added to it later), are of paramount importance to the history of that period from the Coptic point of view. But their importance is not only historical – they also serve us to understand the racial and lingual tensions and divide that existed in that period between Greeks and Egyptians. The Panegyric in particular tells us very interesting things on the racial and lingual tensions that existed.
But here, I would like to point to a very interesting finding, a shocking one may be to many, and it is the fact that Pope Dioscorus I knew no Coptic: he spoke only Greek. Here is how the Panegyric reveals this fact. We are told that when Dioscorus was summoned by Marcian to Constantinople, he was accompanied on the ship by two of his deacons: Theopistus (who later wrote Histoire de Dioscore) and Peter. With him went Macarius of Tkôw, accompanied by an assistant, Pinution. Neither Macarius nor Pinution knew Greek – they were of Egyptian stock and spoke only Coptic (Egyptian). On the other hand, Dioscorus spoke only Greek, and it seems that Theopistus too spoke Greek only. Peter, however, spoke both languages, and so he served as the interpreter between Pope Dioscorus and Bishop Macarius on their ship voyage. We read:
[When the saints went on board the ship]… Macarius went apart on the ship and sat with a man of his, Pinution, as this was the name by which we heard him calling him. I [Dioscorus] said to him: ‘Come, father, and sit by us.’ But he did not understand my speech. However, when I beckoned to him, he walked over to me. He said to me: ‘Behold, I have come because you called me.’ And I too would not have understood his speech if Peter, the deacon, had not interpreted his speech for me, for he knew the Egyptian language.[7]
It seems that the other deacon, Theopistus, was possessed with a bit of Greek arrogance and despised the Egyptian bishop, calling him, for his ignorance of Greek, “mouthless one”, meaning “of no use” in the mission they were going to; but Pope Dioscorus rebukes Theopistus, and asks him to seek forgiveness from the Egyptian bishop, who is held in high esteem by Dioscorus:
And Theopistus, the deacon, said to me: ‘My father, what are you doing with this mouthless one who is on board with us? With whom did this man come to make pronouncements?’ But I [Dioscorus] said to him: ‘No, my son, do not utter words of this sort against God’s just one. Believe me, even if the whole world were full of heretics and demons, the prayers of this man would reduce them to nothing, as if they were smoke. And if the whole world, full of swords, and spears, gathers against him, he will never be overwhelmed by them. Let us become like Joshua, the son of Nun, in order that we might go out to war. And this holy elder, let him become like Moses and pray over us in order that we might conquer our enemies, that is, the heretics. You also, O Theopistus, become like Hur. And Peter, become like Aaron, that is, be steadfast in the unwavering Faith, the Christ. And Father Macarius, become like Moses, and you hold up his hands. And I also, the lowliest, I will take the form of Joshua, the son of Nun, and fight against the new Amalek, that is, the godless heretics. Stay close to him from now on and interpret for him the things which we are going to say. Now then, my son, Theopistus, come and receive forgiveness from this holy elder so that he might absolve you. For if he does not absolve you, you shall not have forgiveness.’
Immediately Theopistus prostrated himself, saying: ‘Absolve me, my father. I have sinned against your holiness.’ When Peter had interpreted these remarks for him, the holy man in his very great humility said: ‘I am the one who sinned, my son.’ And I said to him: ‘Believe me, my father, if you do not absolve him, he is excommunicated.’ And the holy one said: ‘God absolve you, my son.’[8]
Here we have a very interesting story of how Deacon Theopistus despised Bishop Macarius and doubted his use in the mission to Constantinople because he could not speak Greek; of how Pope Dioscorus, a great saint who must have held no difference between Jew or Gentile, Egyptian or Greek, and who knew very well of the holiness and power of prayer of the Egyptian ascetic. Dioscorus saw himself in war with the enemy, the heretics of Chalcedon, and in this war he would go like a warrior, like Joshua son of Nun leading the Israelites in the Battle of Rephidim against the Amalkites; and he saw Bishop Macraius in the role of the great Prophet Moses, a prophet regarded as even greater than Joshua, who in Rephidim did not fight himself but kept watching the fighting as he prayed for the victory of the Israelites. Dioscorus wanted Theopistus to have the role of Hur in this war; and as Hur stood beside Moses and held his hand up until the war ended with the prevailing of the Israelites, so Theopistus should stand beside Macarius and hold his hand, while the Egyptian ascetic prayed for the war against the heretics to be won. Deacon Peter, too, had a role in the war: he was to take the role of Aaron, another companion of Moses who helped raise the hand of Moses as the battle was joined to ensure that the Israelites prevailed[9]: Aaron too must assist Macarius. But Dioscorus gave Peter the role of Aaron for another reason: we know from Exodus that God had sent Moses to Egypt to demand the release of the Israelites from slavery, but Moses protested that he could not speak eloquently, and, therefore, God allowed Aaron to be the spokesperson for Moses.[10] In the same way, and as Macarius was not able to speak Greek, Peter should act as his mouthpiece and interpreter.
Pope Dioscorus showed only respect and admiration to the elderly Egyptian, who was wearing dirty and old habit, and spoke no Greek. Dioscorus was a perfect man as the story shows. While Greeks thought of Egyptians who didn’t speak Greek as barbarians, and looked down on them, the leadership of the Church of Alexandria departed from that anti-Christian view. Dioscorus compelled Theopistus to repent and would perhaps have excommunicated him had he not prostrated himself before Macarius and asked for forgiveness.
The position of Pope Dioscorus I is secure in the hearts and minds of the Copts. We don’t know much about him for there is no complete biography of him in extant; but he is considered a Faith hero of the Coptic Orthodox Church. He is perhaps the most influential patriarch in our Church and nation history. His position in Chalcedon, despite his betrayal by most bishops, was staunchly supported by the Christians of Egyptian stock, i.e. the Copts, particularly in the monasteries and within villages and towns in Egypt Proper. The painful and humiliating way he was treated by Byzantium and the Chalcedonians, created a strong Coptic nationalist reaction and marked the birth of a new identity for the Copts: before Chalcedon, the Copts were part of a multinational community of Christians; after Chalcedon, the started to define themselves as Egyptian faithful v. the heretics – the Byzantines – who followed the Imperial orders. In my view, a specific Coptic nationalism emerged then, and matured after the Arab Conquest, as it started to define itself against yet another foreign power that oppressed them.
But this article is primarily intended to point to the fact that Pope Dioscorus I, though the Archbishop of Alexandria and Egypt, knew no Coptic and could not converse with Bishop Macarius directly but required an interpreter in the person of Deacon Peter. Probably all his saintly twenty-four predecessors spoke only Greek too, and that includes Popes Anianus, Demetrius, Dionysius, Peter I, Alexander I, Athanasius I, Timothy I, Theophilus I, and Cyril I. We don’t know who the first Archbishop of Alexandria who could speak Coptic was, but we know that most churches in Alexandria used the Greek language alone in the liturgy until late in the Middle-Ages, and that the Alexandrian clergy insisted on this tradition.[11] It seems that there was a lingual divide then between Alexandria, which spoke mainly Greek, and Egypt Proper, which spoke mainly Coptic. But as the Patriarch resided in Alexandria until the Middle-Ages, we can say that the official language of the Church of Alexandria (over the geographical area of Egypt as a whole) was Greek and not Coptic, and remained so for some time even after the Arab Conquest in 640 AD.
It would have been a different story in the history of the Coptic language had the Church of Alexandria adopted the Coptic language early, replacing Greek, as the official language of the Church. Coptic would have been raised to a prestigious level. It would have been obliged to develop further and to modernise itself to be a language of advanced theology, philosophy and the sciences. Alas, this was not the case. The fact that the Church of Alexandria used Greek as its official language, and even its great archbishops knew no Coptic, is a sad one, for it cannot be but seen as a contributing factor to the later decline of Coptic in the face of Arabic, and the final Arabisation of the Copts.
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[1] E. Amélineau, Monuments pour servir à l’histoire de l’Egypte chrétienne aux IVe et Ve siècles: II. Panégyrique de Macaire de Tkôou, Mémoirs: Mission archéologique française au Caire IV, I (Paris, 1888), pp. 92-164).
[2] A Panegyric on Macarius, Bishop of Tkôw: attributed to Dioscorus of Alexandria. Edited and translated by D.W. Johnson (Louvain : Secrétariat du CorpusSCO, 1980).
[3] Also known as Macarius of Egypt. He was a disciple of St. Anthony the Great. The Coptic Church celebrates his feast on 27 Baramhat.
[4] Also known as Macarius the Younger, whose feast in the Coptic Church is on 6 Pashons.
[5] For more on Macarius of Tkôw, read MACARIUS OF TKOW, SAINT by David W. Johnson, S.J., in Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 5 (New York, Macmillan, 1991).
[7] A Panegyric on Macarius, p. 4.
[8] Ibid, pp. 4-5.
[9] Exodus 17-1-16.
[10] Exodus 4: 10.
[11] Read my articles: HOW THE COPTS OF ALEXANDRIA HELPED IN THE DECLINE OF COPTIC LANGUAGE AND AIDED THE SHIFT FROM COPTIC TO ARABIC, and FURTHER EVIDENCE THAT COPTS OF ALEXANDRIA HELPED IN THE DECLINE OF COPTIC LANGUAGE AND AIDED THE SHIFT FROM COPTIC TO ARABIC.