The Monastery of Saint Macarius the Great (Dayr Aba Maqār, دير الأنبا مقار) is one of the greatest Coptic monasteries that has had a great impact on Coptic Christianity and history. It lies in Wadi al-Natrun some 92 km north-west of Cairo, in the Western Desert of Egypt. In Coptic, it is called Ⲡⲓⲙⲟⲛⲥⲧⲏⲣⲓⲟⲛ (ⲓⲉ ⲡⲓⲁ̀ⲃⲏⲧ) ⲛ̀ⲧⲉ ⲡⲓⲁⲅⲓⲟⲥ ⲡⲓⲛⲓϣϯ ⲁⲡⲁ Ⲙⲁⲕⲁⲣⲓⲟⲥ.
This monastery would be expected to be one of the bastions of Coptic identity, and as such, would be expected to maintain Coptic language and promote it. But not so, it appears. One of the obvious signs of its neglect of Coptic is that Coptic is never used to indicate the name of the monastery itself or its seven churches. All are displayed in Arabic alone (as we can see in the plague showing the name of the monastery at its entrance) or in Arabic and English (as is the case with its various churches), sometimes with inaccurate English.
National identity, of which language is probably the strongest element, is maintained and promoted, inter alia, by displaying the names of the nation’s institutions. It is a simple and easy way to emphasise a nation’s identity. The absence of this in our monasteries and churches, places that should be most keen about preserving our identity, is a shameful act. The Monastery of Saint Macarius is not the only one that show neglect of Coptic – I have previously written about other monasteries and churches inside and outside Egypt that share in this serious fault. Shame on all of them – or rather I should say, on all who in charge of these monasteries and churches.
Below, I simply reproduce photos of some of the plaques at the monastery that demonstrate my point. All photos, except the last two, are from Wikipedia.
