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| Deir el-ʿAdhrāʾ · دير السيدة العذراء | ||
| Governorate | Beni Suef | |
|---|---|---|
| no tourist info on Wikidata: | ||
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Deir el-Adhra, Arabic:دير (السيدة) العذراء, Dair (as-Saiyida) al-ʿAḏrāʾ, „Convent of the (St.) Virgin“, Is a nunnery in Middle Egypt in the GovernorateBeni Suef on the east bank of the Nils near the village of Bayāḍ el-ʿArab.
background
location
The monastery of St. Virgin is on the east bank of the Nile west of Bayāḍ el-ʿArab,بياض العرب, „Bayāḍ the Arabs“, About opposite the city Beni Suef and 115 kilometers south of Cairo. The original name of the village was just Bayāḍ, since 1815 (1230 AH) it was called Bayāḍ en-Naṣārā,بياض النصارى, „Bayāḍ of the Christians“Because of the many Christians living here.[1] In the early 1980s the village was renamed Bayāḍ el-ʿArab.[2] The monastery is also located roughly on the northern tip of a 16-kilometer-long Nile island and the southern tip of a peninsula about two kilometers long.
history
The beginnings of the monastery are in the dark. Churches in a place called Bayāḍ or Bayāḍīya are known. So called z. B. the Arab historian el-Maqrīzī (1364–1442) a church for St. Anthony in his church directory.[3] But one cannot say with certainty which of the multiple locations it is. One of these places is also the place of origin of Mark V, the 98th Pope of Alexandria.[4]
British Egyptologist John Gardner Wilkinson (1797–1875) was the first to briefly mention the local monastery without giving a description.[5] The English Egyptologist Somers Clarke (1841–1926) named only one church of St. Virgin.[6]
Otto F. A. Meinardus (1925–2005) reported briefly on the new construction of the Church of St. Virgin consecrated in January 1963 by Bishop Athanasius. Two years later, Bishop Athanasius also opened a retreat for the Coptic Order of the Daughters of St. Maria. In Bayāḍ en-Naṣārā, today Bayāḍ el-ʿArab, there is also a training center of the local diakonia for artisans, teachers for Sunday schools and cantors.
Father Martin reported about the old church of the monastery, which had to give way to the new building. This [three-aisled] church had a central dome supported by four granite columns. On the south side of the church there was a gallery and at the place of the baptistery of the new church there was a chapel for St. Damyāna (Damiana). During the construction of the new church, more granite columns were found in the ground, which have now been erected again in the baptistery. The granite columns of the old church are now in a different place, namely on the door of the new church along the north wall and at the inner entrance of the monastery.[2]
Wilfried Van Rengen and Guy Wagner described an eleven-line Greek inscription on the shaft of one of the granite columns in the baptistery.[2] The column probably once came from Arsinoë / Krokodilopolis, which is in what is now the Kīmān Fāris district of the city el-Faiyūm was located. In the inscription three (or four) honor former High school students, temporarily head of the local grammar school, the father of Valerius Titanianus, who was raised to the position of prefect of the vigils in Rome around 217/218 AD and carried the title ἐξοχώτατος, Excellency. Obviously the honored man, who, like his son, came from a wealthy family, was useful for the gymnasium.
getting there
In the street
The journey is usually via Beni Suef. You cross the Nile over the Beni-Suef-Nile bridge and after about two kilometers in a northerly direction you reach the monastery and the neighboring village. An arrival from Cairo can be done via the Cairo ring road and the desert highway on the east side of the Nile.
With the boat
In principle, it is also conceivable to travel by boat. The monastery has its own jetty.
mobility
With a car you can drive directly to the entrance gate in the surrounding wall. You then have to explore the interior of the monastery on foot.
Tourist Attractions
The monastery is surrounded by a high wall. The cells for the nuns are on this wall.
The new church for St. The Virgin was built on the site of the previous church and consecrated by Bishop Athanasius in January 1963. Granite plinths and four granite columns still come from the old church.
The simple three-aisled church has three heicals, the one for St. Virgin in the middle, for St. Damyana on the left and for the Archangel Michael on the right. The sanctuaries are separated from the community area with a modern iconostasis. Above the iconostasis are the representation of the Last Supper and the Christ cross. On both sides of the screen there are icons of six apostles each, and on the left the icons for St. Mark, Mary and the Holy Spirit, in the middle icons with Mary with the child and Jesus and on the right the icons with the baptism of Christ and St. George.
On both sides of the screen wall there are lead glass windows with depictions from the life of Mary. Above the central nave with several chandeliers there are also small leaded glass windows with the portraits of various Egyptian saints. At the back of the church are two reliquary shrines with relics of martyrs and church fathers.
activities
Services are held daily in the church. Every year a big Mūlid, a birth festival, is held between August 7th and 22nd on the occasion of the Assumption of Mary.
There is a jetty below the monastery from which you can take a rowboat ride.
shop
kitchen
Restaurants can be found in Beni Suef.
accommodation
Accommodation can be found in Beni Suef.
trips
Visiting this monastery can be combined with a visit to the village and the monastery churches of Deir el-Meimun connect.
literature
- : Bayāḍ. In:Christian Coptic Egypt in Arab times; Vol. 1: A - C. Wiesbaden: Reichert, 1984, Supplements to the Tübingen Atlas of the Middle East: Series B, Geisteswissenschaften; 41.1, ISBN 978-3-88226-208-7 , P. 375 f.
- : Christian Egypt, ancient and modern. Cairo: American University at Cairo Press, 1977 (2nd edition), ISBN 978-977-201-496-5 , P. 357 f.
- : Dayr Al-Adhra ’. In:Atiya, Aziz Suryal (Ed.): The Coptic Encyclopedia; Vol. 3: Cros - Ethi. new York: Macmillan, 1991, ISBN 978-0-02-897026-4 , P. 714.
Individual evidence
- ↑: al-Qāmūs al-ǧuġrāfī li-’l-bilād al-miṣrīya min ʿahd qudamāʾ al-miṣrīyīn ilā sanat 1945; Vol. 2, Book 3: Mudīrīyāt al-Ǧīza wa-Banī Suwaif wa-’l-Faiyūm wa-’l-Minyā. Cairo: Maṭbaʿat Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣrīya, 1960, P. 159 (page numbers above).
- ↑ 2,02,12,2: Une dédicace à Valerius Titanianus, fils du préfet des vigiles Valerius Titanianus. In:Chronique d'Egypte (CdE), ISSN0009-6067, Vol.59,118 (1984), Pp. 348-353. In the appendix, Father Martin gives additional information about the monastery.
- ↑: Macrizi's story of the copts: from the manuscripts on Gotha and Vienna. Goettingen: Dieterich, 1845, P. 136. Church No. 19.
- ↑: Histoire de l’Eglise d’Alexandrie. Paris: Clousier, 1677, P. 329.
- ↑: Modern Egypt and Thebes: being a description of Egypt; including the information required for travelers in that country; Vol.2. London: Murray, 1843, P. 19.
- ↑: Christian antiquities in the Nile Valley: a contribution towards the study of the ancient churches. Oxford: Clarendon Pr., 1912, P. 206.
