| |
| | Saint Mary Coptic Orthodox Church, Surrey, BC Canada (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-13) |
 | | Saint Paul, of the lower Thebaid in Egypt, was the first hermit. |
 | | Saint Anthony was a great leader of thousands of monks in Egypt in the fourth cenutry, and many of his disciples also came from the West, after hearing of his inspirational life; for this reason he is considered all over the world, until today, as the "father of monasticism." |
 | | Unfortunately, however, the events of the Council of Chalcedon, were to have long-standing and far reaching effects upon the Coptic Church, which suffered greatly at the hands of the Chalcedonian rulers, and from that time it remained isolated from the rest of the Christian World, until the 20th century. |
| www.saintmarycopticorthodoxchurch.com /brief2.shtml (1809 words) |
|