C. E. ten Hacken Legend of Saint Aur and the Monastery of Naqlun

Annotation

This book studies the literary heritage of the Coptic Orthodox monastery of the Archangel Gabriel at Naqlun in the Fayyum province in Egypt by focusing on the hagiographical cycle of Saint Aur, the presumed founder of its church. It presents the edition and translation, with extensive commentaries, of six previously unedited texts, all preserved in Middle Arabic. The author argues that the literary tradition around the monastery of Naqlun evolved in about the eleventh century, a period in which the monastery experienced a revival. The texts recall the memory of great saints from the past, among whom Saint Antony, and convey a new view of the Christian landscape of this region.