Description:

The History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria is the Liber Pontificalis of the Coptic church. The first part of it is a compilation made, as we read in one of the prefaces at the head of the manuscripts, by Severus, bishop of El-Eschmounein in upper Egypt, between Minieh and Asiout, based on Greek and Coptic documents which he found in the monasteries of his country, and which he translated with the help of some clerks. This history of the first centuries of the Coptic church is based above all on Eusebius and some primitive Acts, But from the seventh century on, and above all from the era of the Arab conquest, the history of the patriarchs becomes much more complete and more interesting. Here we have a series of real biographies written by contemporary authors, such as John the Deacon, in the time of the patriarch Michael I, and George, archdeacon and syncellus of the patriarch Simon.