Shenoute, abbot of the White Monastery near Sohag in Upper Egypt (ob. c. 465), in a Coptic Discourse refers to the saints as allies of those without sin; written in the 5th century.
Evidence ID
E02849
Type of Evidence
Literary - Sermons/Homilies
Major author/Major anonymous work
Shenoute of Atripe
In his discourse entitled The idolatrous pagans, or, And we will also reveal something else (discourses 8, work 9 or 10), Shenoute mentions that the saints pay attention to peoples' lives, and serve as their allies or enemies.
‘Why have we been content with violent acts, in all of which we violate only ourselves? Let us not make ourselves strangers to God and his Christ on account of merriment and deceitful amusement and impiety, and let us not be enemies to his saints. We know that if God turns his face from us no one will pay attention to us in our life and when we go to him.’
Translation: Brakke and Crislip 2017, 121.
A critical edition of the Coptic text is still pending.
Liturgical Activities
Sermon/homily
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - monks/nuns/hermits
Theorising on SanctityConsiderations about the veneration of saints
Source
Shenoute’s entire literary corpus, preserved in medieval manuscripts only, almost exclusively comes from a single find spot, a storeroom of the church at his ‘White’ monastery. A critical edition of this entire corpus of Shenoute's written work is still in preparation by S. Emmel and others.Bibliography
Translation and Discussion:Brakke, D., and Crislip, A., Selected Discourses of Shenoute the Great: Community, Theology, and Social Conflict in Late Antique Egypt (Cambridge, 2017), 118–124.
Record Created By
Gesa Schenke
Date of Entry
26/5/2017
ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00518 | Saints, unnamed | Certain |
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