I’ve started to look at the modern critical edition of the texts around St Colluthus. This was printed a decade ago in 2013 in the Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium (CSCO) volume 650, edited by Gesa Schenke.1 The texts were printed properly – in place of the half-assed hand-written texts in the editiones principales.
The translation and commentary was in German, which nobody else can actually read, although some scholars pretend. Cough.
Anyway I ran the preface through ChatGPT, just to get an English version and skim read it before looking at the good stuff. Well, we all know how boring these prefaces always are.
So I was rather surprised to find something really interesting, and even inspirational. Have a read. Accuracy not guaranteed, of course.
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The impetus for my engagement with Coptic martyr legends came from reading courses and practical exercises conducted as part of my teaching at the Department of Egyptology at the University of Cologne. These hagiographical texts, which had long been underestimated and consequently largely neglected, grew particularly close to my heart over many semesters of teaching. I was astonished by the wealth of quotations from Holy Scripture incorporated into them, which the martyrs repeatedly produced during interrogations by the authorities, whether asked for them or not. The manner in which a constant struggle is stylized between the wickedness of the ruling Roman power and the piety of the martyrs—out of which the latter repeatedly emerge victorious through divine intervention—leaves a deep impression and is at times as fantastic as it is amusing. “The lawless ruler” orders the martyr to be flogged, while “the good soldier of Jesus Christ” quotes Scripture and endures his suffering, only to be healed again through divine assistance after his tortures.
This continual struggle between good and evil, punctuated by cruel tortures and pious quotations, seemed to me to be a defining feature of the Coptic martyr legend, one that does not entirely justify the constant accusation of a lack of quality and originality in Coptic literature.
Not only does the continuation of this struggle between good and evil recall ancient Egyptian myths, but the incorporation of convincing biblical quotations into the vita and passio of famous saints also reveals itself to be a genuinely original literary device. Thus, in response to Winstedt’s warning— “It is much to be feared that the Coptic lives of the saints but seldom contain anything of profit or interest to ordinary sinful humanity” —it should be pointed out that, although these narratives may seem repetitive and long-winded to modern readers, the manner in which biblical quotations are incorporated reveals a distinctive literary dynamic that can be highly interesting. Moreover, this type of popular literature provides access to the intellectual and emotional world of the indigenous population and, not least, constitutes evidence of a living Egyptian Christianity that, from Late Antiquity through the Early Middle Ages, repeatedly worked with the basic pattern of these legends, deliberately varying and convincingly adapting it when required for particular purposes.
Using the legendary texts concerning Saint Kolluthos as an example, the typical dossier of an Egyptian martyr saint is presented and examined here. Particular attention is paid to the structure, narrative technique, and compositional purpose of these different types of legends, in order to contribute to a deeper understanding of these textual genres. All previously known Coptic literary texts concerning the holy physician, martyr, and miracle-worker are brought together and newly edited here for the first time. In this way, a basis for further study is established for this particularly important Egyptian saint, for whom all three types of legend—the Martyrdom, Encomion, and Miracula—have survived, albeit in some cases only fragmentarily.
The texts, which are entirely in Sahidic, are each provided with an introduction, a German translation, and a commentary. The Encomion of Bishop Isaac of Antinoe on Saint Kolluthos, edited by S. E. Thompson in this series, is not reproduced here, but is discussed extensively, since the edition appeared entirely without commentary. This substantial text, however, provides a vivid impression of the veneration of saints in Late Antiquity and the early Arab period and is particularly well suited to illuminating the compositional methods of Coptic legendary texts.
In addition, the texts presented here are intended as reading exercises. They can be used in Coptic instruction or as reading texts for consolidating knowledge of the Coptic language. The Coptic text of the originals is likewise presented in two columns, in order to familiarize modern readers with the ancient format of the texts and to encourage the study of “ancient reading.” Word division, however, follows modern standards and corresponds essentially to that used in the editiones principes. The Leiden system of brackets is used in the presentation of the texts.
Then, after acknowledgements, we read:
My father died before the idea for this work was even born. Nevertheless, I would like to dedicate the present work to his memory and thank him for passing on to me the principle that the enjoyment of Coptic texts should (almost) always come first.
Oxford, November 2012
Gesa Schenke
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That is really thoughtful. I think that we might all look a bit more kindly at Coptic hagiographical texts in future.
