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Al-Ahram Weekly 8 - 14 June 2000 Issue No. 485 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 8 - 14 June 2000 Issue No. 485
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Monastery in their midst
By Samir NaoumDevotion is part conviction, part determination -- and you have to be pretty determined to get a glimpse of the religious complex that once made up the monastery of the fourth-century saint, Abuvana. To get to the monastery of Abuvana, I went first to Mallawi, in the southern province of Minya, and from there on to the village of Beni Khaled, further west. I then crossed the Bahr Youssef Canal and made for the village of Qasr Hur.
Once described as "an edifice of stone" by the medieval historian Maqrizi, and later lavished with praise in the 18th century for its decoration, which included marble pillars of Gothic style and walls painted from top to bottom with countless crosses, the monastery once stood just beyond the agricultural land. But today it is isolated in a barren, pebble-strewn desert.
French archaeologist Maspero described the monastery in the early 19th century as the "Monastery of the Cross", a reference to the numerous crosses that decorated its walls and the shape of the church itself. But the remains of the church I eventually came upon, despite ambitious renovations, bear little resemblance to the structure spoken of in such glowing terms.
Excavation of the monastic site has been under way since September 1987, when a joint project between Austria and the Supreme Council of Antiquities was initiated under the direction of Helmut Bauchhausen. The results, I was told, have proved extremely rewarding, casting more light on an area that was once heavily populated with Christian communities.
The "edifice of stone": The Monastery of Abuvana, in Qasr Hur, is still under restoration
photos: Samir Naoum
As excavations continue to unearth the monastic complex, an ancient community comes to life. During their excavations, the Austrian mission found 20 coins dating from between 250 and 424 AD, pottery fragments and ceramics of a later date. The refectory, with wooden benches used by monks during their meals and a roofless kitchen for making bread has been excavated. In the monks' cemetery, four bronze oil lamps were found, as well as a basin used by priests for handwashing before performing mass. Most impressive of all, however, are the hermits' cells, some of which are decorated with paintings of parts of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
Abuvana was born in Memphis to a devout Christian family, who raised him as a disciplined and god-fearing child, well versed in the rituals of prayer, fasting and church doctrine. Taking after his charitable parents, Abuvana would later earn an association with service for the poor.
Even as a youth, Abuvana felt a deep desire to join the hermits in the area. He took to visiting them regularly in ancient tombs and caves, learning their virtues and drawing spiritual knowledge from them. He memorised the Psalms and chose to pursue a life of devotion. He developed a talent for palm-leaf plaiting and basket work and sold his works to provide for his basic needs; profits were given to those more needy than himself.
Abuvana developed a devout following attending the sick and troubled. When he died, he was buried by his devotees and a church was built over his remains -- the oldest part of the sixth-century monastery that later bore his name.
The monastery was occupied uninterruptedly until the 14th century when, probably because of the Black Death plague, it was abandoned by all but a handful of monks. After the 15th century, the entire edifice began to fall to ruin.
"The earliest documentation of the monastery was carried out by Napoleon's scholars at the end of the 18th century," said Bishop Dimitrius, of the diocese of Mallawi and Ashmunein.
The energetic efforts of Father Metias Gaballa, a priest of the Church of Abuvana in Qasr Hur who partially excavated the church in 1986, drew the attention of the Higher Institute for Coptic Studies in Cairo. Father Samuel El-Suryani undertook the study of the remains, identifying sections that date back to the original construction, as well as additions and modifications introduced at later periods. El-Suryani was joined in 1987 by Peter Grossman, of the German Archaeological Institute, when an architectural study was carried out. Later in the same year, the Austrian mission undertook the salvage of the surviving wall paintings on the western wall of the church, made of adobe, and the northern and western walls of the church courtyard.
"This may be one of the earliest monasteries," said Bishop Dimitrius, who went on to explain that hermits' cells have been excavated in the northern section of the complex which date to a time when hermits led solitary, not communal, lives. "Saint Abuvana was the spiritual leader of a community that numbered over a thousand," he said, adding that Abuvana introduced monasticism in the area during the reign of Emperor Theodosius (378-395 AD).
On leaving the monastery and retracing my footsteps across the Bahr Youssef toward Mallawi, I pondered on this ancient community, on the holy man Abuvana, and on the thousand monks that once lived in the area. Little is left of a powerful and prodigious religious community, but the name and legacy of Abuvana lives on in this remote monastery off the beaten track.
