The Coptic Church
Descendants of the Pharaohs
Copts are Egyptians
The Greeks once named Egypt after the great temple of King Ptah in ancient Egypt E-Ka-Ptah (E = house Ka= soul of the god Ptah)
The words "Copts, Coptic, ..." as well as the words "Egypt, Egyptians, ..." have the same origin, which is the ancient Egyptian word for Egypt: E-KA-Ptah. The word means "the house of the spirit of Ptah", therefore, the word Copt and Egyptian are linguistically one and the same word.
Today, Copts is a term for the Christians of Egypt.
Our founder
Saint Mark
St. Mark the Evangelist brought Christianity to the Nile in the 1st century and founded the Alexandrian Church in Alexandria.
He is therefore considered the founder and first pope of the Coptic Church
Egyptians quickly accepted the Christian faith and the country was one of the first to be almost completely christianized.
According to Coptic tradition, Mark died a martyr's death in 68 AD.
We are proud of this
The Holy Family in Egypt
Egypt is the only country apart from Israel that Jesus Christ himself visited and thus blessed:
The pride of the Copts
Egypt in the Bible
The monastery of Deir el-Muharraq (“the burnt monastery”) or the Virgin Mary monastery in Assiut, Upper Egypt is located in the middle of Egypt - just as the prophet Isaiah predicted.
The pride of the Copts
Egyptian desert fathers founded monasticism
St. Anthony the Great (father of the monks) founded monasticism in Egypt in the 4th century, from where it spread worldwide (3rd/4th century).
St. Pachomius (3rd/4th century) is the founder of koinobitism (monks living together under one roof)
St. Makarios the Egyptian (4th century)
Coptic monasteries
Today there are over 80 monasteries in Egypt
From the very beginning
The church of the martyrs
Persecution of Christians from the beginning
The pagan Roman persecution from 62 AD.
since 641 AD by the Islamic conquerors (under Amr Ibn Aas).
Islam was introduced to Egypt.The Coptic language was banned
Still today
Beheading of 21 Copts in Libya
Sirte, Libya, January 2015
The legacy of the pharaohs
The Coptic Language
The Coptic alphabet consists of the Greek alphabet and seven other characters.
Coptic was the official language in Egypt until the 7th century and was increasingly displaced by Islamization.
Coptic Art
We have made quality our habit. It’s not something that we just strive for – we live by this principle every day.
Today's head
Our Pope
His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria and Pope of the See of St. Mark.
He is the 118th Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church
Visited Germany in 2013 and 2019
well-known Copts
Boutros Ghali (Wikipedia Artikel)
Egyptian politician
Secretary-General of the UN (1992 – 1996)
Naguib Sawiris
Egyptian billionaire
Hani Azer
Civil engineer
Project manager of Berlin Central Station
Rami Malek
US actor, Robot, James Bond