Menassa Youhanna
A Coptic historian who died at a young age in 1923, most noted for his work on the history of the Coptic Orthodox Church, he was born in the 1880s in a Coptic Orthodox family and his father was a Priest.
Abouna is his informative title meaning our father in arabic which is used among Copts to call any Priest in the Coptic Orthodox Church, and until the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries it could be used to call a Meropolitan, a Bishop or even the Pope by the word Abouya meaning my father, this has been replaced now by the word sayedna meaning our master for The Pope and any other Bishop [1].
Abouna Menassa was a priest of the Coptic Orthodox Church in one of the cities in North Egypt (Elmahalaa elkobra) which is one of the major cities in the Egyptian Delta'
His book about the History of the Coptic Orthodox Church is very comprehensive, in about five hundred and thirty pages he managed to give a summary of the Church's history without omitting important details.
He also depended on both Coptic and non Coptic sources for his books and in his account of the history of the Coptic Church he tried to be non-biased although his compassion towrds his church is very noticable.
When comparing his work with the History of the Coptic Church by Iris Habib Elmasry, Abouna Menassa's account is more concise and neutral , on the other hand his book does not include some details included in Miss Elmasry's books , which made her work of use to both academic and non academic readers.
Putting in mind that he wrote his books to be read mainly by non-academic readers without disregarding academic ones and that he wrote it in the early 1920's his style is elegant yet easy to read and his book would be of good use for any person interested in this church's history.
One of the notable defferences between the two historians is the way the history of Pope Cyril III is presented in Miss Elmasry's book in comparison to the way it was presented in Abouna Youhanna's book[2].
Although both of them had notable affection towards the Coptic Church, Abouna Menassa's account was more neutral when approaching the matter of selection of this Pontiff to be the Pope. [3]
He had other books about the church
Refrerences
- ^ History of the Coptic Church by Iris Habib Elmasry
- ^ History of the Coptic Church by Iris Habib Elmasry
- ^ History of the Coptic Church, Abouna Menassa Elkomos Youhanna 1923
See also
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