The title "pope" (in Greek, Papás) originally was a form of address meaning 'Father' used by several bishops. The first known record of this designation was Heraclas, the 13th Archbishop of Alexandria (232–249). The Alexandrian usage of the honorific does not conflict with the usage in reference to the bishop of Rome.
The full ecclesiastical title is Papa Abba, and the person who bears it stands for the devotion of all monastics, from Pentapolis in the west to Constantinople in the east, to his guidance. Within the denomination, it is the most powerful designation, for all monks in the East to voluntarily follow his spiritual authority, and it is said that it should be assumed that he is a bearer of Christ.
Not all of the dates given are certain. The dates below are according to the Gregorian calendar. Some of the dates disagree with those given in Coptic publications such as The English Katameros. In some cases, publication errors caused the difference and have been corrected. In other cases, calendar differences between the Julian and the Gregorian calendars have caused some confusion.
One of the Seventy Apostles and traditionally viewed as the author of the Gospel of Mark. The Evangelist of the Land of Egypt. He was martyred at Baucalis (east of Alexandria) during the persecution of Christians led by the Roman Emperor Nero.
He is the first Patriarch to carry the hierarchy title "Pope". Which the Bishop of Rome did not use until the sixth century. During his Patriarchy, the Christians were persecuted by the Roman Emperor Maximus the Tharacian.
28 December 246 – 22 March 264 (17 years, 2 months, 10 days)
One of the Church Fathers. Attended the 1st Ecumenical Council at Nicaea as a Deacon and wrote the Nicene Creed also known as the Orthodox Creed or Athanasius Creed. He is regarded by majority Western Protestants, scholars, and theologians as the greatest leader of Christianity.[citation needed]
Known as the "Pillar of Faith" and "Lamp of the Orthodox Church". On 22 September 431 AD, St. Cyril attended the 3rd Ecumenical Council at Ephesus, which he rebuked and excommunicated Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople who denied the Virgin as Theotokos ('God-bearer').
8 August 444 – 17 September 454 (10 years, 1 month, 9 days)
Known as the "Champion of Orthodoxy". Last Pope & Patriarch of Alexandria to attend a Western council, the 4th Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon and was accompanied by St. Marcarius, Bishop of Edkow. They were exiled by Emperor Marcianus and the Empress Pulcheria to the Island of Gangra, where St. Dioscorus departed and was laid to rest.
13 October 455 – 13 August 477 (21 years, 10 months)
The Umayyad Caliph Al-Walid I did not limit himself to taxing the Copts' finances; he also taxed their patience. He publicly reviled Jesus and once, during a procession, he even spat in the face of an image of the Virgin Mary. When the Copts protested to the Caliph about the level of taxation he responded with more seizure of property and higher taxes. Such behavior continued under Al-Walid's successors; Yazid II not only reinstated all the earlier taxes, he also ordered the destruction of all crosses and sacred images in churches. He also ordered all his subjects to wear a leaden identification badge around their necks, and required that all Copts who wished to engage in business activity have the mark of a lion branded on their hands. Anyone caught without the mark would have his hand cut off.[1]
He was thrown into prison by Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan ibn Musa bin Nusayr. Hence, King Kyriakos of Makuria marched north into Egypt at the head of an army said to number 100,000 men to free the Pope. However, once the Makurian army reached Egypt, the Pope was released from prison.[2]
In 829, the Copts of the entire Nile Delta rebelled against the Muslim authorities because of excessive taxation and religious persecution. The revolt spread to Upper Egypt. This was the greatest, the most widespread and the most broad based Egyptian rebellion in the history of Egypt under Islam.
28 February 830 – 13 October 830 (5 months, 17 days)
In 831, Al-Ma'mun, Caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate asked the Pope to pacify the rebels. The Pope asked the people for calm and obedience to the oppressor. All heeded him except the Bashmurians in the northernmost part of the Nile Delta, who refused his advice. Al-Ma'mun finally had to bring a large army with elephants from Turkey to conquer the Bashmurians. Without the help of Upper Egypt the Bashmurians revolt ended up in defeat, a blood bath, and widespread destruction in the marshland of the lower delta. All the surviving population of that area was removed by force to Syria.
20 November 849 – 30 April 851 (1 year, 4 months, 28 days)
In 882, the governor of Egypt, Ahmad ibn Tulun, forced the Pope to pay heavy contributions, forcing him to sell a church and some attached properties to the local Jewish community. This building was at one time believed to have later become the site of the Cairo Geniza.
10th century
Apostolic Throne
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Popes & Patriarchs of Alexandria English • Coptic • Arabic
During his Patriarchy, the Copts were persecuted for nine years by the Caliph Al-Hakim. More than 30,000 churches were demolished, including the burning of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. Al-Hakim had seized the Pope, smeared his clothes with the blood of a slaughtered sheep and cast him to hungry lions, but they did not harm him. The Caliph marvelled and ordered that the Pope be allowed to rebuild churches and restore those that were destroyed.[citation needed]
13 December 1032 – 29 October 1046 (14 years, 7 months, 11 days)
After his departure, the Apostolic Throne remained vacant for nineteen years. This is the longest vacancy in the history of the Coptic Orthodox Church.
13th century
Apostolic Throne
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Popes & Patriarchs of Alexandria English • Coptic • Arabic
Name before Patriarchate
Place of Birth
Notes
30 July 1235 – 23 March 1243 (7 years, 8 months, 23 days)
After his departure, the Apostolic Throne remained vacant for seven years and seven months because of the intense persecution which did not allow the Copts to elect a successor.
15 October 1250 – 10 December 1261 (11 years, 1 month, 18 days)
With support from some of the Bishops, Pope Gabriel III replaced Pope John VII and reigned for three years until his death, when Pope John VII was reinstated. This is the only occasion in history when the Coptic Orthodox Church had two Popes at the same time.
14 January 1262 – 2 November 1269
15 January 1271 – 21 April 1293 (29 years, 1 month, 8 days)
With support from some of the bishops, Pope John VII was replaced for three years by Pope Gabriel III, who was originally one of the candidates for pope. Pope John VII was restored as pope after the death of Pope Gabriel III. This is the only occasion in history when the Coptic Orthodox Church had two popes at the same time.
17 July 1294 – 13 January 1300 (5 years, 5 months, 28 days)
Pope Theodosius III Theodosios • Ⲑⲉⲟ́ⲇⲟⲥⲓⲟⲥ • ثيئودوسيوس
During his Patriarchy, the Copts were persecuted by the Mamluk Sultan, Al-Nasir Muhammad ibn Qalawun. The Sultan decreed that whoever kills a Christian could have his possessions.
11 October 1320 – 10 April 1327 (6 years, 6 months, 1 day)
Also known as El Meskin ("The Poor") for his charitable deeds to the poor. During his Patriarchy, a great number of Coptic Orthodox Christians were indiscriminately persecuted by the Crusaders.
15th century
Apostolic Throne
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Popes & Patriarchs of Alexandria English • Coptic • Arabic
Name before Patriarchate
Place of Birth
Notes
4 May 1409 – 16 January 1427 (17 years, 8 months, 12 days)
In 1441, the Ethiopian Emperor Zara Yaqob threatened the Burji Sultan Sayf ad-Din Jaqmaq to cut the flow of the Nile because of the destruction of monasteries and persecution against Copts led by the Sultan Jaqmaq. However, the Emperor refrained from doing so for the human suffering it would cause.
Arabic becomes Egypt's official language. Islamic rulers threatened to cut the tongues of any Egyptian that was found speaking in the Coptic language. Despite the persecutions, the Coptic Popes are credited for preserving the Coptic language.
18 September 1619 – 10 September 1629 (9 years, 11 months, 22 days)
During his Patriarchy, there was an attempt from the Catholic Church to take over the Coptic Church. They ordained a monk from Jerusalem to be a Catholic Bishop in Egypt, but he was unable to come to Egypt and stayed in Jerusalem. They also ordained Raphael Al Tokhi as their bishop for Upper Egypt, but he was unable to stay there, so the Pope of Rome called him to Rome to stay there. Pope Mark VII wrote many books about the Coptic Church.
23 October 1769 – 9 June 1796 (26 years, 7 months, 14 days)
During his Patriarchy, Pope Pius VI of Rome sent an envoy to Pope John XVIII of Alexandria asking him to unite the Church of Alexandria with the Roman Catholic Church under the proceedings of the Council of Chalcedon. Pope John XVIII and all the Bishops in Egypt unanimously refuted the Tome of Leo and defended "One Nature-the Logos Incarnate," of the full humanity and full divinity. The famous scholar and theologian Joseph el-Abbah, Bishop of Girga responded to Pope Pius VI message and rejected the proceedings of the Council of Chalcedon in which Leo, the Archbishop of Rome preached Christ "in two natures".
4 October 1796 – 21 December 1809 (13 years, 2 months, 19 days)
A Russian ambassador offered the Patriarch Peter VII the protection from the Emperor of Russia, Nicholas I, however the patriarch thanked the Emperor, saying no other protection was needed than God.
5 June 1853 – 31 January 1862 (6 years, 7 months, 13 days)
Longest-serving pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church. In 1908, Marcus Simaika Pasha obtained the approval of the pope to build the Coptic Museum which was inaugurated on 14 March 1910.
20th century
Apostolic Throne
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Popes & Patriarchs of Alexandria English • Coptic • Arabic
Name before Patriarchate
Place of Birth
Notes
16 December 1928 – 21 June 1942 (13 years, 6 months, 5 days)
Pope Cyril VI (also known in Arabic as "the man of prayer") gave a humble, public image for the Coptic church. One of the more recent popes to become involved in politics, Pope Cyril VI had good relations with Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. In the tenth year of his papacy, the holy church celebrates the inauguration of the new St. Mark Cathedral in Dair El-Anba Rowais, which was known also as Dair El-Khandaq. For this occasion and for the return of the relics of St. Mark the Apostle from Rome, after being in the city of Venice in Italy for eleven centuries, a great religious celebration was organized. The celebration was headed by Pope Kyrillos the Sixth and was attended by President Gamal Abdel Naser, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Emperor Haile Selassie the First, Emperor of Ethiopia, and many of the heads of different religions and representatives of churches from all around the world. Among those religious leaders was Mar Ignatius Yacoub the Third, the Antiochian Patriarch for the Syrian Orthodox.
14 November 1971 – 17 March 2012 (40 years, 4 months, 3 days)
First Pope to visit the Patriarchs of Rome and Constantinople since 451 AD. Most notably, Pope Shenouda III's reign also saw the rapid diaspora of Coptic people throughout the world for the first time in centuries (including the establishment of hundreds of churches in the United States, Australia, Canada and Switzerland.) Pope Shenouda III had the greatest impact on the Coptic Church's canon, modernizing several regulations to fit not only the needs of the Coptic people, but the traditions of the Church as well. He is formally known as "the man of ministry". From 2000 onward, violent persecution and massacres of Copts by Egyptian Muslims took place: Kosheh massacres, 2005 Alexandria riot, Nag Hammadi massacre, 2011 Alexandria bombing, 2011 Imbaba church attacks and the massacre at the 2011 Maspero demonstrations.
21st century
Apostolic Throne
Portrait
Popes & Patriarchs of Alexandria English • Coptic • Arabic
The most frequently used papal name is John, with 19 popes taking this name. There have also been 25 papal names that have only been used once. The number of all popes to the present is 118.
^Atiya, Aziz S.. The Coptic Encyclopedia. New York:Macmillan Publishing Company, 1991. ISBN0-02-897025-X.
^Derek A. Welsby, The Medieval Kingdoms of Nubia (London, 2002), p. 73; B.T.A. Evetts (translator), The Churches and Monasteries of Egypt and Some Neighboring Countries attributed to Abu Salih, the Armenian, with added notes by Alfred J. Butler (Oxford, 1895), pp. 267ff
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