The Manuscript Project at the Coptic Monastery of St Paul the Hermit at the Red Sea, Egypt, lecture by Lisa Agaiby (St Athanasius College, University of Divinity), Oxford Interfaith Forum via Zoom, November 16, 2023, 5:00–6:00 pm GMT

St Paul the Hermit (c. 228-341) has had a compelling lure on the imaginations of Christians from Late Antiquity to the present day. Identified through the centuries as the first Christian hermit, Paul is believed to have lived most of his long life in a cave in the Egyptian desert near the Red Sea. In time, his hermitage became the core of a monastic settlement that has existed continuously for almost two millennia and bears material witness to sustained devotion to the saint in the form of multiple phases of expansion, wall paintings, liturgical furnishings, and a wealth of precious manuscripts. Since 2018, and in cooperation with the Monastery of St Paul, an Australian team has been working to digitise and document the invaluable manuscript collection. This paper presents the goals and progress of the project to date.

Lisa Agaiby is the Academic Dean and Senior Lecturer at St Athanasius College, University of Divinity, Melbourne, Australia. She is currently leading a project to digitise and catalogue the entire collection of manuscripts at the ancient Coptic Monastery of St Paul the Hermit at the Red Sea, Egypt. 

Advance registration required.