Shenoute
d. 466
Ancient Christian Church
Atripe / Thebais I / Egypt

On the Upper Nile north of Thebes where the prevailing flow is east to west is the ancient center of Coptic Christianity. About 350 Pgol established an important cenobitic community, the White Monastery, based on the Rule of Pachomius (c. 290-346), near Sohag (Athribis/Atripe), some fifty miles downstream from Nag Hammadi, the source of Coptic Gnostic papyri. Administration passed from Pgol to his nephew Shenoute some time before 388.

Of this man there remains a considerable volume of expository epistles and sermons -- nearly half unpublished, those published undergoing Coptological reediting -- and for his life several accounts, the oldest by his pupil and successor, Besa, which describe his severe temperament besides organizational abilities. Shenoute was present at the Council of Ephesus (431 -- he dates his ministry from some 43 years prior) and influential upon that of Chalcedon (451 -- having aided the Church against both Gnosticism and Monophysitism). He may have lived as late as 466; the tradition ascribes to him the inordinately long life of 118 years.

Clyde Curry Smith

(see abbreviations table below):

Q3.2.11; ODCC 1250; NIDCC 902 (C. C. Smith); ODByz 1888 (J. A. Timbie, A. Kazhdan); DECL 535 (TBaumeister); OEEC 776 (T. Orlandi); GEEC 1055 (F. W. Norris), 772 (J. E. Goehring)

Supplementary Bibliography:
E. A. Wallis Budge, By Nile and Tigris, 2 vols. (London: John Murray, 1920): 133, n.1: Shenoute was "born A.D. 333, died at midday July 2nd, A.D. 451, aged 118 years!"
Dwight W. Young, "The Milieu of Nag Hammadi: Some Historical Considerations," Vigiliae Christianae 24 (1970), 127-137.
--------, "Pages from a Copy of Shenute's Eighth Canon, " Orientalia 67 (1998), 64-84.
--------, "Additional Fragments of Shenute's Eighth Canon," Archiv für Papyrusforschung 44 (1998), 47-68 + pls. I-XX.
"Two Leaves from a Copy of Shenute's Ninth Canon," Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde der Morgenlandes 88 (1998), 281-301.
W. R. Dawson, Who Was Who in Egyptology, (2nd rev. ed. w. E. P. Uphill; London: The Egypt Exploration Society, 1972):172 [re Johannes Leipoldt (1880-1965), whose life work was devoted to Shenoute].
W. H. C. Frend, The Rise of the Monophysite Movement: Chapters in the History of the Church in the Fifth and Sixth Centuries (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1972): passim.
--------, Religion Popular and Unpopular in the Early Christian Centuries (London: Variorum Reprints, 1976): passim.
---------, Town and Country in the Early Christian Centuries (London: Variorum Reprints, 1980): passim.
---------, Archeology and History in the Study of Early Christianity (London: Variorum Reprints, 1988): passim.
J. M. Robinson, The Nag Hammadi Library in English, transl. by members of the Coptic Gnostic Library Project of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1977): 19-20.
A. Badawy, Coptic Art and Archeology (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978): passim.
S. L. Emmel, Shenoute's Literary Corpus (unpub. Ph.D. diss. Yale U., 1993).

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This article, received in 2000, was researched and written by Dr. Clyde Curry Smith, Professor Emeritus of Ancient History and Religion, University of Wisconsin, River Falls.

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Abbreviations and Source References for Ancient African Christians

J	Jerome, Lives of Illustrious Men. Cited by chapter number.
G	Gennadius, List of the Authors whom Gennadius added, after the death of the Blessed Jerome. Cited by chapter number.

PG	Migne, Jacques Paul, ed., Patrologiae cursus completus, series graeca (Paris: 1857-1866), 161 volumes. Cited by volume number.
PL	Migne, Jacques Paul, ed., Patrologiae cursus completus, series latina (Paris: 1844-1855), 221 volumes. Cited by volume number.
CPG	Geerard, M., ed., Clavis Patrum Graecorum (Turnhout: Brepols, 1974-1987), 5 volumes. Cited by volume number(s).
CPL	Dekkers, E., ed., Clavis Patrum Latinorum, 3rd edition (Steenbrugis: Abbatia S. Petri, 1995). Cited by number.
TLG	Berkowitz, Luci, and Karl A. Squitier, ed., Thesaurus Linguae Graecae: Canon of Greek Authors and Works, 3rd edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990). Cited by number.

Q	Quasten, Johannes, Patrology (Utrecht-Brussels: Spectrum Publishers, 1953-1960), 3 volumes; plus volume 4 (Westminster: Christian Classics, Inc., 1986). Cited by volume number and subdivisions.
<P>	Pelikan, Jaroslav, The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1971-1989), 5 volumes. Cited by volume number.

DECL	Dictionary of Early Christian Literature, ed. Siegmar Döpp and Wilhelm Geerlings, translated from the German [Lexikon der antiken christlichen Literatur (1998)] by Matthew O'Connell. (New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2000). Cited by page (author).
FOTC	The Fathers of the Church. A New Translation. Number 100. St. Jerome. On Illustrious Men. Translated by Thomas P. Halton. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1999.
GEEC	Encyclopedia of Early Christianity, ed. E. Ferguson (21997), 2 volumes. Cited by page (author).
NIDCC	The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church, ed. J. D. Douglas (1974). Cited by page (author).
OCD	The Oxford Classical Dictionary, ed. S. Hornblower and A. Spawforth (31996). Cited by page (author).
ODByz	The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, ed. A. P. Kazhdan (1991), 3 volumes. Cited by page (author).
ODCC	The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, ed. F. L. Cross (1957). Cited by page.
OEEC	Encyclopedia of the Early Church, ed. A. DiBerardino (1992), 2 volumes. Cited by page (author).

JECS	Journal of Early Christian Studies (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993--). Cited by volume: page(s) (author).
JNES	Journal of Near Eastern Studies  (The University of Chicago Press, 1942--). Cited by volume: page(s) (author).
PDS	The Penguin Dictionary of Saints, ed. Donald Attwater (1965). Cited by page.
TTH	Translated Texts for Historians (Liverpool University Press, 1986--). Cited by volume number (author/editor).