At the Crux of Communal Identities and Polemics: Depictions of the Coptic Patriarchs of Alexandria in Late Antique, Early Islamic and Medieval Egypt

Bishop Demetrius of Alexandria (189-232) is best known for his contentious interactions with the renowned theologian, Origen. Among Egypt’s Christians, however, Demetrius is best remembered as the married pope, and as an ecclesiastical reformer. This lecture traces the evolving biography of Demetrius through Greek, Coptic, and Arabic sources spanning a millennium. It focuses on the shifting, gendered concepts of holiness that framed the hagiography of Demetrius and his spouse, the details of the couple’s spiritual marriage, and the miraculous proof of their virginity.