<\/p>\n
In the previous article, we spoke of Pope Youssab I, the fifty-second patriarch and the tribulations that alighted upon him after his enthronement. We also spoke of the bishop of Tennis and that of al-Fustat and their cruelty toward their congregation, as well as the Synod\u2019s decree to detain them. This made them conspire against Pope Youssab, reviling him at the proconsul\u2019s. Bin al-Muqaffa\u2019 writes that they accused the Pope of instigating the Peshmurians against the Caliph and the proconsul. They told him, \u201cGod has delivered to you the enemies of the king and your own. Having exterminated them, do not let the one who instigated them live. \u2018Who instigated them?\u2019 \u2018It\u2019s patriarch Youssab\u2019 They wanted him to kill him \u2026 All what was done was contrived by the Pope. So much so that the king and the proconsul got badly tired.\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n They added that the Pope had gathered a lot of people who were ready to carry out his orders. So, the proconsul believed them and sent his brother to the church to bring him that he might put him to death, accompanied by the two bishops. The bishop of Tennis led the proconsul\u2019s brother and showed him the patriarch that he might arrest him. No sooner had the prince seen the Pope, than he took out his sword to kill him!<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Yet, his hand was bent, and the sword hit a marble pillar which broke instantly. The prince became furious and brought out a dagger and tried to stab the Pope in his side. Yet, only his clothes were torn, and his body remained sound. When the prince saw what happened and that the stab did not affect him, he became sure that the patriarch was protected by God. So, he decided to escort him to his brother.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Some historians maintain that when the congregation saw the soldiers trying to take Pope Youssab to the proconsul, they clung to him and wept. The Pope calmed them down. But they marched after him sadly, which made infuriated the prince who beat the Pope on his head with a whip, thus injuring his eye!<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n When the Pope arrived at the proconsul\u2019s palace, the latter faced him with the bishops\u2019 story. So, the Pope told him the truth about the Peshmurians and the bishops who were detained due to the people\u2019s rebellion against them. Only then, the proconsul made sure of Pope Youssab\u2019s innocence and that he was wrongly accused. So, he got angry with the bishops and ordered they be punished. Yet, Pope Youssab, being quite forgiving, was terrified to see two of his children hurt, even though they deviated from the correct path and harmed him. So, he asked the proconsul to pardon them, saying, \u201cMy religion commands me do reward evil with good. God has corrected your understanding of what these two had done. So, I ask you to do good, and leave them for God\u2019s sake.\u201d The proconsul marveled at the Pope\u2019s love and forgiveness of the wrong-doers. He set them free. When the Caliph was informed, he ordered that the Pope be honored.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Ordinances<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The Pope cared for everybody, including those who wanted to usurp the patriarchal See! He cared for Isaac bin Andona, having seen that he was rejected by the congregation. So, he wanted to win his soul over, being one of his children. So, he ordained him deacon, then his deputy in Ussim, which pleased him a lot, and, thus declared his succumbing to the Pope. After a while, the patriarch wanted to ordain two bishops for Tennis and the capital. So, he ordained a Demetrius bishop on Tennis. As for the capital, he entrusted it to bishop Isaac who he had ordained bishop of Ussim. Thus, he remained both bishop of Ussim and patriarchal deputy in the capital until the end of his life.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Striving to Dignity<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n After bishop Isaac had departed, Pope Youssab ordained deacon John bishop of the capital, calling him Abba John, in response to a request from Egypt\u2019s elites. As for the diocese of Ussim, he ordained deacon Buqaira who departed shortly afterwards. Thus, a person called Tadros, one of bishop Isaac\u2019s disciples, wanted to become bishop! But the congregation did not want that person. So, the Pope did not ordain him. So, Tadros was infuriated and sought the help of Ali bin Yahya the Armenian, Egypt\u2019s proconsul during al-Mu\u2019tasim\u2019s caliphate, asking him to compel the Pope to ordain him.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n So, the proconsul brought the Pope over to present him the issue. But, the Pope refused, denying the ruler\u2019s interference in the Church\u2019s affairs and choice of pastors, which infuriated the proconsul and made him threaten to demolish all the churches of al-Fustat. He started demolishing the Hanging Church from its top. The Pope kept weeping bitterly. At that time, some elders asked the Pope to ordain that person for the peace of the church, and that he would be held accountable for himself: for whoever strives to attain a clerical rank undeservedly should perish.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n So, the Pope agreed, having made God his witness. Yet, when the proconsul got to know of the man\u2019s ordinance, he did not cool down. Nor did he refrain from demolishing churches, for he wanted the Pope to give him a large sum of money. So, the elders went to the proconsul to guarantee the Pope in paying the money and ordaining the bishop. Thus, Tadros became bishop of Ussim.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Al-Fustat<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n No sooner had matters settled down a little, than bishop John of al-Fustat gave Pope Youssab more hard time, for he strove to attain greater dignity, using his relation with Egypt\u2019s minister of justice who was cruel and unjust to influence the Pope. He did succeed: for the minister started thinking of hurting the Pope.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n It came to pass that, while bishop John and other bishops who took his side were at the minister\u2019s, that the minister sent to the Pope to come over. When the Pope arrived, the minister asked the bishops to deny his papacy and give it to the bishop of the capital! They complied with his order.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \n At that time, the Pope addressed them in Coptic, telling them about their mistake. A Muslim scholar who knew Coptic translated what he heard to the minister, which infuriated him: for he thought that the Pope was against him. Yet, he realized the truth when the Pope told him he had an accreditation from Caliphs al-Ma\u2019mun, al-Mu\u2019tasim, and al-Wathiq. The minister asked him for this accreditation, and when the Pope produced it, he left him respectfully. The Pope left, bearing his foes love and forgiveness, and beseeching God not to hold this sin against them.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The bishop of the capital did not stop reviling the Pope at the minister of justice\u2019s who would grasp all opportunities to harm the Pope! Such stories will never end in Beautiful Egypt.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n General Bishop<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Head of the Coptic Orthodox Cultural Center<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the previous article, we spoke of Pope Youssab I, the fifty-second patriarch and the tribulations that alighted upon him after his enthronement. We also spoke of the bishop of Tennis and that of al-Fustat and their cruelty toward their congregation, as well as the Synod\u2019s decree to detain them. This made them conspire against […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":19638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47729"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47729"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47797,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47729\/revisions\/47797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}