St. Mark's Cathedral
The Mark's Cathedral ( in Arabic كاتدرائية القديس مرقس القبطية, DMG Kātidrāʾiyya al-qiddīs Murqus al-qibṭiyya ) in Cairo is the cathedral church of the Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria of the Coptic Church . The 100 m long basilica in the Abbassia district , consecrated in 1968, is one of the largest church buildings on the African continent. It bears the name of the founder of Christianity in Egypt, the Evangelist Mark , whose relics are kept in the cathedral.
The building was designed by the Egyptian civil engineer and university professor Michel Bakhoum (1913–1981).
history
The evangelist's remains were stolen by Venetian traders in Alexandria in 828 and brought to their hometown, where they became the most valuable treasure of the cathedral of the same name there. On the occasion of the consecration of St. Mark's Cathedral in Cairo, the then Roman Catholic Pope Paul VI. on June 2, 1968 his Coptic counterpart Kyrill VI. Parts of the Markus relics back. Today they are kept in a specially made, icon-adorned shrine.
Alexandria Patriarchate
The Patriarchate of Alexandria was moved to Cairo in the 11th century. Cairo had been the capital of the Fatimid Empire since 973 and replaced Alexandria , the second largest city in the world after Rome in late antiquity, as the leading city in Egypt. Alexandria also has a Coptic cathedral dedicated to St. Mark. The Patriarch of Alexandria is traditionally considered the third highest bishop in the world church after those of Rome and Constantinople , but this position has only been of a theoretical nature since the church divisions of 451 and 1054 .
Numerous guests of honor were present at the opening of the cathedral, among them the then President Gamal Abdel Nasser and the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie , as the Ethiopian Orthodox Church recognizes the Coptic Pope as its head of honor despite its canonical independence .
Unrest in 2013 and bomb attack in 2016
On April 8, 2013, on the occasion of a funeral of Christians who had died in religiously motivated clashes in front of St. Mark's Cathedral, Coptic Christians confronted the local population and the police, in which at least two people died.
On December 11, 2016, a bomb explosion occurred in the Church of St. Peter and Paul (Cairo) next to the Cathedral Church. More than 25 people were killed and around 35 injured. The state news agency Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported that the bomb was dropped in a chapel next to the outer wall of St. Mark's Cathedral.
Web links
swell
- ^ Toll rises in Cairo clashes at Coptic Cathedral. BBC News, April 8, 2013, accessed December 11, 2016 .
- ↑ Bomb explodes in cathedral - many dead. Spiegel Online, December 11, 2016, accessed December 11, 2016 .
- ↑ At least 20 dead in explosion near Cairo Cathedral. FAZ, December 11, 2016, accessed on December 11, 2016 .
- Jump up ↑ Dozens of dead in an explosion near the cathedral in Cairo. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, December 11, 2016, accessed on December 11, 2016 .
Coordinates: 30 ° 4 ′ 20 ″ N , 31 ° 16 ′ 32.5 ″ E