The Monastery of Saint Fana is a Coptic Orthodox monastery. It is named after Saint Fana, also known as Bane (c. 354–395), Coptic Christian hermit. The monastery is sometimes called the Monastery of Abu Fanah and is also known as the Monastery of the Cross, due to the presence of many beautifully decorated crosses inside its church.
Location
The monastery is situated in the Western Desert, not far from the cultivated land of the Nile. The monastery is located in Minya Governorate about 300 km south of Cairo, northwest of Hermopolis around from the village of Qasr Hur and east of the village of Beni Khaled.
Foundation and history
The monastery was most likely built around the burial site of Saint Fana. His tomb was found during excavations of an international team representing seven European academic institutions and led by Austrian scholar Prof. Dr. Helmut Buschhausen in 1992.
The 12th-century historian Abu al-Makarim mentions the church of Saint Fana, which was restored by al-Rashid Abu Fadl. Egyptian historian of the 14th–15th century al-Maqrizi wrote about the monastery's fine architecture.
The history of the Patriarchs of Alexandria mentions the monastery of Saint Fana twice, first in relation to the election of Pope Theodosius III of Alexandria of the Coptic Orthodox Church, 1294–1300 and second to the childhood of Pope Matthew I of Alexandria, 1378–1408.
In pre-Islamic times, the monastery reportedly numbered some 1000 monks. The monastery's numbers had drastically dwindled before the arrival of Islam in the seventh century. Al-Maqrizi reports that during his day, the monastery held only two monks. The French Jesuit priest Father Michel Marie Jullien (1827–1911) reported that the priest of the neighboring village Qasr Hur had cleared the church of debris and used the church for the Divine Liturgy.
When German scholar Otto Friedrich August Meinardus visited the monastery in the 1960s, the place was in ruins with remains stretching over a wide area. Only the historical church survived. Pieces of gray granite were also found, suggesting that the monastery may have been built on the location where an ancient temple once stood. On a small hill stand the ruins of a qasr, or tower, which ancient monasteries had. Approximately 80 meters from the ruined monastery one finds the cave of Saint Fana, the location where he reportedly lived. Meinardus does not report on the monastery being inhabited.
The surviving old monastic building consists of an ancient basilica, deeply sunk into the sand in the center of a vast mound that, according to the Coptic Encyclopedia, "no doubt" conceals the ruins of the Monastery. The neighboring mounds perhaps conceal isolated cells or hermitages.
Modern history
The modern history of the monastery starts with a renewed interest shown by the Coptic Orthodox Church in this monastery after the excavations of the team of Dr. Helmut Buschhausen in 1987–1993. Following these excavations, the Egyptian Ministry of Culture decided in the year 2002 to declare an area of 1 km by 2 km as the archaeological periphery of the monastery. The Department of Antiquities suspects that this land may hold buried historical remains. see map
After the Department of Antiquities decision, the Coptic Orthodox Church built new cells, a new entrance, a reception and a large cathedral just outside the boundaries of the archaeological periphery see photo –(monastic buildings built from the year 2000 onwards). Prior to 1999, no monks resided permanently in the monastery. Five monks came to the monastery in 1999, and in 2003, Pope Shenouda, head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, consecrated an additional 12 monks, followed later by one more monk. From 2003 onwards there have been repeatedly conflicts over land with neighbors of the monastery. In July 2008 there are a total of 18 monks and 9 novices residing in the monastery, who are assisted by tens of laymen.
Tensions
On 31 May 2008, monks and Christians close to the Monastery of Saint Fana reported that monks' cells and a church belonging to the monastery had been attacked by a group of roughly sixty armed Arabs, a name commonly used in Egypt for Bedouins who have settled in villages bordering the desert The location they show is an outpost of the monastery with monastic cells and a chapel dedicated to Cyril of Alexandriasee photo –(extension of the monastery that was attacked). The attacks resulted in damage to this section of the monastery and its surrounding property.