by Johannes Dickhaut
The earliest evidence of the presence of a Christian community in Hermopolis Magna has been preserved in the form of literary papyri from the 3rd century and documentary papyri from the 4th century AD. An important clue in this context is the fact that Hermopolis Magna was one of the first episcopal sees in Egypt. However, it has not yet been definitively established who the first bishop of Hermopolis Magna was and therefore the question of when exactly the place became an episcopal see has yet to be answered.
One source that offers us a supposed answer to this is Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History. It reports on an exchange of letters from Bishop Dionysius of Alexandria (247/48-264/65), which was addressed to a certain Bishop Colon of Hermopolis, among others (Eusebius, Hist. Ec. VI 46, 1-2). This passage suggests that Hermopolis Magna had already been a episcopal see since the middle of the 3rd century. However, the source does not conclusively clarify whether the Hermopolis in question is Hermopolis Magna or the equally conceivable Hermopolis Parva.
The first historically confirmed person in the position as Bishop of Hermopolis Magna was Bishop Dios. He participated in the Council of Nicaea (325) and is documented with extensive property in Hermopolis Magna in the land register II (P. Flor. I 71). Thus, it can be stated that an established Christian community was present in Hermopolis Magna from the 3rd century onwards, and the place became one of the centers of early Christianity in Egypt at the latest by the 4th century. Since the 5th century, the church increasingly appeared as an institution that shaped the city’s life both economically and socially. The most noticeable news in the urban landscape were the emerging Christian buildings. The basilica built in the 5th century, whose layout was uncovered in the 1940s, is the most prominent and extensively studied example. It was built on the edge of the Antinoitian street on the site of a former Ptolemaic sanctuary, whose original structure can be traced in the church’s structures.
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