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112581

Praying Beads and Praying Ropes in Coptic Art in the Context of Coptic Heritage

Article

Last updated: 04 Jan 2025

Subjects

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Tags

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Abstract

 In Christianity, praying beads and praying ropes are used by pious people to keep counting their prayers. By the third century AD, these beads were mentioned in Egypt through the writings of the first Deserts Fathers. Thus, they were used in Egypt even before using the Dominican Rosary in Europe in the thirteenth century AD. The invention of praying ropes was attributed to St. Anthony who tied a leather rope every time he started praying “Kyrie Elesion". In Coptic art, praying beads and praying ropes are represented either in the right hand or the left hand of prominent monastic characters. They were accompanied with the cross, the staff, and with the adoration gesture made by one or both hands. Icons from the churches of Old Cairo, monasteries of Wadi El-Natrun, and the monasteries of the Red Sea and Upper Egypt reveal the shape of praying beads and praying ropes. These hand objects are still used in modern monastic life forming a tangible element of the Coptic heritage of Egypt.

DOI

10.21608/jaauth.2020.39676.1062

Keywords

Praying, Beads, Ropes, saint, heritage

Authors

First Name

Sara

Last Name

Kitat

MiddleName

el-Sayed

Affiliation

Tour Guiding Department, Faculty of Tourism and Hotels, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt

Email

drsarakitat@gmail.com

City

Alexandria

Orcid

-

First Name

Zeinab

Last Name

Hassan

MiddleName

Hanafy

Affiliation

Assistant Researcher Center for Coptic Studies Bibliotheca Alexandrina

Email

zeinab.hanafy@bibalex.org

City

Alexandria

Orcid

-

Volume

19

Article Issue

1

Related Issue

16018

Issue Date

2020-12-01

Receive Date

2020-08-18

Publish Date

2020-12-01

Page Start

25

Page End

64

Print ISSN

1687-1863

Online ISSN

2682-4612

Link

https://jaauth.journals.ekb.eg/article_112581.html

Detail API

https://jaauth.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=112581

Order

3

Type

Original Article

Type Code

997

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Journal of Association of Arab Universities for Tourism and Hospitality

Publication Link

https://jaauth.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Praying Beads and Praying Ropes in Coptic Art in the Context of Coptic Heritage

Details

Type

Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023