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104-573: The name originates from the chief city of the governorate, originally known in Sahidic Coptic as Tmoone and in Boلhairic as Thmonē , meaning “the residence”, in reference to a monastery formerly in the area. The name may also originate from the city's name in Egyptian Men'at Khufu . The rate of poverty is more than 60% in this governorate, where the total population is nearly 6 million. Recently

208-409: A common-law marriage , a cohabitation recognized in fact but not in law. Others, like Timothy Barnes, assert that Constantius and Helena were joined in an official marriage, on the grounds that the sources claiming an official marriage are more reliable. Helena gave birth to the future emperor Constantine I on 27 February of an uncertain year soon after 270 (probably around 272). At the time, she

312-637: A lytell crosse made of the holy crosse ... " In an ecumenical gesture, these relics visited the Orthodox Church of Greece and were displayed in the church of Agia Varvara (Saint Barbara) in Athens from 14 May to 15 June 2017. In Great Britain, later legend, mentioned by Henry of Huntingdon but made popular by Geoffrey of Monmouth , claimed that Helena was a daughter of the King of Britain , Cole of Colchester , who allied with Constantius to avoid more war between

416-625: A popular tradition that Helena was a British princess and the daughter of " Old King Cole " from the area of Colchester . This led to the later dedication of 135 churches in England to her, many in around the area of Yorkshire , and revived as a suggestion in the 20th century in the novel by Evelyn Waugh . It is unknown where she first met Constantius . The historian Timothy Barnes has suggested that Constantius , while serving under Emperor Aurelian , could have met her while stationed in Asia Minor for

520-402: A sentence, as the object of a verb, or with a preposition. Dependent pronouns are a series of prefixes and suffixes that can attach to verbs and other nouns. Coptic verbs can therefore be said to inflect for the person, number and gender of the subject and the object: a pronominal prefix marks the subject, and a pronominal suffix marks the object, e.g. "I I'have'it the ball." When (as in this case)

624-560: A spot which has been accounted holy from the beginning in God's judgment, but which now appears holier still, since it has brought to light a clear assurance of our Saviour's passion. Sozomen and Theodoret claim that Helena also found the nails of the crucifixion . To use their miraculous power to aid her son, Helena allegedly had one placed in Constantine's helmet, and another in the bridle of his horse. According to one tradition, Helena acquired

728-408: A supralinear stroke ⟨◌̄⟩, or the stroke may have tied letters together in one word, since Coptic texts did not otherwise indicate word divisions. Some scribal traditions use a diaeresis over the letters ⲓ and ⲩ at the beginning of a word or to mark a diphthong. Bohairic uses a superposed point or small stroke known as ϫⲓⲛⲕⲓⲙ ( jinkim , "movement"). When jinkim is placed over a vowel it

832-593: A tenuis-aspirate distinction to voiced-tenuis is only attested from the alveolars, the only place that Arabic has such a contrast. Earlier phases of Egyptian may have contrasted voiceless and voiced bilabial plosives, but the distinction seems to have been lost. Late Egyptian, Demotic and Coptic all interchangeably use their respective graphemes to indicate either sound; for example, Coptic for 'iron' appears alternately as ⲡⲉⲛⲓⲡⲉ , ⲃⲉⲛⲓⲡⲉ and ⲃⲓⲛⲓⲃⲉ . That probably reflects dialect variation. Both letters were interchanged with ⲫ and ϥ to indicate / f / , and ⲃ

936-461: A test. Possibly through Bishop Macarius of Jerusalem , she had a woman who was near death brought from the city. When the woman touched the first and second crosses, her condition did not change, but when she touched the third and final cross she suddenly recovered, and Helena declared the cross with which the woman had been touched to be the True Cross . On the site of discovery, Constantine ordered

1040-501: A testament to the increasing cultural contact between Egyptians and Greeks even before Alexander the Great 's conquest of Egypt. Coptic itself, or Old Coptic , takes root in the first century. The transition from the older Egyptian scripts to the newly adapted Coptic alphabet was in part due to the decline of the traditional role played by the priestly class of ancient Egyptian religion , who, unlike most ordinary Egyptians, were literate in

1144-534: A vowel's grapheme but mostly unwritten. A few early manuscripts have a letter ⳋ or ⳃ ç where Sahidic and Bohairic have ϣ š . and Akhmimic has ⳉ x . This sound seems to have been lost early on. Coptic is agglutinative with subject–verb–object word order but can be verb–subject–object with the correct preposition in front of the subject. Number, gender, tense, and mood are indicated by prefixes that come from Late Egyptian. The earlier phases of Egyptian did this through suffixation. Some vestiges of

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1248-762: Is also commemorated every Bright Wednesday along with the saints from Mount Sinai , by the Russian Orthodox Church and the Orthodox Church in America . Her alleged skull is displayed in the east crypt of the Cathedral of Trier , in Germany . Portions of her relics are found at the basilica of Santa Maria in Ara Coeli in Rome , the Église Saint-Leu-Saint-Gilles in Paris , and at

1352-490: Is also better known than that of the Classical phase of the language because of a greater number of sources indicating Egyptian sounds, including cuneiform letters containing transcriptions of Egyptian words and phrases, and Egyptian renderings of Northwest Semitic names. Coptic sounds, in addition, are known from a variety of Coptic-Arabic papyri in which Arabic letters were used to transcribe Coptic and vice versa. They date to

1456-481: Is also held by the Filipino community of Jersey City, New Jersey . In medieval legend and chivalric romance , Helena appears as a persecuted heroine, in the vein of such women as Emaré and Constance ; separated from her husband, she lives a quiet life, supporting herself on her embroidery, until such time as her son's charm and grace wins her husband's attention and so the revelation of their identities. Helena

1560-418: Is also unknown. The sources are equivocal on the point, sometimes calling Helena Constantius' "wife", and sometimes, following the dismissive propaganda of Constantine's rival Maxentius , calling her his " concubine ". Jerome , perhaps confused by the vague terminology of his own sources, manages to do both. Some scholars, such as the historian Jan Drijvers, assert that Constantius and Helena were joined in

1664-710: Is considered by the Eastern Orthodox , Oriental Orthodox , Eastern and Roman Catholic churches, as well as by the Anglican Communion and Lutheran Churches , as a saint. She is sometimes known as Helen of Constantinople to distinguish her from others with similar names . Her feast day as a saint of the Eastern Orthodox Church is celebrated with her son on 21 May, the "Feast of the Holy Great Sovereigns Constantine and Helena, Equal to

1768-511: Is difficult to explain ⟨ ⲏ ⟩ . However, it generally became / æ / in stressed monosyllables, / ɪ / in unstressed monosyllables, and in polysyllables, / æ / when followed by / i / , and / ɪ / when not. There were no doubled orthographic vowels in Mesokemic. Some representative correspondences with Sahidic are: It is not clear if these correspondences reflect distinct pronunciations in Mesokemic, or if they are an imitation of

1872-413: Is expressed with a series of possessive articles which are prefixed to the noun. These articles agree with the person , number , and gender of the possessor and the number and gender of the possessed noun. The forms of the possessive article vary according to dialect. Coptic pronouns are of two kinds, dependent and independent. Independent pronouns are used when the pronoun is acting as the subject of

1976-707: Is likely because the majority of Coptic religious texts are direct translations of Greek works. What invariably attracts the attention of the reader of a Coptic text, especially if it is written in the Sa'idic dialect, is the very liberal use which is made of Greek loan words, of which so few, indeed, are to be found in the Ancient Egyptian language. There Greek loan words occur everywhere in Coptic literature, be it Biblical, liturgical, theological, or non-literary, i.e. legal documents and personal letters. Though nouns and verbs predominate,

2080-425: Is not sufficient to demonstrate that these are distinct vowels, and if they are, the difference has a very low functional load . For dialects that use orthographic ⟨ ⲉⲓ ⟩ for a single vowel, there appears to be no phonetic difference from ⟨ ⲓ ⟩ . Double orthographic vowels are presumed here to be long, as that makes the morphology more straightforward. (Another common interpretation

2184-827: Is possible that in addition there was a glottal stop , ʔ , that was not consistently written. Coptic does not seem to have had a glottal stop at the beginning of orthographically vowel-initial words. It is possible that vowels written double were an attempt to indicate glottal stop, rather than a long vowel, in the middle of a word. However, there is little evidence for this (e.g., Arabic words with short vowels and glottal stop are not written with double vowels in Coptic, and Coptic words with double orthographic vowels are transcribed with long vowels rather than hamza in Arabic.) In Late Coptic (ca. 14th century), Bohairic sounds that did not occur in Egyptian Arabic were lost. A possible shift from

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2288-501: Is pronounced independently, and when it is placed over a consonant a short ⲉ precedes it. The oldest Coptic writings date to the pre-Christian era (Old Coptic), though Coptic literature consists mostly of texts written by prominent saints of the Coptic Church such as Anthony the Great, Pachomius the Great and Shenoute. Shenoute helped fully standardise the Coptic language through his many sermons, treatises and homilies, which formed

2392-439: Is safe to assume that the everyday speech of the native population retained, to a greater extent, its indigenous Egyptian character, which is sometimes reflected in Coptic nonecclesiastical documents such as letters and contracts. Coptic provides the clearest indication of Later Egyptian phonology from its writing system, which fully indicates vowel sounds and occasionally stress patterns. The phonological system of Later Egyptian

2496-651: Is spoken only in Egypt and historically has had little influence outside of the territory, except for monasteries located in Nubia . Coptic's most noticeable linguistic influence has been on the various dialects of Egyptian Arabic , which is characterised by a Coptic substratum in lexical , morphological , syntactical , and phonological features. In addition to influencing the grammar, vocabulary and syntax of Egyptian Arabic, Coptic has lent to both Arabic and Modern Hebrew such words as: A few words of Coptic origin are found in

2600-506: Is that Coptic articles are prefixes. Masculine nouns are marked with the article /pə, peː/ and feminine nouns with the article /tə, teː/ in the Sahidic dialect and /pi, əp/ and /ti, ət/ in the Bohairic dialect. The definite and indefinite articles also indicate number ; however, only definite articles mark gender. Coptic has a number of broken plurals , a vestige of Older Egyptian, but in

2704-405: Is that these represented glottal stop.) There is no length distinction in final stressed position, but only those vowels that occur long appear there: ⟨ (ⲉ)ⲓ, ⲉ, ⲁ, ⲟ~ⲱ, ⲟⲩ ⟩ . In Sahidic, the letter ⲉ was used for short / e / before back fricatives, and also for unstressed schwa / ə / . It's possible there was also a distinction between short / ɛ / and / a / , but if so

2808-425: Is the protagonist of Evelyn Waugh 's 1950 novel Helena . She is also the main character of Priestess of Avalon (2000), a fantasy novel by Marion Zimmer Bradley and Diana L. Paxson . She is given the name Eilan and depicted as a trained priestess of Avalon . Helena is also the protagonist of Louis de Wohl 's novel The Living Wood (1947) in which she is again the daughter of King Coel of Colchester. In

2912-462: Is usually the result of consonant voicing in proximity to / n / . Though there is no clear evidence that Coptic had a glottal stop , different orthographic means have been posited for indicating one by those who believe that it did: with ⲁ word-initially, with ⲓ word-finally in monosyllabic words in northern dialects and ⲉ in monosyllabic words in Akhmimic and Assiutic, by reduplication of

3016-614: The Abbaye Saint-Pierre d'Hautvillers . The church of Sant'Elena in Venice claims to have the complete body of the saint enshrined under the main altar. In 1517, the English priest, Richard Torkington, having seen the relics during a visit to Venice described them as follows: " She lith in a ffayr place of religion, of white monks, ye may see her face perfythly, her body ys covered with a cloth of whith sylke ... Also there lyes upon her breast

3120-818: The Coptic Orthodox Church and of the Coptic Catholic Church . Innovations in grammar and phonology and the influx of Greek loanwords distinguish Coptic from earlier periods of the Egyptian language. It is written with the Coptic alphabet , a modified form of the Greek alphabet with seven additional letters borrowed from the Demotic Egyptian script . The major Coptic dialects are Sahidic, Bohairic, Akhmimic, Fayyumic, Lycopolitan, and Oxyrhynchite. Sahidic Coptic

3224-625: The Greek language ; some of the words were later lent to various European languages — such as barge , from Coptic baare ( ⲃⲁⲁⲣⲉ , "small boat"). However, most words of Egyptian origin that entered into Greek and subsequently into other European languages came directly from Ancient Egyptian, often Demotic . An example is the Greek oasis ( ὄασις ), which comes directly from Egyptian wḥꜣt or Demotic wḥj . However, Coptic reborrowed some words of Ancient Egyptian origin into its lexicon, via Greek. For example, both Sahidic and Bohairic use

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3328-636: The Holy Tunic on her trip to Jerusalem and sent it to Trier . Several relics purportedly discovered by Helena are now in Cyprus , where she spent some time. Among them are items believed to be part of Jesus Christ's tunic, pieces of the holy cross, and pieces of the rope with which Jesus was tied on the Cross. The rope, considered to be the only relic of its kind, has been held at the Stavrovouni Monastery , which

3432-577: The Middle Ages . Coptic belongs to the Later Egyptian phase, which started to be written in the New Kingdom of Egypt . Later Egyptian represented colloquial speech of the later periods. It had analytic features like definite and indefinite articles and periphrastic verb conjugation. Coptic, therefore, is a reference to both the most recent stage of Egyptian after Demotic and the new writing system that

3536-647: The Mount of Olives ; sites of Christ's birth and ascension, respectively. Local founding legend attributes to Helena's orders the construction of a church in Egypt to identify the Burning Bush of Sinai. The chapel at Saint Catherine's Monastery —often referred to as the Chapel of Saint Helen—is dated to the year 330. Jerusalem was still being rebuilt following the destruction caused by Titus in AD 70. Emperor Hadrian had built during

3640-554: The Old Kingdom . The village of Bani Hasan al Shurruq houses 390 rock-cut decorated tombs and chapels from the Middle Kingdom (2000–1580 BC, especially the sixteenth dynasty ). The Speos Artemidos is nearby, and hosts temples built by Queen Hatshepsut . Akhetaten was built by Pharaoh Akhenaten and dedicated to the god Aten . Akhenaten lived there in isolation with his wife, Nefertiti , and daughters, devoting himself to

3744-572: The Ptolemaic Kingdom were discovered by Egyptian archaeologists in the Tuna El-Gebel site. 12 of the graves in four burial chambers 9 m (30 ft) deep, belonged to children. One of the remains was the partly uncovered skull enclosed in linen. In May 2020, Egyptian-Spanish archaeological mission headed by Esther Ponce revealed a unique cemetery consist of one room built with glazed limestone dating back to the  26th Dynasty (so-called

3848-585: The True Cross . The Eastern Orthodox Church , Catholic Church , Oriental Orthodox Churches , Anglican Communion , and the Lutheran Church revere her as a saint . Helena was Greek , however, her birthplace is not known with certainty. Helenopolis , then Drepanum, in Bithynia is, following Procopius , "generally assumed" to be the place. Her name is attested on coins as Flavia Helena, Flavia Julia Helena and sometimes Aelena. Joseph Vogt suggested that

3952-421: The monotheistic religion that he preached. The glorious remains of the palaces, temples and tombs still exist today. Other significant archaeological sites in the governorate of Minya include Deir Abu Hinis , Deir el-Bersha , El-Sheikh Sa'id , and Tuna el-Gebel . El Ashmunein ( Hermopolis Magna ) was the capital of the region during this period. It was the main center of worship of the god Thoth . Today,

4056-456: The spread of Islam in the seventh century. At the turn of the eighth century, Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan decreed that Arabic replace Koine Greek as the sole administrative language . Literary Coptic gradually declined, and within a few hundred years, Egyptian bishop Severus ibn al-Muqaffa found it necessary to write his History of the Patriarchs in Arabic. However, ecclesiastically

4160-420: The 130s a temple to Venus over the supposed site of Jesus ' tomb near Calvary , and renamed the city Aelia Capitolina . Accounts differ concerning whether the temple was dedicated to Venus or Jupiter. According to Eusebius, "[t]here was a temple of Venus on the spot. This the queen (Helena) had destroyed." According to tradition, Helena ordered the temple torn down and, according to the legend that arose at

4264-480: The 13th century, though it seems to have survived as a spoken language until the 17th century and in some localities even longer. From the medieval period, there is one known example of tarsh -printed Coptic. The fragmentary amulet A.Ch. 12.145, now in the Austrian National Library , contains a frame of Coptic text around an Arabic main text. In the early 20th century, some Copts tried to revive

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4368-417: The 15th century, the town's coat of arms has shown a representation of the True Cross and three crowned nails in her honour. Colchester Town Hall has a Victorian statue of the saint on top of its 50-metre-high (160 ft) tower. The arms of Nottingham are almost identical because of the city's connection with Cole, her supposed father. Flores de Mayo honors her and her son Constantine for finding

4472-757: The Apostles ". Her feast day in the Roman Catholic Church and in Antiochian Western Rite Vicariate falls on 18 August. Her feast day in the Coptic Orthodox Church is on 9 Pashons . Some Anglican and Lutheran churches keep the 21 May date. Helena is honored in the Church of England on 21 May but in the Episcopal Church on 22 May . In the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Churches ,

4576-637: The Britons and Rome. Geoffrey further states that she was brought up in the manner of a queen, as she had no brothers to inherit the throne of Britain. The source for this may have been Sozomen's Historia Ecclesiastica , which, however, does not claim Helena was British but only that her son Constantine picked up his Christianity there. Constantine was with his father when he died in York , but neither had spent much time in Britain. The statement made by English chroniclers of

4680-478: The Coptic alphabet, flourished in the second and third centuries. However, it was not until Shenoute that Coptic became a fully standardised literary language based on the Sahidic dialect. Shenouda's native Egyptian tongue and knowledge of Greek and rhetoric gave him the necessary tools to elevate Coptic, in content and style, to a literary height nearly equal to the position of the Egyptian language in ancient Egypt. The Muslim conquest of Egypt by Arabs came with

4784-487: The Coptic language, but they were unsuccessful. In the second half of the 20th century, Pope Cyril VI of Alexandria started a national Church-sponsored movement to revive Coptic. Several works of grammar were published, including a more comprehensive dictionary than had been formerly available. The scholarly findings of the field of Egyptology and the inauguration of the Institute of Coptic Studies further contributed to

4888-487: The Egyptian deserts. In time, the growth of these communities generated the need to write Christian Greek instructions in the Egyptian language. The early Fathers of the Coptic Church , such as Anthony the Great , Pachomius the Great , Macarius of Egypt and Athanasius of Alexandria , who otherwise usually wrote in Greek, addressed some of their works to the Egyptian monks in Egyptian. The Egyptian language, now written in

4992-701: The El-Sawi era) at the site of ancient Oxyrhynchus . Archaeologists also uncovered bronze coins, clay seals, Roman tombstones and small crosses. In 1981, the Basic Village Service Program (BVS) of USAID, had several water, and road projects, going on in several markazes in the Minya Governorate. In 2013, The United Nations Trust Fund for Human Security helped farmers in Minya by doing consultation work with them and taking soil samples. The national holiday of

5096-558: The Empire, but is not epigraphically attested in inscriptions of Bithynia (Helena's proposed region of origin) and it was also common in Latin-speaking areas. Procopius lived much later than the era he was describing and his description may have been actually intended as an etymological explanation about the toponym Helenopolis . On the other hand, her son Constantine renamed the city " Helenopolis " after her death around AD 330, which supports

5200-463: The Fayyumic dialect, a feature of earlier Egyptian) and [ k ] and [ ɡ ] , with the voiceless stop consonants being more common in Coptic words and the voiced ones in Greek borrowings. Apart from the liquid consonants , this pattern may indicate a sound change in Later Egyptian, leading to a neutralisation of voiced alveolar and velar plosives. When the voiced plosives are realised, it

5304-504: The Great . She was born in the lower classes traditionally in the city of Drepanon, Bithynia , in Asia Minor , which was renamed Helenopolis in her honor, although several locations have been proposed for her birthplace and origin. Helena ranks as an important figure in the history of Christianity . In her final years, she made a religious tour of Syria Palaestina and Jerusalem , during which ancient tradition claims that she discovered

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5408-476: The Greek loan words may come from any other part of speech except pronouns' Words or concepts for which no adequate Egyptian translation existed were taken directly from Greek to avoid altering the meaning of the religious message. In addition, other Egyptian words that would have adequately translated the Greek equivalents were not used as they were perceived as having overt pagan associations. Old Coptic texts use many such words, phrases and epithets ; for example,

5512-552: The Middle Ages, according to which Helena was supposed to have been the daughter of a British prince, is entirely without historical foundation. It may arise from the similarly named Welsh princess Saint Elen (alleged to have married Magnus Maximus and to have borne a son named Constantine) or from the misinterpretation of a term used in the fourth chapter of the panegyric on Constantine's marriage with Fausta. The description of Constantine honoring Britain oriendo ( lit.  "from

5616-757: The Minya governorate is on 18 March. It commemorates those who were executed by the British at Deir Mawas on 18 March 1919. According to the Egyptian Governing Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI), in affiliation with the Ministry of Investment (MOI), the following industrial zones are located in this governorate: Minya Governorate is an important agricultural and industrial region. Among its principal crops are sugarcane , cotton , beans , soybeans , garlic , onions , vegetables of various sorts, tomatoes , potatoes , watermelons , and grapes . Among

5720-638: The True Cross with a parade with floral and fluvial themed parade showcasing her, Constantine and other people who followed her journey to find the True Cross. Her discovery of the Cross along with Constantine is dramatised in the Santacruzan , a ritual pageant in the Philippines . Held in May (when Roodmas was once celebrated), the procession also bears elements of the month's Marian devotions . A Santacruzan procession

5824-473: The basis of early Coptic literature. The core lexicon of Coptic is Egyptian , most closely related to the preceding Demotic phase of the language. Up to 40% of the vocabulary of literary Coptic is drawn from Greek , but borrowings are not always fully adapted to the Coptic phonological system and may have semantic differences as well. There are instances of Coptic texts having passages that are almost entirely composed from Greek lexical roots. However, that

5928-559: The belief that the city was indeed her birthplace. The Byzantinist Cyril Mango has, however, argued that Helenopolis was refounded to strengthen the communication network around Constantine's new capital in Constantinople , and was renamed simply to honor Helena, not to necessarily mark her birthplace. There was also a Helenopolis in Palestine and a Helenopolis in Lydia . These cities, and

6032-561: The building of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre . Churches were also built on other sites detected by Helena. The "Letter From Constantine to Macarius of Jerusalem", as presented in Eusebius' Life of Constantine , states: Such is our Saviour's grace, that no power of language seems adequate to describe the wondrous circumstance to which I am about to refer. For, that the monument of his [Christ's] most holy Passion, so long ago buried beneath

6136-461: The campaign against Zenobia . It is said that upon meeting they were wearing identical silver bracelets; Constantius saw her as his divinely-sent soulmate. Barnes calls attention to an epitaph at Nicomedia of one of Aurelian's protectors, which could indicate the emperor's presence in the Bithynian region soon after AD 270. The precise legal nature of the relationship between Helena and Constantius

6240-443: The case of Minya governorate, there are a number of aqsam and marakiz , and a new city. Sometimes a markaz and a kism share a name. As of 2018, 10 cities (or towns) in Minya had a population of over 15,000 inhabitants. According to population estimates from 2024 the majority of residents in the governorate live in rural areas, with an urbanization rate of only 18.9%. Out of an estimated 6,453,892 people residing in

6344-399: The court of Diocletian at Nicomedia, where Constantine grew to be a member of the inner circle. Helena never remarried and lived for a time in obscurity, though close to her only son, who had a deep regard and affection for her. Constantine was proclaimed augustus (emperor) in 306 by Constantius' troops after the latter had died, and following his elevation his mother was brought back to

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6448-535: The eastern provinces in 327 to return to Rome, bringing with her large parts of the True Cross and other relics, which were then stored in her palace's private chapel, now the Basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme , where they can be still seen today. This has been maintained by Cistercian monks in the monastery which has been attached to the church for centuries. Helena died around 330, with her son at her side. She

6552-466: The end of the 4th century, chose a site to begin excavating, which led to the recovery of three different crosses. The legend is recounted in Ambrose , On the Death of Theodosius (died 395) and at length in Rufinus ' chapters appended to his translation into Latin of Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History , the main body of which does not mention the event. Then, Rufinus relates, the empress refused to be swayed by anything short of solid proof and performed

6656-423: The feast of Meskel , which commemorates her discovery of the cross, is celebrated on 17 Meskerem in the Ethiopian calendar (September 27, Gregorian calendar, or on 28 September in leap years). The holiday is usually celebrated with the lighting of a large bonfire , or Demera , based on the belief that she had a revelation in a dream. She was told that she should make a bonfire and that the smoke would show her where

6760-474: The first to call her a stabularia , a term translated as "stable-maid" or "inn-keeper". He makes this comment a virtue, calling Helena a bona stabularia , a "good stable-maid", probably to contrast her with the general suggestion of sexual laxness considered typical of that group. Other sources, especially those written after Constantine's proclamation as emperor, gloss over or ignore her background. Both Geoffrey of Monmouth and Henry of Huntingdon promoted

6864-488: The functional load was extremely low. Bohairic did not have long vowels. / i / was only written ⟨ ⲓ ⟩ . As above, it's possible that / u / and / o / were distinct vowels rather than just allophones. In Late Coptic (that is, Late Bohairic), the vowels were reduced to those found in Egyptian Arabic, /a, i, u/ . ⟨ ⲱ, ⲟ ⟩ became / u / , ⟨ ⲉ ⟩ became / æ / , and ⟨ ⲏ ⟩ became either / ɪ / or / æ / . It

6968-440: The government has provided some assistance via social safety networks, specifically, some financial assistance to residents with disabilities, and job opportunities for them and others. The funding has been coordinated by the country's Ministry of Finance and with assistance from international organizations. The governorate is divided into municipal divisions with a total estimated population as of January 2024 of 6,453,892 . In

7072-439: The governorate, 5,234,106 people live in rural areas as opposed to only 1,219,786 in urban areas. Little is known today about Minya Governorate compared to its great wealth of archaeological sites . Its history, including Ancient Egyptian , Hellenistic , Roman and Arab periods, has not yet received the full attention of scholars. Dehnet , Fraser Tombs , Sharuna , and Zawyet el-Maiyitin comprise monuments dating back to

7176-448: The ground, should have remained unknown for so long a series of years, until its reappearance to his servants now set free through the removal of him who was the common enemy of all, is a fact which truly surpasses all admiration. I have no greater care than how I may best adorn with a splendid structure that sacred spot, which, under Divine direction, I have disencumbered as it were of the heavy weight of foul idol worship [the Roman temple];

7280-472: The highest concentration of Coptic Christians of 50% of the total population. There are also a number of active monasteries in the region. In 2018, a Coptic cathedral was consecrated by Pope Tawadros II in the small village of Al Ur, near Samalut. The new cathedral was dedicated to the 21 Coptic Martyrs of Libya , thirteen of whom were from Al Ur. In February 2019, fifty mummy collections wrapped in linen, stone coffins or wooden sarcophagi dated back to

7384-422: The imperial treasury in order to locate the relics of the Christian tradition . In AD 326–28 Helena undertook a trip to Palestine. According to Eusebius of Caesarea , who records the details of her pilgrimage to Palestine and other eastern provinces, and Socrates Scholasticus , she was responsible for the construction or beautification of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem , and the Church of Eleona on

7488-417: The language retained an important position, and many hagiographic texts were also composed during this period. Until the 10th century, Coptic remained the spoken language of the native population outside the capital. The Coptic language massively declined under the hands of Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah , as part of his campaigns of religious persecution. He issued strict orders completely prohibiting

7592-448: The leading local industries are food processing (especially sugar and the drying and grinding of onions), spinning and weaving of cotton, perfumes, oils and fats, cement-making , quarrying (especially limestone), and brick-making . Coptic language Coptic (Bohairic Coptic: ϯⲙⲉⲧⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ , Timetremənkhēmi ) is an Afroasiatic extinct language . It is a group of closely related Egyptian dialects , representing

7696-440: The long Greek vowels ⟨η, ω⟩ . As with the vowels, there are differences of opinion over the correct interpretation of the Coptic consonant letters, particularly with regard to the letters ϫ and ϭ . ϫ is transcribed as ⟨j⟩ in many older Coptic sources and ϭ as ⟨ɡ⟩ or ⟨č⟩ . Lambdin (1983) notes that the current conventional pronunciations are different from

7800-422: The majority of cases, the article marks number. Generally, nouns inflected for plurality end in /wə/ , but there are some irregularities. The dual was another feature of earlier Egyptian that survives in Coptic in only few words, such as ⲥⲛⲁⲩ ( snau ) 'two'. Words of Greek origin keep their original grammatical gender, except for neuter nouns, which become masculine in Coptic. Possession of definite nouns

7904-463: The medieval Islamic period, when Coptic was still spoken. There are some differences of opinion among Coptic language scholars on the correct phonetic interpretation of the writing system of Coptic. Differences centre on how to interpret the pairs of letters ⲉ/ⲏ and ⲟ/ⲱ . In the Attic dialect of Ancient Greek in the 5th century BC, the first member of each pair is a short closed vowel /e, o/ , and

8008-610: The most recent developments of the Egyptian language , and historically spoken by the Copts , starting from the third century AD in Roman Egypt . Coptic was supplanted by Arabic as the primary spoken language of Egypt following the Arab conquest of Egypt and was slowly replaced over the centuries. Coptic has no native speakers today, although it remains in daily use as the liturgical language of

8112-585: The name Helena was typical for the Greek-speaking part of the Roman Empire and that therefore her place of origin should be looked for in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire. No Greek inscriptions have been attested dedicated to Helena during her lifetime. The 6th-century historian Procopius is the earliest authority for the statement that Helena was a native of Drepanum, in the province of Bithynia in Asia Minor . The name Helena appears in all areas of

8216-544: The outset", "from the beginning") may have been taken as an allusion to his birth ("from his beginning") although it was actually discussing the beginning of his reign. At least twenty-five holy wells currently exist in the United Kingdom dedicated to a Saint Helen. She is also the patron saint of Abingdon and Colchester . St Helen's Chapel in Colchester was believed to have been founded by Helena herself, and since

8320-548: The probable ancient pronunciations: Sahidic ϫ was probably pronounced [ tʲ ] and ϭ was probably pronounced [ kʲ ] . Reintges (2004 , p. 22) suggests that ϫ was pronounced [ tʃ ] . Beside being found in Greek loanwords, the letters ⟨φ, θ, χ⟩ were used in native words for a sequence of /p, t, k/ plus / h / , as in ⲑⲉ = ⲧ-ϩⲉ "the-way" (f.sg.) and ⲫⲟϥ = ⲡ-ϩⲟϥ "the-snake" (m.sg). The letters did not have this use in Bohairic, which used them for single sounds. It

8424-574: The province of Helenopontus in the Pontus, were probably all named after Constantine's mother. Two other locations in France and the Pyrenees have been named after Helena. Equally uncertain to Drepanum and without strong documentation suggestions about her birthplace are: Naissus (central Balkans), Caphar or Edessa ( Mesopotamia ) and Trier . The bishop and historian Eusebius of Caesarea states that Helena

8528-623: The public life in 312, returning to the imperial court. She appears in the Eagle Cameo portraying Constantine's family, probably commemorating the birth of Constantine's son Constantine II in the summer of 316. She lived in the Horti Spei Veteris in Rome which she converted into an even more luxurious palace. According to Eusebius, Helena was converted to Christianity by Constantine. He appointed her as Augusta , and gave her unlimited access to

8632-468: The renaissance. Efforts at language revitalisation continue to be undertaken, and have attracted the interest of Copts and linguists in and outside of Egypt. Coptic uses a writing system almost wholly derived from the Greek alphabet , with the addition of a number of letters that have their origins in Demotic Egyptian . This is comparable to the Latin-based Icelandic alphabet , which includes

8736-577: The ruins of a Greek temple , similar to the Parthenon , can be still found. The tomb and chapel of Petosiris are found near the modern village of Tuna el-Gebel . Antinoöpolis was built in 130 A.D. by the Roman emperor Hadrian in memory of his favourite and eromenos Antinous . The Monastery of the Virgin Mary at Gebel el-Teir is an important Christian site near the city of Samalut . Its church

8840-401: The runic letter thorn . There is some variation in the number and forms of these signs depending on the dialect. Some of the letters in the Coptic alphabet that are of Greek origin were normally reserved for Greek words. Old Coptic texts used several graphemes that were not retained in the literary Coptic orthography of later centuries. In Sahidic, syllable boundaries may have been marked by

8944-516: The second member is a long open vowel /ɛː, ɔː/ . In some interpretations of Coptic phonology, it is assumed that the length difference is primary, with ⲉ/ⲏ /e, eː/ and ⲟ/ⲱ is /o, oː/ . Other scholars argue for a different analysis in which ⲉ/ⲏ and ⲟ/ⲱ are interpreted as /e, ɛ/ and /o, ɔ/ . These two charts show the two theories of Coptic vowel phonology: Dialects vary in their realisation. The difference between [ o ] and [ u ] seems to be allophonic. Evidence

9048-472: The subject is a pronoun, it normally is not also expressed independently, unless for emphasis. Helena of Constantinople Flavia Julia Helena ( / ˈ h ɛ l ə n ə / ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλένη , Helénē ; c. AD 246/248–330), also known as Helena of Constantinople and in Christianity as Saint Helena , was an  Augusta of the  Roman Empire and mother of Emperor Constantine

9152-520: The suffix inflection survive in Coptic, mainly to indicate inalienable possession and in some verbs. Compare the Middle Egyptian form *satāpafa 'he chooses' (written stp.f in hieroglyphs) to Coptic (Sahidic) f.sotp ϥⲥⲱⲧⲡ̅ 'he chooses'. All Coptic nouns carry grammatical gender , either masculine or feminine, usually marked through a definite article as in the Romance languages , the difference

9256-429: The temple scriptoria. Old Coptic is represented mostly by non-Christian texts such as Egyptian pagan prayers and magical and astrological papyri. Many of them served as glosses to original hieratic and demotic equivalents. The glosses may have been aimed at non-Egyptian speakers. Under late Roman rule , Diocletian persecuted many Egyptian converts to the new Christian religion , which forced new converts to flee to

9360-489: The term ⲅⲩⲡⲧⲓⲟⲥ ( gyptios ) "Egyptian", derived from Greek Αἰγύπτιος ( Aigúptios ). This was borrowed into Arabic as ‏ قبْط ‎ ( qibṭ/qubṭ ), and from there into the languages of Europe, giving rise to words like French copte and English Copt . Coptic is today spoken liturgically in the Coptic Orthodox and Coptic Catholic Church (along with Modern Standard Arabic ). The language

9464-582: The true cross was buried. So she ordered the people of Jerusalem to bring wood and make a huge pile. After adding frankincense to it, the bonfire was lit and the smoke rose high up to the sky and returned to the ground, exactly to the spot where the Cross had been buried. Uncovering of the Precious Cross and the Precious Nails ( Roodmas ) by Empress Saint Helen in Jerusalem falls on 6 March . She

9568-467: The two sounds appear to be in free variation in Coptic, as they were since the Middle Egyptian period. However, they are contrasted only in Greek loans; for example, native Coptic ⲁⲛⲍⲏⲃ ( anzēb ) and ⲁⲛⲥⲏⲃⲉ ( ansēbə ) 'school' are homophonous. Other consonants that sometimes appear to be either in free variation or to have different distributions across dialects are [ t ] and [ d ] , [ ɾ ] and [ l ] (especially in

9672-401: The use of Coptic anywhere, whether in schools, public streets, and even homes, including mothers speaking to their children. Those who did not comply had their tongues cut off. He personally walked the streets of Cairo and eavesdropped on Coptic-speaking homes to find out if any family was speaking Coptic. As a written language, Coptic is thought to have completely given way to Arabic around

9776-441: The word ebenos , which was taken directly from Greek ἔβενος ("ebony"), originally from Egyptian hbnj . Many place names in modern Egypt are Arabic adaptations of their former Coptic names : The Coptic name ⲡⲁⲡⲛⲟⲩⲧⲉ , papnoute (from Egyptian pꜣy-pꜣ-nṯr ), means "belonging to God" or "he of God". It was adapted into Arabic as Babnouda , which remains a common name among Egyptian Copts to this day. It

9880-464: The word ⲧⲃⲁⲓⲧⲱⲩ '(Who is) in (His) Mountain', is an epithet of Anubis . There are also traces of some archaic grammatical features, such as residues of the Demotic relative clause , lack of an indefinite article and possessive use of suffixes. Thus, the transition from the old traditions to the new Christian religion also contributed to the adoption of Greek words into the Coptic religious lexicon. It

9984-401: Was about 80 on her return from Palestine. Since that journey has been dated to 326–28, she was probably born around 246 to 249. Information about her social background universally suggests that she came from the lower classes. Fourth-century sources, following Eutropius ' Breviarium, record that she came from a humble background. Bishop Ambrose of Milan, writing in the late 4th century was

10088-453: Was adapted from the Greek alphabet . The earliest attempts to write the Egyptian language using the Greek alphabet are Greek transcriptions of Egyptian proper names, most of which date to the Ptolemaic Kingdom . Scholars frequently refer to this phase as Pre-Coptic. However, it is clear that by the Late Period of ancient Egypt , demotic scribes regularly employed a more phonetic orthography,

10192-451: Was also borrowed into Greek as the name Παφνούτιος ( Paphnutius ). That, in turn, is the source of the Russian name Пафнутий ( Pafnuty ), perhaps best known in the name of the mathematician Pafnuty Chebyshev . The Egyptian language may have the longest documented history of any language, from Old Egyptian , which appeared just before 3200 BC, to its final phases as Coptic in

10296-473: Was also said to have been founded by Helena. According to tradition, Helena is responsible for the large population of cats in Cyprus . Local tradition holds that she imported hundreds of cats from Egypt or Palestine in the fourth century to rid a monastery of snakes. The monastery is today known as "St. Nicholas of the Cats" (Greek Άγιος Νικόλαος των Γατών ) and is located near Limassol . Helena left Jerusalem and

10400-412: Was also used in many texts to indicate the bilabial approximant / w / . Coptologists believe that Coptic ⲃ was articulated as a voiced bilabial fricative [ β ] . In the present-day Coptic Church services, this letter is realised as / v / , but it is almost certainly a result of the pronunciation reforms instituted in the 19th century. Whereas Old Egyptian contrasts / s / and / z / ,

10504-631: Was built by Empress Helena , mother of Constantine the Great , in 328, on one of the sites where the Holy Family is believed to have stayed during its Flight into Egypt . Oxyrhynchus was an important administrative center during the Hellenistic Period , and remains an important archaeological source for papyri from the Byzantine Egypt . Maghagha hosts the mosque of the famous Muslim Zayid ibn al Mugharah. Today, Minya Governorate has

10608-581: Was buried in the Mausoleum of Helena , outside Rome on the Via Labicana . Her sarcophagus is on display in the Pio-Clementine Vatican Museum , next to the sarcophagus of her granddaughter Constantina (Saint Constance). However, in 1154 her remains were replaced in the sarcophagus with the remains of Pope Anastasius IV , and Helena's remains were moved to Santa Maria in Ara Coeli . Helena

10712-552: Was in Naissus ( Niš , Serbia ). In order to obtain a wife more consonant with his rising status, Constantius divorced Helena some time before 289, when he married Theodora , Maximian 's daughter under his command. The narrative sources date the marriage to 293, when Constantius was appointed caesar (heir-apparent) of Maximian, but the Latin panegyric of 289 refers to the new couple as already married. Helena and her son were dispatched to

10816-541: Was spoken between the cities of Asyut and Oxyrhynchus and flourished as a literary language across Egypt in the period c.  325  – c.  800 AD. Bohairic, the language of the Nile Delta , gained prominence in the 9th century and is the dialect used by the Coptic Church. In Coptic the language is called ϯⲙⲉⲧⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ ( timetremǹkhēmi ) "Egyptian" or ϯⲁⲥⲡⲓ ⲛ̀ⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ ( tiaspi ǹremǹkhēmi ) "the Egyptian language". Coptic also possessed

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