The Rite of the Consecration of the Church of Koskam

Abstract

This paper studies the local tradition related to the commemoration of the Church of Koskam. It provides the Coptic liturgical texts used on this occasion with commentary. Despite the late date of this manuscript, and the many mis- spellings of the Coptic words, it reflects an important local rite that has hitherto never been published. As the level of knowledge of the scribe is very poor, we may assume that he copied them from another text written when Coptic was in use. The texts contain some Coptic extracts from the homily of Theophilus, which sur- vive in Ethiopic, Syriac and Arabic. Our texts here are the unique witness of the Coptic version.