White Monastery - Foundation and History

Foundation and History

The monastery was originally founded by Saint Pigol, the maternal uncle of Saint Shenouda (Schenute) the Archimandrite in 442 AD. However, it only became renowned after Shenouda succeeded his uncle as abbot for the monastery. From 30 monks, the population of the White Monastery increased to 2,200 monks and 1,800 nuns by the time of Shenouda's death in 466 AD. The monastery also increased in size during this time to 12,800 acres (51.8 km²), an area about 3,000 times its original size. Such area included cells, kitchens, and storehouses, the ruins of which can still be seen to the north, west, and south sides of the church complex.

Following the death of Shenouda, the monastic community of the White Monastery continued strong throughout the 5th century under the leadership of Saint Wissa and later Saint Zenobius. However, the monastery began to slowly decline following the Arab invasion of Egypt in 641 AD. The state of decline can be attributed in part to the heavy taxes that the monasteries in Egypt had to endure. Such taxes literally put a great number of monasteries out of existence.

In the middle of the 8th century, the Arab governor Al-Kasim Ibn Ubaid Allah forced his way into the monastery church with his female concubine on horseback. This resulted in the concubine falling to the ground and eventually to her death along with the horse she was riding.

The monastery served as a host for Armenian monks in the 11th and the 12th centuries. This is indicated in the inscriptions found on the paintings of the central apse of the church, which date between 1076 and 1124. Among these Armenian monks was the Armenian Vizier Bahram, who became a monk after having been banished from his office during the Caliphate of the Fatimid Al-Hafiz (1131-1149 AD). In 1168, the monastery was attacked by the Muslim commander Shirkuh.

The monastery underwent major restorations between 1202 and 1259 AD. In the 13th century, in the work attributed to Abu Salih Al-Armani, it is mentioned that the monastery included a keep, which was probably built during the Middle Ages to protect the monastery from the attacks of the desert's bedouins. Abu Salih Al-Armani also tells of an enclosure wall around the monastery within which a garden full of all sorts of trees existed. The lack of literary manuscripts after the 14th century indicate that the monastery was in an advanced state of decline from that time onwards.

The monastery was visited by Johann Michael Vansleb in 1672 and by Richard Pococke in 1737. Both of them made an incorrect attribution of the foundation of the monastery to Helena of Constantinople, Emperor Constantine's mother. During the second half of the 18th century, the southwest corner of the surviving church-complex collapsed. In 1798, the monastery was sacked and totally burned down by the Mamluks. The destruction was mentioned by the French traveler Dominique Vivant, who visited the monastery on the day following its destruction. In 1802, under the direction of Muhammad Ali, parts of the monastery were rebuilt. In 1833, Robert Curzon visited the monastery and left a written record of his visit. In 1893, Fergusson published a plan of the church complex. However the most significant contribution to the study of the monastery and its church were made by such visitors as Wladimir de Bock (1901), C. R. Peers (1904), Flinders Petrie (1907), Somers Clarke (1912), and Ugo Monneret de Villard (1925).

In 1907, the church complex experienced another repair which included the removal of the encrustation of brick work and the undercovering of the doorways. Then in the 1980s more restoration work took place on the walls and the columns of the church.