Pope John V of Alexandria, 72nd Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark. He was initially a monk in the Monastery of Saint John the Dwarf in

Scetes Wadi El Natrun (Arabic: "Valley of Natron"; Coptic: , "measure of the hearts") is a depression in northern Egypt that is located below sea level and below the Nile River level. The valley contains several alkaline lakes, natron-rich salt dep ...

. He was enthroned as a

Pope of Alexandria The Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church ( cop, Ⲡⲁⲡⲁ, translit=Papa; ar, البابا, translit=al-Bābā), also known as the Bishop of Alexandria, is the leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church, with ancient Christian Church, Christian roo ...

on the second day of Pi Kogi Enavot, 863 A.M. (25 August 1147). During his papacy, the

Copts Copts ( cop, ⲛⲓⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ ; ar, الْقِبْط ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group indigenous to North Africa who have primarily inhabited the area of modern Egypt and Sudan since antiquity. Most ethnic Copts are C ...

were persecuted by the

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

governors and

caliph A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...

s. Many were killed and sold as slaves. Several churches in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

, such as the church of

Saint Menas Menas of Egypt (also Mina, Minas, Mena, Meena; el, Άγιος Μηνάς, ; 285 – c. 309), a martyr and wonder-worker, is one of the most well-known Coptic saints in the East and the West, due to the many miracles that are attributed to his i ...

Saint Mary Church (Haret Elroum) Saint Mary Coptic Orthodox Church in Haret el-Roum () or the Church of the Virgin of Relief ( ar, كنيسة العذراء المغيثة, Kanīsat al-ʿAdhrāʾ al-Mughītha) is a Coptic Orthodox church in al-Ghūrīya, Cairo near the Convent of ...

and the church of ''El-Zohari'', were plundered and destroyed. They were later rebuilt by the

Coptic Coptic may refer to: Afro-Asia * Copts, an ethnoreligious group mainly in the area of modern Egypt but also in Sudan and Libya * Coptic language, a Northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century * Coptic alphabet ...

layman Abu El-Fakhr Salib Ibn Mikhail. It was also at this time (1164 AD) that

Saint Bashnouna Bashnouna () (died 19 May 1164) was a Coptic saint and martyr. According to his hagiography, Bashnouna was a monk in the Monastery of Saint Macarius the Great in Scetes. He was arrested by the Fatimid authorities during the caliphate of Al-'� ...

was killed by the

s. Around the end of his papacy, tensions rose between him and

Mark Ibn Kunbar Mark ad-Darir ibn Mauhub, or Mark Ibn Kunbar ( ar, مرقس بن قنبر المنشق, translit=Marqus ibn Qunbar al-Munšiq), died 1208, also known as Mark the Blind, was a 12th-century Coptic priest and preacher. He came into conflict with bo ...

, a priest who preached against the practice of private confession of sins, resulting in Kunbar's

excommunication Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose ...

. According to the ''

History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria The ''History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria'' is a major historical work of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. It is written in Arabic, but draws extensively on Greek and Coptic sources. The compilation was based on earlier biographical ...

'', the

Emperor of Ethiopia The emperor of Ethiopia ( gez, ንጉሠ ነገሥት, nəgusä nägäst, "King of Kings"), also known as the Atse ( am, ዐፄ, "emperor"), was the hereditary monarchy, hereditary ruler of the Ethiopian Empire, from at least the 13th century ...

wrote to John in 1152 for a new ''

abuna Abuna (or Abune, which is the Construct state, status constructus form used when a name follows: Ge'ez alphabet, Ge'ez አቡነ ''abuna''/''abune'', 'our father'; Amharic language, Amharic and Tigrinya language, Tigrinya) is the honorific titl ...

'' or

Metropolitan Metropolitan may refer to: * Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories * Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England * Metropolitan county, a typ ...

, because Abuna Mikael was too old; his request was denied. Although the name of the Emperor was not recorded,

Carlo Conti Rossini Carlo Conti Rossini (1872–1949) was an Italian orientalist. He was director of the State Treasury from 1917 to 1925, a member of the Accademia dei Lincei in 1921 and Royal Academy of Italy from 1939. He wrote various works on the historical ...

identified him as

Mara Takla Haymanot Mara Takla Haymanot was King and the founder of Zagwe dynasty. Some king lists give his name simply as "Mararah", and other King Lists as "Takla Haymanot". Regnal controversy According to one tradition, Mara was born in the province of Lasta, wh ...

, arguing from this exchange that the true reason a new ''abuna'' was wanted was that Abuna Mikael refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of the new

Zagwe dynasty The Zagwe dynasty ( Ge'ez: ዛጔ ሥርወ መንግሥት) was an Agaw medieval dynasty that ruled the northern parts of Ethiopia and Eritrea, after the historical name of the Lasta province. Centered at Lalibela, it ruled large parts of the t ...

. Pope John denied this request and was subsequently arrested and imprisoned for two weeks during the reign of the

Fatimid The Fatimid Caliphate was an Ismaili Shi'a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries AD. Spanning a large area of North Africa, it ranged from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east. The Fatimids, a dy ...

Al-Zafir Abū Manṣūr Ismāʿīl ibn al-Ḥāfiẓ ( ar, أبو منصور إسماعيل بن الحافظ, February 1133 – April 1154), better known by his regnal name al-Ẓāfir bi-Aʿdāʾ Allāh (, ) or al-Ẓāfir bi-Amr Allāh (, ), was the t ...

. During John's papacy, the expression ''Life-giving'' was added to the liturgical confession, which became: ''This is the Life-giving Flesh that Thine Only-Begotten Son, Our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus Christ, took from our Lady ...''. Pope John V died on 4 Pashons, 882 A.M. (29 April 1166 AD) after 18 years, 8 months, and 4 days on the Throne of

Saint Mark Mark the Evangelist ( la, Marcus; grc-gre, Μᾶρκος, Mârkos; arc, ܡܪܩܘܣ, translit=Marqōs; Ge'ez: ማርቆስ; ), also known as Saint Mark, is the person who is traditionally ascribed to be the author of the Gospel of Mark. Accor ...

.Coptic Synexarion

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:John 05 Of Alexandria, Pope 12th-century Coptic Orthodox popes of Alexandria 1166 deaths