Abstract
This paper presents the elements of ecumenical dialogue in the mission of the Capuchin friars in Egypt in the seventeenth century. While such was not ecumenical dialogue in the sense of modern theology which knows no proselytism, the foundations of ecumenical dialogue were already present in their mission. This practice was partly due to the renewal of missionary work under the aegis of De Propaganda Fide, the charism of the Capuchin Order and their historical unencumberedness with the political and economic ambitions of European powers in the Middle East.
Introduction: Historical background of the Capuchin Mission in Egypt
Today’s missionary practice of the Roman Catholic Church holds respect for the human person and takes into account the existence of different religious traditions. This is due to the promotion of interreligious and ecumenical dialogue at the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). The goal of missionaries since then is not to convert non-Christians and non-Catholics, but above all to witness to Christian love by the example of their lives and through dialogue. 1 However, before conciliar reform, the mission was different, tied as it often was to the political and colonialist aims of the European powers. In this respect, the missionary activity of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires in the early modern period stands out. Spain and Portugal, entrusted by Pope Alexander VI with the expansion of Christianity in 1493, conducted mission in their respective spheres of interest in the traditional spirit of the Reconquista and the associated militant expansion of Christianity. 2 Under royal patronage, preachers have spread the faith without regard for local religions and cultures, and often violently. Under pressure from both hegemons, the Church was in the grip of state control and had to work closely with the state to achieve secular goals.
The leadership of the Catholic Church in Rome could not approve of the organisation of missions in America, Asia, and Africa as a tool to extend the state power of European empires. The sixteenth century missions in the New World challenged the Church to reflect on the very meaning of its mission and examine its approach. Consequently, Pope Gregory XV in 1622 established the Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide (or simply De Propaganda Fide), a department of the Roman Curia, which had the purpose of separating the mission from its political abuse, especially from the control exercised by the Portuguese and Spaniards who eventually criticized the creation of the Propaganda. 3 The creation of De Propaganda Fide marks a milestone in the history of Catholic missionary activity, since with the establishment of this Roman office the Church laid down fundamental guidelines for the propagation of the faith, like transformation of the missions from a colonial phenomenon into a movement uniquely ecclesiastical and spiritual, converting people to the faith with the pastoral method alone, without any semblance of compulsion. 4 The method of missionary work under the control of De Propaganda Fide had henceforth to be performed with patience, good example, good works, and rational persuasion.
De Propaganda Fide formed missionaries in the modern sense of the word: individuals who are appointed to proclaim the faith in the world. Yet the idea of mission was not intended, as it is promoted today, to work for mutual understanding and promotion of social justice. 5 The seventeenth century understanding of mission was based on the principles of the Tridentine Counter-Reformation which valued highly the total and universal primacy of the Roman pope with regard to non-Christians, non-Catholics, Jews and pagans. 6 It is possible to claim that De Propaganda Fide, in its vision of missionary work, had already taken into account the importance of “inculturation”, the adaptation of faith to a non-Christian cultural background, but only with a view to successfully winning people to the religion, since the main goal of the mission was to convert them to the Catholic Church.
In practice, despite the clear instructions of the Propaganda, there were many violations of these instructions, as individual missionaries acted in accordance with the political and economic aims of the Western European countries. This was particularly evident in the Middle East, where the Propaganda sent its missionaries, as its action on a global scale was limited to areas where neither Spain nor Portugal had strong influence on missionary activity. There, unlike both countries, which spread the faith in their colonial territories among the representatives of primitive religions and Hindus, they targeted Orthodox Christians, who, notably among the Copts in Egypt, viewed Western missionaries with suspicion and saw their attempts to convert as theft of their believers. 7 Despite the good intentions of Propaganda, the Catholic mission in Egypt in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was generally seen as an affront to the Copts, who felt threatened by the European missionaries, since their individual actions, which will be presented below, showed disrespect for the Coptic culture and constituted an imposition of European civilisation and the Catholic faith.
Yet there were also missionaries who consistently fulfilled the spirit of Propaganda’s missionary vision, succeeding in preparing individuals to embrace the faith and the Roman Pontiff for the spiritual value in doing so. This paper presents the mission of the Capuchin friars in Egypt, a religious order that was especially active in mission work. In Egypt from the middle of the seventeenth century, one finds among the work of some Capuchin missionaries the true elements of contemporary Catholic ecumenism, which promotes encounters of an equal footing among different Christians. 8 These missionaries of the Early Modern Era made a sincere effort to understand the people among whom they lived, and in some of their “ecumenical gestures” like mutual worship, respect for the Coptic traditions etc., they even went beyond their understanding of mission as conversion to Catholicism towards a modern ecumenical method of Christian life through the motto: “Unity in Diversity”. 9
Perhaps the Capuchin mission in Egypt in the early modern period was not the most historically significant, as that of the Franciscan Order of Observants (further: Observants), whose mission in Upper Egypt bore rich fruit with the foundation of the Coptic Catholic Church in 1741. Though the Capuchin mission did not have the same results, their silent presence in Egypt exhibits more ecumenical dialogue than that of other contemporary missionaries. Order of Friars Minor Capuchin was a humble order that broke away from the Observants and began a reform movement which stressed the priority of contemplative prayer and a more rigorous austerity. They were recognized as an official, independent branch of the Observants in 1528 and were available for various forms of apostolic activity. After the foundation of De Propaganda Fide, the Capuchins became especially active in mission work. 10
This paper will focus on the evaluation of the Capuchin mission in the second quarter of the seventeenth century, which represents the time of their first arrival in Egypt and the general beginning of the organisation of Catholic missions under the leadership of De Propaganda Fide. The chosen period also falls within the time of the Ottoman rule in Egypt (1517-1798), when in the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there was a flourishing of Catholic missions in the Middle East. By the mid-seventeenth century, the greatest mark among the Capuchins was made by Fr. Agathange de Vendôme (1598-1638), director of the Capuchin mission in Cairo, later a subordinate at the Capuchin mission in Upper Egypt and a martyr in Ethiopia, who will be mentioned as a representative of the dialogical mission in the second quarter of the seventeenth century. The presence of Capuchins in Egypt is attested for the rest of the century. While the mission in Egypt was listed among the foreign missions of the Capuchin Order in 1662, 11 during that time, Capuchin missionaries Protais and Charles-François d’Orleans resided in Egypt and explored ancient sites in Luxor and its surroundings. In 1668, they visited the Coptic monasteries in the village of Bahjurah. 12 The Capuchins also had a school for boys in Old Cairo, where they opened a hospice in 1687, among others in Rosetta, Damietta, and Faiyum. 13 In the eighteenth century, Capuchins were still found in the Egyptian territory, on mission to Ethiopia. Among them were the martyrs Liberato Weiss, Michele Pio da Zerbo and Samuele de Beano (1716), who were according to some sources, the Capuchin monks. 14 The Capuchins gradually abandoned their mission in the Middle East after 1750, due to the reduced number of vocations in France, and the crisis among Catholic religious institutions brought on by the French Revolution. 15
The presence of Western Christianity in Egypt until the beginning of missionary activities in the seventeenth century
The presence of Western Christians in the Middle East dates back to the Crusades and the establishment of the Latin Patriarchate in Jerusalem at the end of the eleventh century. Roman Catholics have had a continuous presence in the Holy Land since the founding of the Franciscan Province of the Custody of the Holy Land in the thirteenth century. Egypt was host to an occasional Franciscan presence from the time of the Fifth Crusade (1217-1221), when Francis of Assisi himself visited Damietta in Egypt in 1219. While the original plan of the Catholic missionaries to the East was to preach to the Muslims, due to their failure and the rigorous prohibition against conversion, they soon turned their attention to the “separated Christians”, including the Orthodox Copts. 16 The unification of the Eastern Churches with the Roman Catholic Church had been an imperative of Catholic missionaries since the Crusades. 17
The Observant Franciscans and Dominicans, who were in Alexandria in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, tried to take advantage of the pressure of the Mamluk regime on the Coptic population and unite it with the Roman Church in order to protect them. 18 Copts remained the target of Catholic missionary efforts even in Ottoman Egypt from the sixteenth century onwards, when openly proselytising among the Muslim population was forbidden. 19 The situation for the mission was favourable in the time of Ottoman Egypt, as the Venetians and the French enjoyed many privileges, allowing missionaries to travel freely and to preach among Orthodox Christians. 20
Between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, there were several attempts at official unification between the Roman Catholic Church and the Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church, or the schismatic Church of Alexandria, with the first significant attempt occasioned by the Council of Florence in 1439. Despite the important differences of doctrine between the two Churches—papal supremacy, the filioque controversy, the question of purification, the use of leavened or unleavened bread in the Eucharist— the council nevertheless aimed to eradicate the break between East and West. Though the Council of Florence, which was attended by Copts, in addition to representatives of other Orthodox Churches, reached agreement on theological issues and the proclamation of a union between the churches, the union never bore fruit since the Orthodox party renounced it shortly after arriving back home. In the sixteenth century, papal emissaries tried unsuccessfully to win the Coptic Patriarchs to the union, and correspondence between the Coptic Patriarchs and the Roman Pontiffs did not achieve far-reaching success. 21 Two attempts by members of the Jesuit Society of Jesus, approved by the papacy in 1540 and devoted to the propagation of Catholicism throughout the world, were also disastrous. In 1561 and 1582 they travelled to Egypt and, in a second attempt, succeeded in meeting the Coptic Patriarch; however their encounter was upended by their own obstinacy, fanaticism and impatience, not to mention their rigid dogmatism. They knew no Arabic and were mainly engaged in writing attacks on the Copts. 22
The tactics used to convert the Copts had to be changed. In order to win the Coptic Church to join the See of Rome it was necessary to concentrate the mission on the monks in the desert monasteries, since the Copts chose their Church leaders from among the desert fathers. A new, more considerate missionary method, which means a turn from brief and controversial visits to Church leaders to a realisation of the importance of permanent coexistence with the Copts, can be seen in the work of the Observants and Capuchins in the seventeenth century.
Catholic mission in Egypt in the seventeenth century
Despite the failure of its previous missionary attempts, the Catholic Church continued its missionary work in Egypt in the seventeenth century. The creation of the Propaganda was a unification and systematisation of the missions under the auspices of the Roman administrative authority, which henceforth directly controlled missionary activities. The creation of the Propaganda also laid the foundations for a new phase of missionary work in the Middle East, which was important to custodianship and protection of the Holy Places. However, the main goal was to convert native Orthodox Christians and thus succeed where the Council of Florence had failed. 23
Shortly after the foundation of De Propaganda Fide, the Observants began to work in Egypt under its patronage (1630); by the end of the seventeenth century, they had established themselves in southern Egypt for the purpose of mission among the Christians in Ethiopia. They also opened houses in the north of the country under the auspices of the Custody of the Holy Land. In 1630, a Capuchin mission was also officially established in Cairo, which served as a base to penetrate the Coptic desert monasteries. Jesuits established a permanent centre in Cairo in 1697.
In the seventeenth century, Observants and Capuchins preparing for the Ethiopian mission often stayed in Coptic monasteries, where they learned Arabic and sometimes even preached in Coptic churches. De Propaganda Fide paid the monastery an annual sum for two or three friars to reside there. 24 It may seem strange that the Coptic monks accepted Western missionaries into their monastery, but they felt that the Catholic mission was too small and ineffective. In 1690, however, the Catholic Church acquired a Sultanic decree, which forbade government officials and members of the other Christian religious communities to interfere with Catholic missionaries teaching the principles of the Christian faith to Copts. 25
The politico-legal basis for the development of the mission in the Middle East was the system of Capitulations: diplomatic and commercial rights and privileges that the Ottoman imperial government granted to Europeans living and working in the empire. Already in the fifteenth century, the Venetian-Ottoman capitulations were concluded for the first time, in 1580 with England and in 1610 with the Dutch Republic. Particularly important were the capitulations agreed between France and the Ottoman Empire in 1604, which enabled the Catholic Church to send missionaries to the Ottoman lands. 26 As a result, the Capuchins in 1627 obtained official permission from the Ottoman Empire to establish their presence in its territory. 27 As France was the dominant European and Catholic power in the eastern Mediterranean, its position had grown during this period as Frenchmen came to monopolize the cloth trade and the Ottoman Empire aimed to encourage commercial exchange with French merchants. 28 The French were free to practice their religion in the Ottoman Empire and French Catholics were given custody of holy places. This also explains why the Capuchin missionaries in Egypt were mostly French.
Christians subordinated in the Ottoman Empire accepted Catholic missionary efforts with goodwill and even gratitude, since the missionaries helped them to achieve the revival of their faith and contributed to their intellectual growth. They also saw Catholic missionaries as providers of material gain. In this sense Christians in the Ottoman Empire were interested in some kind of Union of the Christendom, if not also expecting the political and military protection of Catholic powers. 29 On the other hand, Eastern Christians have reacted hostilely to the overly obvious intentions of Catholic proselytism. 30
The Copts in Egypt, however, did not see particular benefits in associating with Western missionaries. As they mostly lived in rural areas or worked in urban sectors outside trade, they did not see such benefits in adopting Catholicism. Moreover, the methods of forced conversions sometimes practised by the missionaries introduced many divisions between Copts and Catholics.
Negative examples of Catholic missionary practice
Despite the new missionary era that the foundation of De Propaganda Fide was supposed to bring about, Catholic missionaries, in individual cases,were known to act arrogantly in their encounters with non-Catholics. To some extent, such behavior was influenced by the traditional belief that salvation could only be achieved within the embrace of the Roman Catholic Church and that the aim of the missions was to convert the masses to it. Such was the main objective of the missions promoted by De Propaganda Fide. This stance has exacerbated relations between Catholics and members of other churches and non-Christian religions. Its methods were left unchanged until only after the Second Vatican Council, when missionary work became above all a witness to the Christian faith in dialogue and acceptance of the other. 31
The negative examples of Catholic missionary in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are part of a colonialist mentality that saw non-European cultures as tabula rasa waiting for European culture. 32 An anti-coptic discourse gradually took hold among Catholic missionaries as they sought to strengthen their mission and win new converts. In 1719, the writings of the Jesuit Claude Sicard, who was determined to immerse himself in the study of the Copts and their traditions, show disdain to Coptic clergymen, with accusations of heresy, lack of holiness, and gross ignorance on the part of the Coptic faithful who blindly followed their priests. 33 Some accuse Sicard of approaching the Copts as a missionary, with contempt for their Church and their beliefs. 34
There were also negative examples of Franciscan activity in Upper Egypt after 1700, occasions when Observants demanded that Coptic converts destroy their old books which they considered heretical: texts on magic, New Testament apocrypha, and theology regarded as insulting to Rome. 35 Giuseppe Simone Assemani, a Lebanese Maronite who converted from the Maronite rite to the Latin rite in 1711, antagonized the Copts by his arrogance and his zealous hunt for manuscripts in the Coptic monasteries, as Alastair Hamilton put it. 36 His work, however, belongs to the context of manuscript collecting as a part of the European Orientalism movement at the beginning of the eighteenth century. At the same time, there were tensions in the town of Akhmīm over the Catholic recruitment of young Coptic boys to be educated in Rome, an act perceived by the Coptic authorities as theft of their youth. 37
These examples, which are only illustrative, show the patronizing tendency of some missionaries towards Orthodox believers. Bernard Heyberger has argued that however much research the Church of Rome may have devoted to Eastern Christianity, this was almost invariably in order to debunk errors, and not to understand the Eastern Churches on their own terms. 38
The reaction of Coptic Church leaders to Catholic attempts at direct conversion has been tumultuous. Missionary work, which intensified especially in the course of the eighteenth century and culminated in the establishment of the Coptic Catholic Church, posed an existential threat to the Orthodox Copts. Bishop Yusab, critical of the Copts who had embraced Catholicism, asked them reproachfully, “What wisdom have you witnessed from their missionaries?” 39 The term “Franks” at the time was used among the Coptic clergy to refer to Westerners, not only French and other European merchants, but also missionaries. 40 This clearly shows that the Catholic mission was understood in close connection with the political and economic influence of Europeans in the Middle East. This perception has been blamed for some missionary activities in the wider region, such as providing financial support to individual Orthodox religious leaders and buying their favour. Thus, it was said that the conversion to Catholicism could be bought by the “Frank” priests. However, this manner of promoting the Catholic faith was strongly opposed by the Cardinals of the Propaganda. 41
Positive examples of Catholic missionary practice
While the aim of the missions throughout much of the history of the Catholic Church has generally been to simply convert non-Catholics to the true faith, there are positive examples in the Middle East that correspond to today’s understanding of mission, reflecting respect for the local culture and religious traditions of non-Catholic Christians.
The negative practices of missionaries mentioned above do not occlude the good intentions of Catholic missionaries in the Middle East and their contributions to the development of local cultures, better education, social and health assistance. Various religious orders, such as the Jesuits and Capuchins, opened schools for boys of the Christian minorities in the Ottoman Empire and taught foreign languages there. A primary field of exchange of knowledge, supported by De Propaganda Fide, was the printing and disseminating grammars and dictionaries. 42 Missionaries in the Levant were known to be effective teachers. It is interesting to note that in some places they have been particularly willing to allow laity, and especially women, to be more involved in their parishes, 43 a feature of pastoral practice in the Catholic Church only in recent times! In other parts of the wider region, like Georgia and Ethiopia, there were also known the “medical missionaries” who used medicine as the main tool to reach spiritual goals. 44
Missionaries also introduced Europeans to Eastern cultures. Their acceptance of the spiritual richness of Eastern Christianity is also evident in their respect for Eastern liturgical rites, as the Uniate Churches, such as the Coptic Catholic Church in Egypt, preserved the Alexandrian, Coptic rite. The development of the Eastern Churches was generally closely linked to the work of the Western missionaries. 45
In Egypt, we find several examples of positive missionary action that recall the modern theological elements of inculturation and ecumenism. It is telling that Observants in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries complied with local conditions and wore turbans like Coptic priests. 46 However, the Capuchins were the most prominent in “ecumenical” activity, especially in their brief initial action after the founding of the mission in Egypt, as attested by extant sources. For this reason, the elements of dialogue in the Capuchin mission are presented below. These missionaries may be considered the early Capuchin “ecumenists” and witnesses of the Capuchin fraternity, men who were ready to understand the cultural and religious environment in which they worked. They demonstrated a mission that sometimes went even beyond the imperative of the time to convert non-Catholics and was only in the service of fraternal relations with representatives of non-Catholic churches: what is called today, “ecumenical dialogue.” That is why the Capuchin missionaries in the Middle East, and especially in Egypt, as we shall see, can rightly be considered as forerunners of what is the modern-day ecumenical movement, but on a much more daring scale, as Fr. Salim Rizkallah put it. 47
Capuchin mission in Egypt in the seventeenth century: men of dialogue
While this paper does not claim that only the Capuchin mission in Egypt had elements of dialogical proclamation of the faith, there is a general tendency that justifies the claim that the Capuchin mission stood out in this sense. The reasons for this are to be found mainly in two circumstances: the charism of their Order and the historical circumstances of tension between the various orders in the Egyptian mission.
To understand the personal zeal and attitude of the Capuchin missionaries it is important to know the position of their religious order within the family of Franciscan orders. 48 As noted before, the Capuchin order was a product of internal reforms within the Franciscan movement. In the early sixteenth century, the original Order of Friars Minor was officially split into the Order of Conventuals and the stricter Order of Observants – the latter have been supplying the Middle East for eight centuries and have been continuously present in Egypt since the early modern period. The Observants favoured missionary endeavours as they, unlike the Conventuals, did not seek a stable life in a monastery. The Capuchin Order, not without tensions, emerged from the Observant strain, following more closely St. Francis of Assisi’s ideal of living a poor and simple life. 49 Therefore, compared to the missionaries of other orders, like the Jesuits and Observants, the Capuchins in the Ottoman Levant were known as “simple missionaries.” 50 In this sense, humility, which knows no patronizing communication and respects the dignity of the other person, was built into the essence of their religious charism.
In general, the early examples of Catholic ecumenism and irenicism, found in some outlines in the Capuchin mission in Egypt, were, according to Howard Louthan, the result of religious mysticism and of the continuous humanist impulse in the seventeenth century. 51 The mystics emphasized the existence of a spiritual Church that transcended the physical and immediate. It was the mystical component that was strongly evident among the sons of St. Francis and especially in the Capuchin Order, which wanted to strengthen fidelity to the fervour of its founder. The early Capuchins expected their missionaries to be motivated by perfect charity which was the consequence of an experience of unitive and mystical love. 52 Moreover, Franciscan spirituality is characterised by developing the art of loving union with God, which includes self-sacrifice on the way to accessing the divine. The Capuchin ideals of fraternal life, poverty, humility, prayer and penance lead to this noble aim. In the early modern era, such mysticism certainly contributed to a profound Christian humanism among the Capuchins, who, following the example of the encounter between St. Francis and Sultan Malik al-Kamil in 1219, were able to accept everyone as an equal.
The specific nature of the Capuchin mission was also influenced by the historical circumstances of Roman Catholic missions in the Ottoman Empire and specifically in Egypt. As already mentioned, the Observants and Dominicans had already been missionaries among the Copts in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. However, the sixteenth century was witness to unsuccessful attempts by the Jesuits. Until the arrival of the Capuchins, the Observants and the Jesuits, who had a long history of presence in Egypt and the wider region, were burdened by competition with each other to acquire Egypt as an area of interest and a mission base for Ethiopia. Conflicts between the missionaries of the various orders are evident in the Ottoman Empire, although they all worked in the name of De Propaganda Fide. The Italian Observants, who were linked to the Republic of Venice (the prefect of the Observant Franciscan mission in Egypt, Paolo da Lodi, even took up residence in the Venetian embassy in 1630), opposed the mission of the Jesuits and Capuchins, who were supported by France. The former, for example, had already been expelled from the Ottoman Empire (Aleppo) in 1625 and the Capuchins also encountered opposition from the Observants who saw in them strong rivals. 53 The Jesuits in Egypt were also critical of the Observants. 54
The Capuchins in Ottoman lands, at least at the beginning, were not burdened by such conflicts. They first settled in Egypt only as members of De Propaganda Fide (1630) and had no ambition to spread their own influence in the new environment, which the above-mentioned religious orders, especially the Observants, considered their sphere of action. The Capuchins were focused solely on missionary activity and were better trained for it than the Observants. 55 Prepared and sent to the mission by De Propaganda Fide, they also worked under the auspices of the inter-state agreements between the Ottomans and France, but there is no indication of them being caught up in international rivalry, as is evident in the case of the other two orders, which fought on the basis of national and political tensions. The Capuchins kept themselves apart from all political matters and dedicated themselves totally to preaching the faith. 56
Historical facts of the Capuchin mission in Egypt until the middle of the seventeenth century
The first Capuchin mission to Egypt was self–initiated by Juan Zuaze of Medina and Giovanni of Troia, who were sent to the Ottoman lands by the head of their order. While trying to convert Muslims in Cairo in the mid-sixteenth century, they were imprisoned and subsequently died in their cells. 57 The only truly decisive development for Capuchin missionary efforts in Egypt was the foundation of De Propaganda Fide. The Capuchins were made officially independent of the Conventuals in 1619 and were immediately available for missionary work when De Propaganda Fide was founded. In fact, De Propaganda Fide was instituted at the suggestion of the Capuchin friar Jerome of Narni 58 , which means that the Capuchin contribution of a pastoral mission separated from political abuses was integrated into the heart of this Roman office. This is probably why De Propaganda Fide, from the very beginning, considered the Capuchins (not exclusively) as an important order that would be able to convert people to faith with the pastoral method alone. This reform of missionary activity necessitated the establishment of special courses in apologetical theology and philosophy for the missionary candidates. By a decree of De Propaganda Fide, dated on February 27, 1624, a course in controversial theology was started in the Capuchin monastery of Rome. The purpose of this school was to train missionaries both for the Protestant countries of Europe and for the missions outside Europe. 59
In this context, the Capuchin father Joseph of Paris (or François Leclerc du Tremblay) established several missions in the Levant in 1630, among them one in Cairo under Gilles de Loches who was replaced some years later by Agathange de Vendôme. In Cairo, the Capuchins took up residence in an Observant hospice and lived under the same roof with the Observant Franciscans, which led to constant conflicts in their common life, as the differences were much sharper at the time than they seem today. 60 Because the Capuchins worked under the auspices of the Custody of the Holy Land, the Franciscan Observant Custos had religious and financial control over them – the Capuchins were independent of him only in missionary matters. The Capuchins wanted to live in their own monastery as they had their own separate mission; it was clear that living together in an Observant Franciscan hospice was not destined to last very long. In 1653, the Capuchin mission in Cairo was dissolved and transferred to the Observants, who were more numerous and stronger in organisational strength. The Capuchins left Cairo and were ordered to move to Rosetta for further disposition.
The Capuchin mission in Cairo was the starting point for the friars’ departures to the Coptic monasteries of the desert, where they sought to achieve communion with the Roman Church among the monks. They came to realise that this was the right way to go, since the Coptic Church, as is customary among Orthodox Churches, chose its leadership from among the monks in the monasteries. The Ethiopian Church has also traditionally chosen its leader from among Coptic monks, since the Ethiopian Church was part of the Patriarchate of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Alexandria until 1959, so a successful mission would also mean the conversion of the Ethiopian Church. The missionaries saw a successful mission as recruiting church leaders, and the Catholic faith would then spread among the people from the chief down.
Two Coptic monasteries have especially attracted the attention of the seventeenth century Capuchin missionaries: the Monastery of St. Anthony in Wadi al–Arabah and the Monastery of St. Macarius in Wadi El Natrun. 61 The Capuchins came to study Arabic in the monasteries, an example of which was a friar named Aegidius Lochiensis (Gilles de Loche), who had resided seven years in Egypt for the purpose of studying oriental languages. But they also wanted to learn about Coptic spirituality. For the Capuchin missionaries there was no better way to learn about the Coptic theology and piety than to enter a Coptic monastery and coexist with the monks. 62 The Capuchins’ willingness to hold theological discussions and spiritual meetings together won them the favour of the Copts, who allowed them to use their monastery churches. At the monastery of St. Anthony, at least one monk had converted to Catholicism.
Elements of ecumenical dialogue in the Capuchin mission
Among the Capuchins who worked in Egypt after 1630, there are examples of missionary approaches that went beyond the methods of the time and are more reminiscent of the missions steeped in a spirit of dialogue and mutual respect that the Catholic Church fosters today. In their desire for a more personal relationship with the Copts, the missionaries sometimes even acted against the rules of De Propaganda Fide, which expected missionaries to convert people to the Catholic Church and did not encourage cooperation with non-Catholics in religious matters. Their examples of missionary practice reflect the elements of what today we would call ecumenical dialogue: respect for non-Catholic Christians, dialogue, cooperation, unity in diversity.
Fr. Agathange de Vendôme, a leader among the Capuchin missionaries in the 1630s, and Fr. Cassian of Nantes visited all the Coptic monasteries as part of their mission and to search for manuscripts. Fr. Agathange was a man of dialogue who knew how to create inter-religious contacts in a spirit of mutual respect. Born in Vendôme in 1598, he became a Capuchin at the age of twenty-one and was ordained a priest in 1625. He had already been working for several years in the missions of the Ottoman Empire by the time he arrived in Egypt (1633). Already in Aleppo in Syria, he studied Arabic and worked among Muslims and non–Latin Christians and won the good will and respect of the leading imam. Even though public preaching to Muslims was forbidden by both the state and De Propaganda Fide, he explained Christianity to them and awakened their tolerance and interest. Sent to Egypt with three other missionaries from Marseilles, he gained trust of Patriarch Matthew III, who made his churches available to the Capuchins, where priests and Catholic laypeople went to celebrate Mass. However, the Propaganda would soon forbid this. Fr. Agathange opposed Propaganda’s decision and wrote to the Holy Office and presumably obtained permission for the practice to continue. 63
Fr. Agathange was critical of the promotion of the principle of “communicatio in divinis”, issued by De Propaganda Fide, which forbade Catholics in the missions to participate in worship with non-Catholics. For the converts this usually also meant the cessation of consorting with their former co-religionists. In 1637, in a letter to the Prefect of the Congregation, Cardinal Antonio Barberini, Fr. Agathange pleaded for greater tolerance towards fraternal communion with the Copts, especially stressing the impossibility for converts to leave their family and friends and consequently be abandoned by an entire community. 64 Because of their open attitude towards the Copts, the Capuchins even broke the above-mentioned principle of the prohibition of common participation in the sacraments, in some cases absolving the Copts. 65 Fr. Agathange’s position on the “hereticism” of the Copts was significant, as he was of the opinion that the only thing he could find wrong with their beliefs was the invocation of patriarchs Dioscorus of Alexandria and Severus of Antioch in the fifth century. 66
Despite the dedicated work of the missionaries, the Capuchin mission in Egypt in the seventeenth century was not particularly successful, at least not by the standards of the time. It did not reach a significant number of converts, nor did it leave a significant trace in the history of missions. The immoral life of European Catholics in Egypt was a major obstacle to the greater success of the Capuchin mission. The friars found that their work amongst the Copts for the reunion with the Roman See, was obstructed by the scandalous lives of the European merchants and the Consul of France in Cairo. Although the French political representation made the Capuchin mission in Egypt possible, its perception of the Copts was distinctly negative, as seen in the case of the French consul Jean Coppin and represented the political and economic interests of European powers. The corruption of the Europeans in Egypt necessarily affected the work of the missionaries, who, in the eyes of the local Christians, were also afflicted. The Capuchins wanted to distance themselves from the bad examples of the Catholic laity, as evidenced by Fr. Agathange’s many years of appeals to the Prefect of the Propaganda Congregation to excommunicate the offenders. 67
The Capuchin mission’s success was also hampered by a dispute with a German Lutheran missionary, Peter Heyling, who arrived in Egypt in 1631, shortly after the start of the Capuchin mission there. Heyling imitated the Capuchin mission and entered the Monastery of St. Macarius himself, with the aim of converting the monks to the Lutheran Church and establishing the principles of the Reformation throughout the Coptic Church. Though he had some theological discussions with the Capuchins, they saw him not only as a heretic but also as a manipulator. Interestingly enough, his principal opponent was Fr. Agathange, who in 1634 warned of his influence, which he saw as a danger. 68 Heyling took a new missionary strategy and became a Coptic monk to reform the Coptic Church from within. The Ethiopian bishop, Abuna Marqos, appointed him as his associate and Heyling later became an influential preacher in Ethiopia. In 1637 Fr. Agathange, superior of the new mission in Ethiopia, and Fr. Cassian, entered Abyssinia for their missionary effort, but owing to the machination of Heyling they were at once seized and imprisoned, and the following year suffered martyrdom in Gondar. Abuna Marqos, reproaching them for intending only straightforward conversion, called Fr. Agathange evil. The two missionaries were eventually hanged with the cords of their Capuchin Franciscan habits. 69 The tensions and intrigues between the missionaries were a reflection of the European struggles between Catholics and Protestants at the time of the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648). Surely such a mission in Egypt could not have been inviting.
From the examples given, we can see that missionaries have generally tried to understand the peoples among whom they worked, to learn their languages, religious cultures and histories, and engage with them in genuine “ecumenical” dialogue. 70 However, the Capuchin missionaries’ affection for dialogue was certainly one-dimensional, since they were intolerant of Protestant missionary attempts, which they perceived as a threat, and which spelled tragedy for them.
Conclusion
Although the Capuchin mission to Egypt in the seventeenth century was part of a Catholic mission to convert its recipients to the Roman Catholic Church, there are elements of ecumenism in their mission. Of course, this was not yet ecumenical dialogue in the sense of modern theology which knows no proselytism. The whole Catholic and Capuchin mission was about “ecumenism of the return,” the conviction that the reunion of Christians could only be achieved by promoting the return to the one true Roman Catholic Church of those who had separated from her. 71
Yet this paper intends to show that elements of ecumenical dialogue were already present in the Capuchin mission to Egypt in the early modern period. Missionaries were immersed in the study of Coptic language, culture, spirituality, and theology, albeit with a view to better persuading them to unite with the Roman Catholic Church. Still, in practice, a sincere respect for the Coptic religious tradition was also evident, and individual missionaries, in their desire to have good relations with the Copts, even departed from the basic task of conversion imposed on them by De Propaganda Fide. They recognised the Copts as brothers and respected their faith, in which they saw more than errors. In this, their mission had elements of a modern ecumenical dialogue, but at that time, because of the official understanding of mission as the winning of new believers, the “ecumenism of the return” could not yet become an “ecumenism of dialogue”.
The model of the Capuchin mission in Egypt presented here is of historical value because it shows the contribution of the Franciscan movement, inspired by the ever peace-minded and humble St. Francis of Assisi, to the development of Christian ecumenism. By inserting instructions on how to “go among the Saracens” into his religious Rule, St. Francis wanted to show first of all the relationship dimension of proclaiming the faith, even before that of martyrdom. His first aim was to meet the other person and to see him as a brother. 72 Such an attitude prevents the missionary from acting in a patronising or superior way. And in this, the example of the Capuchin mission in Egypt is still relevant today.
