 Orthodox church inTripoli | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 60,000 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Tripoli,Sirte,Benghazi,Bayda | |
| Languages | |
| Libyan Arabic Liturgical:Coptic language | |
| Religion | |
| Coptic Orthodoxy |
Copts in Libya may refer to people born in or residing inLibya of full or partialCoptic origin. Coptic people are anethnoreligious group that form the largest Christian group inLibya, theCoptic Orthodox Church in the country having an estimated 60,000 adherents. The Coptic Church is known to have historical roots in Libya long before the Arabs (and Islam) advanced westward from Egypt into Libya. A part of the community is made up of immigrants from Egypt (seeCopts in Egypt).
The Coptic population is estimated to number 60,000.[1] The Copts are the largest Christian denomination, followed byc. 40,000 Roman Catholics and a small number of Anglicans.[1] They are present in all threemajor regions.[2]
Historically speaking,Christianity spread to thePentapolis in North Africa from Egypt;[3]Synesius of Cyrene (370-414), bishop of Ptolemais, received his instruction at Alexandria in boththe Catechetical School and theMuseion, and he had a great deal of reverence and affection for NeoplatonistHypatia, whose classes he had attended. Synesius was consecrated byTheophilus of Alexandria in 410. Since theCouncil of Nicaea in 325,Cyrenaica had been recognized as an ecclesiastical province of the See of Alexandria, in accordance with the ruling of the Nicaean Fathers. ThePope of Alexandria to this day includes the Pentapolis in his title as an area within his jurisdiction.[4]
The Coptic congregations in several countries were under the ancient Eparchy of theWestern Pentapolis, which was part of the Coptic Orthodox Church for centuries until the 13th century.[5]
In 1971Pope Shenouda III reinstated it as part of the Eparchy of Metropolitan Bishop Pachomius, Metropolitan of the Holy Metropolis ofBeheira (Thmuis &Hermopolis Parva), (Buto),Mariout (Mareotis),Marsa Matruh (Paraetonium), (Apis),Patriarchal Exarch of the AncientMetropolis ofLibya: (Livis,Marmarica,Darnis &Tripolitania) & TitularMetropolitan Archbishop of the Great and Ancient Metropolis ofPentapolis: (Cyren), (Appollonia), (Ptolemais), (Berenice) and (Arsinoe).
This was one among a chain of many restructuring of several eparchies byPope Shenouda III, while some of them were incorporated into the jurisdiction of others, especially those who were within an uncovered region or which were part of a Metropolis that became extinct, or by dividing large eparchies into smaller more manageable eparchies. This was also a part of the restructuring of the Church as a whole.
There are three Coptic Orthodox Churches in Libya: one inTripoli, Libya (Saint Mark's), one inBenghazi, Libya (Saint Antonios - two priests), and one inMisrata,Libya (Saint Mary and Saint George).[6][7]
In February 2014, seven Coptic Christians were dragged out of their houses in the middle of the night, then murdered on a beach, east of Benghazi.[8] A group of Copts were kidnapped on separate occasions in December 2014 and January 2015, then murdered by theIslamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Avideo of the killing of 21 men, in which threats are made to "the nation of the cross", was released to the internet on 15 February 2015.[9]
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