Coptica v. 16 2017

Fakhr al-Dawlah ibn al-Muʾtaman

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in the most accessible manuscript) tells us the story of a Christian financial administrator resident in Ḥārat al-Zuwaylah named Ṣadaqah ibn ʿAjīn, who is said to have been a great lover of God and of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 28 One day he was praying before an image of the Virgin when Anbā Ruways interrupted his prayers and said: What is this vain supplication that you come in with every day to ask of Our Lady, while you do other than what she tells you? If you obeyed her, O Ṣadaqah, you wouldn’t be toying with your soul and coming to her [like this]. But tomorrow they will nail you, put you on public display, and burn you. You want her to acknowledge you, but she does not acknowledge you, and I don’t acknowledge you [either]. 29 It turns out that Ṣadaqah was having an affair with a woman from the ruling class ( imraʾah jalīlah min ashrāf jins al-mamlakah ). 30 Anbā Ruways’s warning was insufficient, however, because shortly afterwards the two of them had an assignation in Old Cairo. But Anbā Ruways showed up as well—and frog-marched Ṣadaqah to the Church of St. George, where Ṣadaqah prostrated himself before the icon of the great equestrian saint and begged for salvation and forgiveness. 31 We are told that God forgave Ṣadaqah—but that the woman had to be dealt with in some way, because, apparently, she remained irresistibly drawn to her Christian lover, and he was not safe from temptation as long as she could find him. So God afflicted her with a severe illness in her legs, which temporarily crippled her. Whenever the pain of the illness decreased a little she felt the urge to go to Ṣadaqah, but then, suddenly, the illness would again act up in a painful and incapacitating way! Ṣadaqah, it appears, was finally safe. 32 When Ṣadaqah heard this news, he rejoiced and dedicated himself to a life of repentance. Anbā Ruways sent him to the Monastery of St. Antony, where he served in an exemplary way, so much so that Pope Matthew eventually called him back to Cairo to serve in the Patriarchal Cell, which he did faithfully until his death. 33

Studia in honorem Angeli Urbani heptagenarii , ed. Samir Khalil Samir and Juan Pedro Monferrer-Sala (Córdoba: CNERU; Beirut: CEDRAC, 2013), 359-69. 28 MS Paris ar. 282, ff. 133r-135v. 29 Ibid., f. 133v. 30 Ibid. 31 Ibid., ff. 133v-134r. 32 Ibid., f. 134r-v. 33 Ibid., ff. 134v-135v.