Pope John VI of Alexandria
Pope John VI of Alexandria was the 74th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark.
Pope John VI of Alexandria | |
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Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark | |
Church | Coptic Orthodox Church |
Papacy began | 1189 |
Papacy ended | 1216 |
Predecessor | Mark III |
Successor | Cyril III |
Personal details | |
Born | |
Died | 1216 Egypt |
Buried | Church of the Holy Virgin (Babylon El-Darag) |
Nationality | Egyptian |
Denomination | Coptic Orthodox Christian |
Residence | The Hanging Church |
His name was John Abu al-Majd ibn Abu Ghaleb ibn Sawiris (يوحنا أبو المجد بن أبو غالب بن سويرس). He was layman. It was said that he was a widower, and after his wife's death he chose to remain celibate. He kept the church headquarters in the Hanging Church in Old Cairo (الكنيسة المعلقة). He proscribed a canon that a church could not accept a priest unknown to them without having a consent statement from his bishop. He was buried in the Church of the Darag (كنيسة الدرج) under the tomb of Pope Zakharias, the 64th Coptic Patriarch (1004-1032 AD).
In 1210, his envoys reached the city of Lalibela in Ethiopia, where they met Emperor Gebre Mesqel Lalibela.[1]
He was the last Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria to consecrate a bishop for Western Pentapolis, as the people converted to Islam under the rule of the Arabs.
References
- Taddesse Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), p. 62