Pope Kyrillos VI

(1902–1971)
Photo from Sunday School Magazine vol. 13, nos. 4/5 (April/May 1959), p. 3.

How needful people are to see Christ in our lives and to smell His sweet fragrance in us!

(Pope Kyrillos VI, First Papal Letter, 1959, p. 10)

Biography

(Saint) Pope Kyrillos VI (1902–1971) was one of the Coptic Orthodox Church’s foremost twentieth‐century patriarchs, reigning from 1959 to 1971. The period preceding his reign left the Church in trauma and division. Egypt had experienced political independence, which resulted in unforeseen economic and political tensions. His reign also came at a time that saw the Church confronted by political Islam, including the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Within the short twelve years of his patriarchate, the Church experienced an unprecedented revival and transformation.[1]See Daniel Fanous, A Silent Patriarch (Crestwood, NY: SVS Press, 2019). In 2013 he was canonised as a saint of the Coptic Church, along with his older contemporary, the Archdeacon Habib Girgis.

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Bibliography

A. Works and Primary Sources

Pope Kyrillos’ written legacy is relatively small, but significant. A full bibliography is still under construction.

Collected Egyptian Newspaper Articles relating to Pope Kyrillos VI (courtesy of Coptic Studies in Egypt):

B. Further Reading

Fanous, Daniel. The Silent Patriarch: Kyrillos VI (1902–1971). Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2019.

Guirguis, Magdi. & van Doorn-Harder, Nelly. The Emergence of the Modern Coptic Papacy. The Popes of Egypt: A History of the Coptic Church and Its Patriarchs, Volume 3. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2011.

O’Mahony, Anthony. “Tradition at the heart of renewal: the Coptic Orthodox Church and Monasticism in Modern Egypt”, International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church 7, no. 3 (2007), 164–178.

Wakin, E. A Lonely Minority: The Modern Story of Egypt’s Copts. Revised edition. iUniverse, 2000: pp. 118–30.

Watson, John. “Abba Kyrillos: Patriarch and Solitary,” Coptic Church Review 17.1/2 (1996): 1–48 (PDF)

van Doorn-Harder, Nelly. “Kyrillos VI (1902–1971): Planner, Patriarch and Saint.” In Between Desert and City: The Coptic Orthodox Church Today, edited by Nelly van Doorn-Harder and Kari Vogt, 230–42. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock.

Media

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Notes:
↑1 See Daniel Fanous, A Silent Patriarch (Crestwood, NY: SVS Press, 2019).