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    History of The Coptic Church VI: St. Demetrius, The Vinedresser

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    tyson
    St. Demetrius was the 12th successor of St. Mark as the Pope of Alexandria. He was originally a vinedresser who was chosen as Pope after offering early grapes to Pope Julian, who had received a vision about St. Demetrius. As Pope, St. Demetrius invented the Apokty Calendar to determine the date of Easter each year, which was used by the Catholic Church for over a century. He rigorously studied theology and served as Pope for 32 years until his death at the age of 105.

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    History of The Coptic Church VI: St. Demetrius, The Vinedresser

    Uploaded by

    tyson
    34 views2 pages
    St. Demetrius was the 12th successor of St. Mark as the Pope of Alexandria. He was originally a vinedresser who was chosen as Pope after offering early grapes to Pope Julian, who had received a vision about St. Demetrius. As Pope, St. Demetrius invented the Apokty Calendar to determine the date of Easter each year, which was used by the Catholic Church for over a century. He rigorously studied theology and served as Pope for 32 years until his death at the age of 105.

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    Demetrius

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    St. Demetrius was the 12th successor of St. Mark as the Pope of Alexandria. He was originally a vinedresser who was chosen as Pope after offering early grapes to Pope Julian, who had received a vision about St. Demetrius. As Pope, St. Demetrius invented the Apokty Calendar to determine the date of Easter each year, which was used by the Catholic Church for over a century. He rigorously studied theology and served as Pope for 32 years until his death at the age of 105.

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    34 views2 pages

    History of The Coptic Church VI: St. Demetrius, The Vinedresser

    Uploaded by

    tyson
    St. Demetrius was the 12th successor of St. Mark as the Pope of Alexandria. He was originally a vinedresser who was chosen as Pope after offering early grapes to Pope Julian, who had received a vision about St. Demetrius. As Pope, St. Demetrius invented the Apokty Calendar to determine the date of Easter each year, which was used by the Catholic Church for over a century. He rigorously studied theology and served as Pope for 32 years until his death at the age of 105.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    History of the Coptic Church VI:

    St. Demetrius, the Vinedresser

    St. Demetrius was the 12th successor of St. Mark, the Apostle. Pope Julian, the 11th Patriarch
    saw a vision in his last days in which an angel said to him Who will come to you in the morning
    bringing a bunch of grapes, he will be your successor.

    While St. Demetrius was dressing his vineyard, he saw a cluster of grapes had ripened early
    and harvested them. He decided to offer this first fruit to his pope. Once, Pope Julian saw Demetrius
    with his presentation of grapes, he spoke to his bishops saying this man will be your pope and
    informed them about the vision that he saw. After St. Julians departure to the Heavenly Kingdom,
    bishops, priests, and laymen consecrated St. Demetrius the 12th pope of Alexandria in 191 AD.

    St. Demetrius grew up in Alexandria as a vinedresser. His parents persistently persuaded him
    to get married, however, he and his wife decided to live the life of virginity. It has been a steadfast
    Coptic tradition that the pope should live a life of virginity even before the founding of monasticism
    and so some of the laymen of that time criticized St. Demetrius papacy due to his marriage. St.
    Demetrius was a humble holy man and did not speak of his vow of virginity concerning his wife and
    himself. The Lords Angel appeared in a vision unto him and commanded him to tell his congregation
    about his vow of celibacy. The next Sunday, after the Divine Liturgy, the pope asked his congregation
    to stay for a while. He and his wife held a censor with fired charcoal and walked around the church
    before the congregation who wondered how the fired charcoal did not burn one of them. St. Demetrius
    declared his vow with his wife to live as virgins before the Lord and so the congregation glorified the
    Lord who works through his saints.

    St. Demetrius was a simple vinedresser, who did not have much scholarly education in his
    formative years and so when he became the 12th pope he decided to rigorously study to compensate for
    what he had missed. He was very humble and used to sit at the feet of the churchs deacon who taught
    him the hymns. He obtained much theological education at the School of Alexandria in a very short
    time. St. Demetrius was extremely intelligent and the Holy Spirit shined upon him. St. Demetrius
    invented a special calendar known as the Apokty Calendar which was used to determine the
    Glorious Resurrection Feast every year and is still used in our Oriental Churches today.

    It was difficult to determine the Glorious Resurrection Feast every year as the feast is linked to
    and should come after the Jewish Passover. However, the Jewish Passover is dependent upon the
    harvest season and the Jewish calendar is lunar not solar and for this reason the Jewish Passover is
    always between April and May. St. Demetrius invented a special calendar, comprised of both lunar and
    solar years, to adjust the time of the Glorious Resurrection Feast so the feast doesnt come before the
    1st week of April and not after the 1st week of May. St. Demetrius calendar is composed of 19 solar-
    lunar years. The lunar calendar is less than solar calendar by 11 days and so in 19 years it will be 209
    days. St. Demetrius divided those 209 days on his 19-years calendar by adding one month to every 2
    or 3 years as follows:

    1st solar year is more than the 1st lunar year by 11 days.
    2nd solar year is more than the 2nd lunar year by 11 + 11 = 22 days
    3rd solar year is more than the 3rd lunar year by 22 + 11 = 33 days.
    So the 3rd lunar year will be a leap year with 13 months instead of 12 months and the other 3
    days will be added to the 4th solar year.
    4th solar year will increase by 3 + 11 = 14 days
    5th solar year will increase by 14 + 11 = 25 days
    So the 5th lunar year will be a leap year by subtracting 5 days from the 6th solar year
    6th solar year will decrease by 5 days less and so 11 5 = 6 days.
    7th solar year will increase by 11 + 6 = 17 days
    8th solar year will increase by 11 + 17 = 28 days
    So the 8th year will be a leap by subtracting 2 days from the following year.
    9th solar year will increase by 11 2 = 9 days
    10th solar year will increase by 9 + 11 = 20 days
    11th solar year will increase by 20 + 11 = 31 days
    So the 11th year will be a leap year and one day will be added to the following year.
    12th year will increase by 1 + 11 = 12 days
    13th year will increase by 12 + 11 = 23 days
    14th year will increase by 23 + 11 = 34 days
    So the 14th year will be a leap and 4 days will be added to the following 15th year
    15th year will increase by 11 + 4 = 15 days.
    16th year will increase by 15 + 11 = 26 days
    So 16th will be a leap year and 4 days will be subtracted from the following year
    17th year will increase by 11 4 = 7 days.
    18th year will increase by 7 + 11 = 18 days
    19th year will increase by 18 + 11 = 29 days
    So the 19th will be a leap year.

    After he finished his invention, St. Demetrius discussed his calendar with his holy Senate
    members in Alexandria and they consented to use it for determination of the Glorious Resurrection
    Feast. One century later, the Fathers of the Council of Nicea decided to use St. Demetrius calendar to
    determine the Glorious Resurrection Feast within the realm of the entire Catholic Church and it
    remained in use until 1582 AD when the Roman Bishop Gregory the 13th decided to celebrate the
    Glorious Resurrection Feast the first Sunday following the completeness of the full moon after spring
    temperance (March 21st ) regardless of the Jewish Passover and so Catholics sometimes celebrate the
    Glorious Resurrection Feast at the end of March and thus the celebration may have coincided with the
    Jewish Passover.

    On 194 AD, Septimius Severus began to persecute Christians in Egypt and exiled St. Demetrius
    to Osieem. During that persecution St. Lionidas, Origens father was martyred. St. Demetrius
    appointed Origen at the age of 18 years as the dean for the catechumens School of Alexandria.
    A heresy proclaiming the death of the human spirit appeared within the Arabia state (whose
    Christians belonged to the See of Alexandria) at that time and so St. Demetrius sent Origen there
    where he taught the Christians the Orthodox faith. In 216 AD Origen the Scholar went to Asia Minor
    to establish a catechumen school there but while on this mission accepted the priesthood sacrament
    from Alexander the Bishop of Jerusalem and Theosteet the Bishop of Caesara of Cappadocia. St.
    Demetrius convened a council in Alexandria which excommunicated Origen because he had castrated
    himself and had also accepted the priesthood from another pope, not his own pope.

    St. Demetrius lived to the age of 105 years and departed after spending 32 years and 7 months
    on the See of St. Mark.

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