Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral, Cairo

The St. Mark's Cathedral in Cairo is the cathedral church of the Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria of the Coptic Church. The consecrated in 1968, over 100 m long Basilica in Abbassia district is one of the largest church building on the African continent. It bears the name of the founder of Christianity in Egypt, the evangelist Mark, to be preserved in the cathedral whose relics.

History

The remains of the evangelists were in 828 stolen by Venetian merchants in Alexandria and returned to their hometown, where they became the most valuable treasure of the local eponymous cathedral. On the occasion of the consecration of Mark's Cathedral in Cairo gave the then Roman Catholic Pope Paul VI. on June 2, 1968 his Coptic counterpart Cyril VI. Parts of the relics of St. Mark's back. They are now kept in a specially made, icon decorated shrine.

Patriarchate of Alexandria

The Patriarchate of Alexandria was laid in the 11th century to Cairo. Cairo was the Fatimidenreichs since 973 capital and sparked Alexandria in late antiquity to Rome, the second largest city in the world, as a leading city in Egypt from. In Alexandria there is a consecrated to St. Mark Coptic Cathedral. The Patriarch of Alexandria is traditionally considered after those of Rome and Constantinople Opel as the third highest bishop of the universal Church, this position has been since the schism of 451 and 1054, however, only of theoretical nature.

At the opening of the Cathedral numerous honorary guests were present, among them the then President Gamal Abdel Nasser and the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie as the Ethiopian Orthodox Church Coptic Pope acknowledges church despite legal independence as their honorary leader.