Egypt
is one of the first evangelized countries: in 60 AC , San Marcos came in
Alexandria
to predicate the faith and he was martyred in 68 AC by an attack of the pagans . Hit by the Roman occupation , the continuous civil wars between the
Greeks
and the Jews , the emergence of the new class of the Greco-Egyptians and the emergence of the nationalist spirit with the Egyptian revolutions in Delta , many Greek-Egyptians embraced the new faith which predicated fraternity and redemption . They easily adopted the new religion thinking that the new religion had much resemblance with their Holy Trinity and its values: redemption , salvation , resurrection , passive resistance and equity between humans .
During the reign of
Diocletian
, the new Christian Religion put obstacles in the way of materializing his project to revive the Empire . Christianity had spread in the Delta between the Greco-Egyptians and gradually spread to Alexandria . Diocletian ordered the persecution of Christians and massacred thousands of them , so the year of his coronation is considered the year of the martyrs and the beginning of the Egyptian Coptic Calendar . Persecutions continued almost unceasingly: churches were pulled down , the Holy Scriptures were burnt , Christian literature was
destroyed , the Christians were dismissed from all state services , the Christian property was confiscated and they were deprived of their national rights through allowing the unbelievers to persecute and torture them .
It would be impossible to enumerate even a reasonable selection of the martyrs of that era . The Coptic Synaxaire (a compilation of the biographies of saints and martyrs for all the days of the year) and the "Lives of Saints" are full .
Alexandrine Christianity became the tight of the world . The venerable Fathers of the Coptic Church , the great theologians of the Catechetical School of Alexandria , the Coptic Saints and heretics , the founders of monasticism , the immortal leaders of the ecumenical movement , all these and numerous other categories of illustrious Copts made indelible contributions to the establishment of the new faith .
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