Deir al-Surian: Saving ancient Christian manuscripts in Egypt
For twenty years now, an Anglo-Egyptian foundation has been working to preserve and restore one of the most prestigious collections of ancient manuscripts, which contain Christian texts of exceptional historical value that were secretly preserved for centuries.
By Jean Charles Putzolu
It is one of the oldest monasteries known to the modern world. Deir al-Surian was founded in the 6th century A.D., although this is only a hypothesis common to several researchers.
In fact, St. Mary Deipara is one of the four monasteries that survived from among the six hundred or so that existed at the time, built between the third and sixth centuries.