Word: moharrak
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Dates: during 1937-1937
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Three years ago seven monks of the monastery of Deir-el-Moharrak, on the edge of the desert near Assiut, rebelled because they received only $1.50 per month for pocket money. Bearded Auba Yoanes XIX, Patriarch of Egypt's ancient Coptic Church, excommunicated the seven, then pardoned them while their abbot raised their allowance to $7.50 per month. On this the monks grew merrier & merrier, saving up their money for uproarious nights in nearby Bedouin and Moslem villages. Such a nuisance became the Copts that the villagers told Abbot Sidarous to keep his men at home, else they would...
...only condone but join in their nights of fun. At once Patriarch Yoanes threatened to excommunicate all 100 monks, commanded them to vacate the monastery. They "sat down," and by the time a commission representing the Patriarch arrived, the monks had dug themselves in for a siege. Deir-el-Moharrak, 14 centuries old, has heavy 15-ft. walls, is accessible only by means of a drawbridge to an adjacent building. Within it are live cattle, fresh wells, well-stocked larders. At week's end, armed monks patrolled the walls while police, dispatched by the Governor of Assiut...
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