A History of Christianity in Egypt - Birth and Early Growth  A
History of Christianity in Egypt  Birth and Early Growth    The
history of Christianity in Egypt dates back verily to the
beginnings of Christianity itself. Many Christians hold that
Christianity was brought to Egypt by the Apostle Saint Mark in
the early part of the first century AD. Eusebius, Bishop of
Caesarea, in his Ecclesiastic History states that Saint Mark
first came to Egypt between the first and third year of the
reign of Emperor Claudius, which would make it sometime between
AD 41 and 44, and that he returned to Alexandria some twenty
years later to preach and evangelize. Saint Mark's first convert
in Alexandria was Anianus, a shoemaker who later was consecrated
a bishop and became Patriarch of Alexandria after Saint Mark's
martyrdom. This succession of Patriarchs has remained unbroken
down to the present day, making the Egyptian Christian, or
Coptic, Church one of the oldest Christian churches in
existence. Evidence for this age comes