Wadi El Natrun

Wadi El Natrun is a depression in the Western Desert of Egypt, west of the Nile Delta on the Cairo–Alexandria desert road, in Beheira Governorate. It is the ancient Scetis, where monks have lived since the fourth century. Four monasteries are still in use: Saint Macarius, Saint Bishoy, the Syrians and the Romans. The Holy Synod holds its general sessions at the papal residence beside the Monastery of Saint Bishoy.

The place

The depression lies about 23 metres below sea level, 55 to 60 kilometres long and on average 10 wide. Its alkaline lakes gave the ancient Egyptians natron, used in mummification, and gave the valley its name. The Coptic Encyclopedia's entry on Scetis describes a belt of monastic settlement about 30 kilometres long.

The monks

Macarius the Egyptian moved into the valley about 330 and set up his cell near the site of the present Monastery of the Romans. By the end of the fourth century there were four settlements: Baramus, Saint Macarius, Saint Bishoy and John the Short. The first three survive; the Monastery of the Syrians was added in the sixth century. Raids in 407, 434 and 444, and again towards the end of the sixth century, destroyed buildings and dispersed the monks for a time. After further destruction about 817 the monks fortified the walls round their monasteries, their numbers fell sharply after 1346, with the Black Death of 1348 and 1349 among the causes, and the encyclopedia records rapid expansion at Saint Macarius since 1969.

The valley also supplied the church's leaders. From Patriarch Khail I to Shenute I, the encyclopedia says, the Monastery of Saint Macarius monopolised the supply of prelates, and by a medieval custom the patriarch spent Lent, or at least the week before Easter, there, often consecrating the chrism surrounded by bishops. Six patriarchs came from the Monastery of the Romans, among them Cyril VI, and Pope Shenouda III was a monk of the Syrians.

The four monasteries

Saint Macarius (Dayr Anba Maqar) was founded about 360, when Macarius moved south to escape the crowding of hermits. Twelve monks from Wadi al-Rayyan arrived on 12 May 1969 and rebuilt it; by 1991 the entry put its community at more than seventy monks, with a printing press, a hospital and a library.

Saint Bishoy (Dayr Anba Bishoi) grew from anchorites gathered round the desert father Bishoy before 390. The present monastery was founded between 535 and 580, and the saint's body was brought there from Antinoë under Patriarch Yusab I (830 to 849). The 2023 entry on Bishoy records that from the 1980s Pope Shenouda III made his patriarchal residence beside it.

The Syrians (Dayr al-Suryan) was established in the sixth century for monks from the neighbouring Monastery of Saint Bishoy, and later passed to Syrian monks: the 1991 entry puts its sale and conversion perhaps around 710, while the 2016 update places the Syrians' arrival around or shortly after 800, with an inscription of Patriarch Cyriacus (793 to 817) as possibly the first evidence of their presence. Its abbot Moses of Nisibis brought back a collection of manuscripts from Mesopotamia and northern Syria in 931 and 932; the library later supplied Syriac manuscripts to the British Library, the Vatican Library and the National Library in Paris. Wall paintings of the seventh to thirteenth centuries have been uncovered in its Church of the Virgin since 1991, when a fire damaged plaster and revealed an Annunciation; tests under the eighteenth-century plaster began in 1995, and an eighth-century Epiphany came to light in 2006.

The Romans (Dayr al-Baramus) takes its name from the Coptic paromeos, the one of the Romans. Its Church of the Virgin, whose origins the encyclopedia places presumably in the seventh century, is taken to be the oldest surviving church in the valley.

The papal residence and the synod

The patriarch's seat is at Saint Mark's Cathedral in Abbassia, Cairo. Pope Shenouda III was confined to the Monastery of Saint Bishoy from September 1981 to January 1985 by a decision of the Egyptian president, and continued his duties from there. He died on 17 March 2012 and was buried at the monastery on 20 March 2012, in accordance with his wishes.

The Holy Synod meets in the LOGOS Center of the papal residence at the monastery. The Patriarchate's report of the 2024 general session, with 110 of 133 members present, gives that as the venue, and its report of 22 May 2026 records the 2026 annual session there, with 119 of 138 members present, under Pope Tawadros II.

1. 330

   Macarius the Egyptian settles in the valley.

2. 407

   The first of the recorded raids on the monasteries.

3. 12 May 1969

   Twelve monks arrive at Saint Macarius and begin its rebuilding.

4. September 1981

   Pope Shenouda III is confined to the Monastery of Saint Bishoy, until January 1985.

5. 20 March 2012

   Pope Shenouda III is buried at the Monastery of Saint Bishoy.

6. 7 March 2024

   The Holy Synod's general session meets in the LOGOS Center of the papal residence.