Tradition · 451

Coptic Orthodox

The ancient church of Egypt, led by the Pope of Alexandria, and the largest of the Oriental Orthodox churches.

It traces its founding to the evangelist Mark and counts Athanasius and Cyril of Alexandria among its patriarchs. After the Council of Chalcedon (451) deposed Patriarch Dioscorus, most Egyptian Christians rejected the council, and a separate Chalcedonian line of patriarchs developed. It holds Miaphysitism. Egypt was also the home of early Christian monasticism.