And nevertheless here, as in imperial Rome, there brooded the ferment of a passionate mysticism.

Moreover, this Egyptian people, more than any other, was haunted by the terror of death, as is proved by the folly of its embalmments.

With what avidity therefore must it have received the Word of fraternal love and immediate resurrection?
In any case Christianity was so firmly implanted in this Egypt that centuries of persecution did not succeed in destroying it.

As one goes up the Nile, many little human settlements are to be seen, little groups of houses of dried mud, where the whitened dome of the modest house of prayer is surmounted by a cross and not a crescent.

They are the villages of those Copts, those Egyptians, who have preserved the Christian faith from father to son since the nebulous times of the first martyrs.
***** The simple Church of St.Sergius is a relic hidden away and almost buried in the midst of a labyrinth of ruins.