His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of Saint Mark See, congratulated the people on the occasion of the Coptic New Year that begins on Friday 1 Tut, in the year 1737 for the martyrs.
His Holiness said during the weekly Wednesday sermon in the Church of the Virgin and Saint Bishoy at St. Mark s Cathedral in Abbassia that the martyrs calendar in the Egyptian Orthodox Church is an extension of the agricultural year and the ancient Egyptian year, which existed since the time of the Pharaohs. He added that the calendar began in the year 284 AD, and the Copts chose this date because it witnessed the reign of Emperor Diocletian whose time was one of the worst times in the persecution of Christians.
