monastery
Monastery of St Paul the Hermit
Dayr Anba Bula, Red Sea mountains, Egypt · Africa: Coptic Egypt
28.847, 32.551
Tradition. The monastery is attested from late antiquity. Paul is known almost only from Jerome's literary Life, and many scholars doubt he existed.
This desert monastery marks the cave of Paul of Thebes, whom Jerome's Life of Paul calls the first Christian hermit and says Anthony visited before Paul died. The monastery is old and still active. Whether Paul was a real person has long been debated.
Source stance: insider. Jerome's hagiography.
People and groups named here
- Paul of Thebes
- Anthony the Great
- Jerome (biographer)
Sources
- Dayr Anba Bula (Claremont Coptic Encyclopedia)
Claremont Coptic Encyclopedia; The Coptic Encyclopedia (Macmillan 1991), Claremont Colleges Digital Library. Accessed 2026-11-11.
- Jerome, Life of Paulus the First Hermit
tr. W. H. Fremantle, NPNF2 vol. 6 (1893), public domain; New Advent. Accessed 2026-11-11.
- Pleiades place 746800: *Qubba
Pleiades Gazetteer (ISAW, NYU). Accessed 2026-11-11.
Further reading
Councils here
None in this list.