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The Golden Treasury

More old gold found in another patristic-era Egyptian monastery. From Al Ahram:

An archaeological mission from the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology of Warsaw University excavating in a monastic building at Deir Al-Malah Monastery at Naqlun in Fayoum recently unearthed a decorated clay cup of Aswan production full of coins. The hoard consists of 18 gold coins and 62 fragments of coins, all of them provisionally dated to the Abbasid period.

Under the charred remains of a collapsed wall, archaeologists also uncovered a chandelier and a well-preserved oil lamp, both made of bronze.

“The whole treasure was found inside a room that seems to have been hastily abandoned during a fire,” said Woldzimierz Godlewski, head of the Polish mission. He added that the monastic complex of Naqlun was built in the early sixth century AD, while the area excavated this season dated to the seventh century and was destroyed by a massive fire in the eighth or at the beginning of the ninth century AD.

2 thoughts on “The Golden Treasury

  1. Your post Heartland Patristics inspired me to write a note for my FB page and share some passages with my friends. Thanks!

    The True Shape of the Universe
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    Today at 2:10pm | Edit Note | Delete
    There are no Coincidences
    Everything has Significance.

    Every so often something happens or someone says something that illuminates for us the true shape of the universe. Our daily lives—or the way we live them—render that shape obscure. But little moments of illumination serve to remind us of this seeming paradox: the world is not mundane.

    I stumbled upon two wonderful vignettes from the website of lovely Patristics scholar Mike Aquilina and they touched me in the way that such things usually touch me:

    I had spent much of the previous week trying to track down a copy of an extremely rare book, Kilian Healy’s The Assumption of Mary. (Go ahead, try and find one.) No luck whatsoever. The booksellers all say they have long waiting lists for that title.
    So at Divine Treasures Sue is telling me how she and Lois just bought out the stock of another Catholic bookstore, and some of the books were pretty old. She pulls out one with a clearance tag — and guess what it is.
    That’s right: Kilian Healy’s The Assumption of Mary. My eyes popped, and my jaw dropped. I thought to myself: “Oh, she’s just doing this because of my conversations last week.” Then I came to my senses: “Wait a minute … This woman didn’t know me last week!” My angel was winking at me.
    Sue gave me the book. Life is so good.
    Then this wonderful guy walks into the store — Iowan through and through, blue jeans and flannel shirt. He comes over to my book table and introduces himself. Turns out he’s a Des Moines priest running errands and getting car repairs on his day off. He bought several of my titles as gifts, so I instantly recognized him as a man of great wisdom, discernment, and sanctity. He told me about his ministry, covering several parishes and including several ethnic communities. He was so joyful and matter-of-fact about labor that seemed to me Herculean, if not outright Basilian.
    As he was leaving with the books he’d bought, I said wryly: “Thanks for feeding my children.”
    And he said, perfectly straight: “Thanks for feeding mine.” And, man, I got all choked up.
    Remember to pray for Father Glen.

    http://www.fathersofthechurch.com/2010/01/09/heartland-patristics/

    Trivial? Small? Maybe. But the Apostle tells us:

    “[God] chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.”

    1 Corinthians 1: 28-29.

    And the Prophet of Carmel searched the mighty things but found his Lord elsewhere:

    And [the Lord] said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord.
    And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord;
    but the Lord was not in the wind:
    and after the wind and earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake:
    And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire:
    and after the fire
    a still small voice.

    3 Kings 19: 11-12.

  2. […] More about gold, this time of the archeological variety. It reminds me of why I think, in the long run, gold will out: An archaeological mission from the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology of Warsaw University e…. […]

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