Daniel, Abbot of Scetis

DANIELE. - Abbot in Scetis, who lived in the 6th century and died after Justinian (565). In the texts that survive about the life of D. it is difficult to distinguish historical facts from legendary ones. The following could seem historical. While still young he became a monk in Scetis (Wadi el-Natrun). He was made a slave by nomads, but afterwards was able to return to Scetis. Having acquired great fame, he left Scetis and took up his dwelling in the Delta near the village of Zambok (cf. E. Amélineau, La géographie d'Égypte à l'époque copte, Paris 1893, p. 476), where he built a small monastery; there he died and was buried. He is much venerated by the Copts and the Abyssinians (Arabic Synaxarium, 8th of the month of Bashans, and Ethiopian Synaxarium, 8th of the month of Gënböt).

The texts that have come down to us about the life of D. are the following: the Greek text, the original, edited by L. Clugnet, Vie et récits de l'abbé Daniel (in Revue de l'Orient chrétien, 5 [1900], pp. 50, 254-370); the Syriac text edited by F. Nau (ibid., p. 391); the Coptic one by I. Guidi (ibid., p. 553 and 6 [1901], p. 51); the Arabic one, still unpublished (cf. G. Graf, Geschichte der christlichen arabischen Literatur, Vatican City 1944, p. 403); the Ethiopian one edited by L. Goldschmit and E. Pereira (Vita do Abba Daniel, Lisbon 1897) and corrected by I. Guidi, Vie de l'abbé Daniel (in Revue de l'Orient chrétien, 6 [1901], p. 54).

Saverio Pericoli Ridolfini