(CE:685b-686a)
DALAS, town in middle Egypt located some 8 miles (13 km) north of Bani Suef. Dalas was home to a bishop at least as early as the Decian persecutions of 250 when Chaeremon, bishop of Neilopolis/Dalas, fled for safety from his bishopric and was never heard from again (Eusebius Ecclesiastical History 6.42.3).
Monasticism also had an early beginning in Dalas. The "mountain of Tilodj [Dalas]" was the home of Saint ANTONY for a time and monks from TABENNESE came to the monastery of Tilodj/Dalas to learn about Antony after the death of PACHOMIUS (Lefort, 1952, pp. 174, 177).
Though we have no certain attestation of a bishop in Dalas in the Arabic period, the fact that the town is mentioned in medieval Copto-Arabic scales and lists of Egyptian bishops is an indication that it was still a bishopric in the Middle Ages (see Munier, 1943, p.64).
RANDALL STEWART
