(CE:833b-834a)
DAYR MAR MINA (Hiw/Nag Hammadi), monastery-village just south of the town of Hiw on the Left Bank of the Nile, at the edge of the desert but still in the cultivated area. It is today inhabited by secular priests and their families. It appears that it was already in existence in the fifteenth century, for we are informed of its church by al-MAQRIZI (d. 1441).
In 1668 this monastery was mentioned by the Capuchins Protais and François (see Sauneron, 1973, p. 95). This church is also cited as being in the district of Nag Hammadi by S. Clarke (1912, p. 216, no. 1). Meinardus gives a good description of it (1965, pp. 302-3; 1977, pp. 415-16); the earliest date he noticed was 1729, carved in the enclosure of the sanctuary.
RENÉ-GEORGES COQUIN
MAURICE MARTIN, S.J.
