(CE:1117a)
FISHAH, earlier name of the Egyptian town now known as Fishah Balkhah, which is located in the province of Beheirah in the district of al-Mahmudiyyah in the northwest Delta.
The SYNAXARION states in its commemoration of Apa PIDJIMI (11 Kiyahk) that this monk hailed from Fshah. After Pidjimi had lived in Scetis for more than twenty years, an angel appeared to him, promised that a memorial church would be constructed for him in Fishah, and commanded him to return to his hometown, which the monk then did. This account places the origins of Christianity in Fishah at least as early as the end of the fourth or the beginning of the fifth century (for the dates of Pidjimi, see Evelyn-White, 1926, pp. 157-62).
RANDALL STEWART
