Coptic Orthodox Church in Africa

The jurisdiction of the Church of Alexandria extended, as per Canon law of the First and Second Ecumenical Councils, to the Province of Egypt, Nubia and Pentapolis.

The historical evangelization of the Apostolic Throne of Alexandria in Africa, apart from Egypt, Pentapolis, Libya, Nubia and the Sudan, does extend to: Ethiopia constituted a major archdiocese of the Church of Alexandria, which was always governed by an Egyptian Patriarchal Vicar in the rank of Archbishop since the 4th century, and named Abuna Salama by the Ethiopian Church.

The first Prelate, Abuna Basilius I (1959-1971), Patriarch-Catholicos of Addis Ababa and all Ethiopia, was ordained and enthroned in 1959, by Pope Cyril VI of Alexandria.

This country, which had both Egyptian expatriates and native adherents, is divided into two eparchies and whose prelates are: The number of Coptic Sudanese is estimated around 200,000.

Christianity spread to the Pentapolis of North Africa from Egypt;[2] Synesius of Cyrene (370-414), bishop of Ptolemais, received his instruction at Alexandria in both the Catechetical School and the Museion, and he entertained a great deal of reverence and affection for Hypatia, the last pagan Neoplatonists, whose classes he had attended.

[3] The Coptic congregations in these countries were under the ancient Eparchy of the Western Pentapolis, which was part of the Coptic Orthodox Church for centuries until the thirteenth century[4] In 1971 Pope Shenouda III reinstated it as part of the Eparchy of Pachomius, Metropolitan of the Holy Metropolis of Beheira (Thmuis and Hermopolis Parva), (Buto), Mariout (Mareotis), Marsa Matruh (Paraetonium), (Apis), Patriarchal Exarch of the Ancient Metropolis of Libya: (Livis, Marmarica, Darnis and Tripolitania) and Titular Metropolitan Archbishop of the Great and Ancient Metropolis of Pentapolis: (Cyrenaica), (Appollonia), (Ptolemais), (Berenice) and (Arsinoe).