MA, PhD
Fr Dr Markos el Makari attained two PhDs from the Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium) and Sapienza Università di Roma (2011), in the field of Oriental Christianity.
Prior to his monastic consecration at the Monastery of St. Macarius the Great in Wadi al-Natrun in Egypt, he taught in Italy at the University of Turin, the University of Sassari, and the University of Campobasso. Since 2012, he has been a Scientific Collaborator with the Institute of Civilizations, Arts and Letters for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Louvain, Belgium. From 2020–2022, he was the main cataloguer of the Coptic and Arabic manuscript collection in the Coptic Papal Library in Egypt. Currently he is one of the curators of the manuscript library at the Monastery of St Macarius, and an editor-in-chief of St Macarius Press.
His research interests include Christian-Arabic Literature, Coptic and Arabic Philology, and Ascetical Literature. He is currently preparing a translation of the Coptic-Arabic collection of the Apophthegmata Patrum from unpublished manuscripts, and an edition of the Coptic Bohairic Psalter. He is also undertaking a project to translate seventeen Greek logoi of Macarius into Italian.
Books
(2023) Anba Epiphanius and the Spirit of Saint Macarius. St Macarius Press, Wadi al-Natrun.
(2019) Agpia – Liturgia delle ore della Chiesa Copta Ortodossa: Traduzione dal copto bohairico. San Macario Edizioni, Wadi al-Natrun.
(2017) Matta el Meskin: un padre del deserto contemporaneo. Magnano, Qiqajon.
Selected peer-reviewed journal articles/book chapters
(2025, forthcoming) «Les apophthegmes dans la vie des pères du désert d’aujourd’hui», Irenikon 1/2025.
(2025, forthcoming) “The Apothegms in the Daily Life of Today’s Desert Fathers”, Cistercian Studies Quarterly, 59.2, pp. 233-254.
(2024) إرهاصات أولية تبيِّن الفرادة الأدبية لـ”بستان الرهبان” ودور أنبا إبيفانيوس في إبراز قيمته العلمية
[Preliminary Remarks On the Literary Uniqueness of “Bustān al-Ruhbān” and the Role of Anba Epiphanius in Highlighting its Scientific Value] Alexandria School Journal 36 (April, 2024), pp. 175-218.
(2020) “Anba Epiphanius (1954-2008): vescovo e abate del Monastero di San Macario il Grande nel Deserto di Scete”, Laurentianum 61, Collegium Internationale San Laurenti a Brindisi, Roma 2020, pp. 267-313.