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antonia@sac.edu.au

M. Dr Antonia St Demiana

Sessional Lecturer in Ancient Languages (Coptic)

BA, BEd, MA, PhD

Biography

Mother Antonia is a Coptic nun at Archangel Michael Monastery for Nuns in Melbourne. She graduated with a Master of Arts in Coptic Studies from Macquarie University and subsequently a PhD also from Macquarie. Her doctoral thesis presented a study and critical edition of the Sahidic Coptic witnesses of the book of Leviticus. A passionate Coptic philologist, Mother Antonia has won a number of awards and prizes from Macquarie University for her academic excellence in Coptic language and its various dialects. She is a project partner of Göttingen’s “Digital Edition and Translation of the Sahidic Coptic Old Testament” Project, and also a project team member of the St Paul’s Monastery Manuscript Project, translating Coptic texts. Mother Antonia is a Research Fellow at SAC and is also accredited to deliver units in Ancient Languages (Coptic).

Education

  • BA – Swinburne University of Technology
  • BEd – Australian Catholic University
  • MA – Macquarie University
  • PhD – Macquarie University

Recent Research Outputs

Books

(2023, forthcoming), Sahidic Coptic Leviticus: Its Manuscript Witnesses and Its Text, Texts and Studies in Eastern Christianity (Leiden: Brill).

Selected peer-reviewed journal articles/book chapters

(2019) “Letter from Zacchaeus’ Son to Philippos” in: Anne Boud’hors, Alain Delattre, Tonio Sebastian Richter, Gesa Schenke & Georg Schmelz (eds): Coptica Palatina. Koptische Texte aus der Heidelberger Papyrussammlung (P.Heid.Kopt.), (Heidelberg), 93-95.

(2018) with Ute Pietruschka und Ina Hegenbarth-Reichardt unter mitwirkung Von Jürgen Horn, Veronika Six, Koptische Handschriften Teil 6 Die Handschriften der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz Bohairische und bohairisch-arabische Handschriften, Behlmer, H. ed., (Stuttgart).

(2016) with V. Ghica, “His Toil Was Not in Vain: Two Unpublished Coptic Fragments of the Encomium on Athanasius Attributed to Cyril of Alexandria (Ifao Inv. 79-80)” in: Buzi P., Camplani A., Contardi F., Coptic Society, Literature and Religion from Late Antiquity to Modern Times, Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta, 247 (Peeters), vol 2, p. 953-968.

(2013) “In Michaelem: The Encomium on Michael the Archangel Attributed to Severus of Antioch: An Edition of the Coptic Text of P.IFAO Copte Inv. 133-136, 157-158”, Bulletin de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale (BIFAO) 113, p. 381-431.