Lettere festali su papiro

Every year the Patriarch of Alexandria wrote a festal letter to be delivered in all Egypt and Libya by the copies made in the patriarchate bureau. Each copy was read aloud in the community which was sent to, bishopric or monastery, in order to let the people know the dates of Easter and feasts related to it. In many instances the thoughts and the teaching of the Patriarch were added to the text. Among Greek papyri from Egypt are found some fragments of the original festal letters and some other copies, which were written also in Coptic: they shed light on the production and the circulation of this particular kind of document.