ABSTRACT

Two Coptic letters from the Papyrus Collection of Heidelberg demonstrate the impact of regular exchange of letters even with long distant partners for the ecclesiastical milieu of the 6th/7th century C.E. The two texts show that there were not always specific matters the letters dealed with but the letters repeated classical topoi which can be found elsewhere in Coptic letter literature. So the warm compassion and the interest for the health, the gratitude for the received letters and the request for mutual prayers and blessings show that the letters want to confirm personal relations. The first of the two letters belongs to the monastic communities shaped by Shenute, the second one, so more fragmentary, addresses a person of higher spiritual respect, i.e. a bishop.