dayr anba pisentius. In 1926 W. E. crum left unanswered the question of the location of the monastery of Tsenti (al-Qassas in Arabic), where pisentius, bishop of Qift at the beginning of the seventh century, habitually lived and where it seems he died.
‘abd al-masih salib al-masu‘DI al-Baramusi (1932, p.
184), however, mentions "in the mountain of al-Asas which extends to the west of Naqadah, the dayr of St. Anba Bisantawus, bishop of Qift, to the south of Dayr Mar Jirjis, also called Dayr al-Majma‘." He specified that formerly only the tomb of the saint was there, but that "around the year 1904 the dayr was built, that is to say a church and round it a wall enclosing about two feddans."
The map of the Survey of Egypt (1943, 1954) marks at the edge of the desert to the west of the village of al-Bahri Qamulah, the Dayr Anba Pisentius, about 430 yards (400 meters) south of dayr al-majma‘, still called Dayr Mar Jirjis.
It seems then that the Dayr al-Majma‘ is indeed the monastery of Tsenti, of which the life of Pisentius speaks and near which Pisentius himself was buried. abu salih the armenian (1895, pp. 233-34) speaks of a monastery of Saint Pisentius, to the west of Qus (no doubt the Dayr al-Majma‘), outside of which was the tomb of the saint.
This monastery and tomb are not mentioned by O. Meinardus.