Pope John VI of Alexandria

Pope John VI of Alexandria was the 74th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark.

Pope John VI of Alexandria
Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark
Church	Coptic Orthodox Church
Papacy began	1189
Papacy ended	1216
Predecessor	Mark III
Successor	Cyril III
Personal details
Born	Egypt
Died	1216 Egypt
Buried	Church of the Holy Virgin (Babylon El-Darag)
Nationality	Egyptian
Denomination	Coptic Orthodox Christian
Residence	The Hanging Church

His name was John Abu al-Majd ibn Abu Ghaleb ibn Sawiris (يوحنا أبو المجد بن أبو غالب بن سويرس). He was layman. It was said that he was a widower, and after his wife's death he chose to remain celibate. He kept the church headquarters in the Hanging Church in Old Cairo (الكنيسة المعلقة). He proscribed a canon that a church could not accept a priest unknown to them without having a consent statement from his bishop. He was buried in the Church of the Darag (كنيسة الدرج) under the tomb of Pope Zakharias, the 64th Coptic Patriarch (1004–1032 AD).

In 1210, his envoys reached the city of Lalibela in Ethiopia, where they met Emperor Gebre Mesqel Lalibela.^[1]

He was the last Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria to consecrate a bishop for Western Pentapolis, as the people converted to Islam under the rule of the Arabs.