The Church of Alexandria stands among the most ancient and influential centers of Eastern Christianity. According to early Christian tradition, the Church was founded by St. John Mark the Evangelist in the first century AD, establishing an apostolic heritage that became central to the identity of the Coptic Church.

Alexandria, renowned for its great library, philosophical schools, and diverse Jewish and Greek communities, became a meeting place between biblical faith and Hellenistic intellectual traditions. The Catechetical School of Alexandria, associated with great Christian teachers such as Clement and Origen, helped shape early Christian theology and biblical interpretation. Alexandria also became the birthplace of organized Christian monasticism in Egypt, through figures such as St. Anthony the Great and St. Pachomius.

Its greatest theological leaders included St. Athanasius and St. Cyril of Alexandria, who defended foundational teachings concerning the divinity of Christ and the Incarnation. Following the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, the Alexandrian Church experienced a lasting division between Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian communities.

Through centuries of persecution, martyrdom, scholarship, and spiritual devotion, the Coptic Orthodox Church preserved its distinctive Egyptian Christian heritage, becoming one of the most enduring witnesses to the faith of the early Eastern Church.