The Foundation was founded in 1998 by Dr. Fawzy Estafanous and Dr. Gawdat Gabra, and later called “St. Mark for Documenting Heritage.” It was sponsored and supervised by the thrice-blessed Pope Shenouda III, and continues to be under the care and leadership of H.H. Pope Tawadros II. The Foundation aims to study, collect, publish, and document the Coptic heritage, as well as to provide aid to researchers of Coptic studies in the fields of archeology, history, language, architecture, and art history.
Throughout the Foundation’s journey in more than twenty years, it contributed many local and global publications, including writing, republishing, and translating about 25 books in both Arabic and English.
The Foundation held thirteen academic conferences, nine of which were international-based and three local-based, including the “International Coptic Conference” in 2008. All these conferences’ proceedings were published.
The Foundation also held a number of specialized workshops concerning the daily life and women in the Coptic era, the history of the patriarchs, and rites sources, in addition to the history of Coptic art.
Moreover, the Foundation have collected 16 CDs containing about 40% of the Coptic manuscripts found abroad, and those were presented to the Library of Alexandria as a symbolic gift by the thrice-blessed Pope Shenouda III on his first historical visit to it in February 23, 2003.