Assembly of the Holy Council on the island of Bani-Omar .

On this day a Holy Council convened on the island of Bani-Omar against those people calledthe Fourteenthians . The Fourteenthians celebrated the feast of the Holy Easter with the Jews onthe fourteenth of the crescent of Neesan (April) which was on any day of the week . The Bishop ofthe island excommunicated them, and sent to Serapion Patriarch of Antioch, Democratus Bishopof Rome, Demetrius Patriarch of Alexandria, and Symmachus Bishop of Jerusalem to inform themof the heresy of these people . Each one of them sent an epistle indicating in it that Easter was onlyto be celebrated on the Sunday that follows the feast of the Jews and ordered to excommunicateeveryone that contradict and disobey that .A council of eighteen bishops convened and these holy epistles were read to them . They broughtthose heretics and read before them these epistles, some of them returned from their wrongopinion and the others insisted on their error . They prevented and excommunicated them from theHoly Church . Also, they decided to celebrate Easter as the order of the Holy Apostles saying:"Any one that celebrate Easter on any other day than Sunday, had shared the Jews in their feastsand separated from the Christians ."The dispute on the feast of the Christian Passover (Easter) started between Asia Minor and Rome .Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, publicly announced the need of keeping the 14th of Neesan tocommemorate the Crucifixion and the 16th of Neesan to commemorate the Resurrection (Thesewere the original dates that the Crucifixion and Resurrection fall on regardless what day of theweek they fell on) and the Christians of Mesopotamia, Cilicia, and Syria followed his opinion .Victor, Bishop of Rome, publicly announced the importance of putting into consideration that theCrucifixion be on a Friday and the Resurrection be on a Sunday, (since Friday is the day of theCrucifixion and Sunday is the day of the Resurrection) . The Christians of Egypt, Greece, Pontusand Arabia agreed with him in that . The dispute between the two bishops intensified, neverthelesstheir friendship remained unchanged .Alexandria intervened in this subject, and its Patriarch Anba Demetrius the vine dresser (El-Karram), tried to mediate between these two opinions (By making the commemoration of theCrucifixion on Friday and the Resurrection on Sunday), and to be linked to the day 14th ofNeesan (The Jewish Passover) .Pope Demetrius gathered the Alexandrian astronomers, among them was Ptolemy the astronomerwhich was from Farma, and with their help the Patriarch established the reckoning of the Epacts,which is known by the reckoning of El-Karmah . The reckoning of the Epacts was able todetermine the day of the Jewish Passover (The slaughter of the Lamb) in any Egyptian Copticyear, and fix the Sunday after to be the Feast of Resurrection . This way he fulfilled what theApostles commend that the Jewish Passover and the christian one not to be on the same day .245The first Universal council that convened in Nicea, 325 A .D . approved that view and asked theAlexandrian Pope to issue a message on the feast and its date every year .May the Lord Guard us against the enticement of Satan, with the blessing of the prayers of thesaints . Amen .