The Alexandrian tradition grew from the Church of Alexandria, whose foundation Christian antiquity attributes to the preaching of Saint Mark. Egypt gave the Church her first monks, her great catechetical school, and the theology of Saint Athanasius and Saint Cyril, and the liturgy of Alexandria carried that inheritance south into the Ethiopian highlands, where it took root in the Ge'ez language. The Catholic Churches of this family — Coptic, Ethiopian and Eritrean — hold the tradition in full communion with the Bishop of Rome.

The Alexandrian family celebrates the Divine Liturgy chiefly according to the anaphoras of Saint Basil, Saint Gregory and Saint Mark (called of Saint Cyril), in Coptic, Arabic and Ge'ez. Its worship is marked by long litanies, the singing of the people, the rhythm of cymbals and drums in the Ethiopic usage, and a monastic austerity of fasting inherited from the deserts of Egypt.

The liturgical family of Egypt and the Horn of Africa, celebrated by the Coptic, Ethiopian and Eritrean Catholic Churches.

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Egypt, Ethiopia and Eritrea, with communities throughout the diaspora

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Roughly four hundred thousand Catholics in the Coptic, Ethiopian and Eritrean Catholic Churches