The answer
Praying the Agpeya prayers is a teaching received from the apostolic and patristic fathers. History tells us that during the time of Abba Pachomious, the fathers of the church met together to establish a daily worshipping system for all believers to pass on to the following generations. While they were trying to come to an agreement regarding the number of Psalms they should pray every hour of the seven prayer hours, an angel appeared among them as they were about to start the eleventh hour prayers, and started to praise God with Psalms. They listened attentively and behold he stopped after the twelfth Psalm and disappeared. They took this as a divine revelation that we should pray twelve Psalms every hour of the seven hours.Answered by His Eminence Metropolitan Youssef (opens in a new tab)