Pope shenouda iii biography examples

Pope Shenouda III. A distinguished and prominent religious leader, a profound theologian, a gifted preacher, a talented author, a spiritual father, a man of God his entire life. By the age of 16, H. When H. On July 18,H. Anthony the Great. As a monk, and later a monk priest, H. Antonious El-Syriani. Wishing to live in complete solitude and devotion to our Lord, he became a hermit and lived in a cave that he had carved out himself for a period of six years.

He was known as His Grace Bishop Shenouda. Through his leadership of the seminary, the number of students tripled. Since that blessed day, the Coptic Orthodox Church has witnessed a remarkable revival through the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the pastoral care of H. Mark in Cairo. H has been the editor-in-chief of El-Keraza Magazinethe official publication of the Coptic Orthodox Church, since He became the first patriarch of Alexandria since the Fifth Century to have been Dean of the Theological Seminary and continues to lecture at the branches of the Seminary in Cairo, Alexandria, and abroad and the Higher Institute of Coptic Studies.

His Holiness is the author of books on a variety of subjects, over half of which have been translated into English, French, German, Italian, and other languages. He has ordained more than eighty Metropolitans and Bishops and over priests since He gives special attention to the youth of the church. Despite his many responsibilities, H. His love of monasticism has led a monastic revival in the Coptic Orthodox Church.

However, during his presidency, violent Islamic fundamentalist groups increased all over Egypt, especially in the Universities. They started to attack the Copts, vandalize their businesses, and burn their churches, which led Pope Shenouda to protest to the government against this repeated violence. Sadat reacted by issuing a presidential decree to exile His Holiness to the Monastery of St.

A month after his decree, Sadat was assassinated by the same fundamentalist groups. Accompanied by many bishops, His Holiness returned to St. In spite of the many responsibilities of his Holiness, he always tries to spend three days a week at the monastery, and his love for monastic life led to its revival in the Coptic Church, where hundreds of monks and nuns were ordained.

He was the first patriarch to establish several Coptic monasteries outside the Arab Republic of Egypt and restored many of the monasteries that was destroyed. Botros Gayed, — Roufail's mother died shortly after his birth. He was raised by his older brother, Raphael, in Damanhur in lower Egypt, where he attended a Coptic Elementary School. Soon after, he studied at the American Middle School in Banha.

From the age of 14, Roufail began reading poetry and he wrote many poems himself, especially between and By the age of 16, he was active in the Coptic Sunday School movement. While a university student, he was a trainee in the Egyptian Military Reserve Corps. Inwhile still in his final year of undergraduate studies, he was allowed to enroll in the evening classes at the Coptic Theological Seminary.

The seminary was usually open only to university graduates, but the dean of the Seminary, Archdeacon Habib Girgismade an exception in the case of Roufail. The personality of Habib Girgis was instrumental in shaping that of the future pope, and Pope Shenouda always spoke highly of Habib Girgis. After graduation, he completed his military service, and began work as a teacher of English, history, and social sciences in a high school in Cairo.

Meanwhile, he attended graduate courses in archaeology and classics at Cairo University, specializing in the History of Ancient Egypt and Islamic Egypt. He worked as a high school teacher by day, and attended classes at the Coptic Theological Seminary by night. Upon graduation from the seminary inhe was appointed to teach New Testament and Old Testament Studies at the Seminary.

In the same year, he became the editor-in-chief of the Sunday School Monthly Magazine. InRoufail resigned from secular employment to take up a full-time lecturing position at the seminary. In he was elected member of the Egyptian Journal Syndicate. Inhe was appointed a lecturer at the Monastic College in Helwan, offering courses in theology there.

In the same year, he began his dialogue with Jehovah's Witnesseswriting articles about their beliefs in the Sunday School Magazine. Nazir with others laboured for several years to establish a strong Sunday school and youth group at St Anthony's Church in Shubra. His ministry produced many devoted servants, who began establishing youth groups in neighbouring parishes.

An avid reader, he was a keen student of languages. He could read Greek ancient and modern and Latin as pope shenouda iii biography examples. From tohe lived as a hermit in a cave about seven miles from the monasterydedicating his time to meditation, prayer, and asceticism. His austerity was known to be exceptional even by monastic standards.

On 31 Augusthe was ordained as a priest by Bishop Theophilus, then abbot of the Syrian Monastery. Cyril VI also renamed him Shenouda, in honour of Saint Shenouda the Archimandritea famous scholar and writer of the Coptic language. These campaigns, among other things, called for the popular election of bishops and priests, a principle that Bishop Shenouda later applied when he became Pope of Alexandria.

In Mayhe penned a statement on the Nature of Christ that was agreed upon with the Roman Catholic Church in a step towards settling the Christological dispute and moving towards Christian unity. From 25 to 30 Septemberhe went on a pope shenouda iii biography examples trip to visit the Ethiopian Church during the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia.

It was to become the first of many visits to that part of the world during his long Papacy. He also visited Australia six times: in,and From 11 to 13 Aprilhe made a second historical trip to Ethiopia following the resolution of the strain in the relationship between the two churches caused by the communist coup in Ethiopia decades earlier.

The relationship between the two men deteriorated for several reasons. Sadat was seen by Pope Shenouda as becoming increasingly dictatorial following his acclaim in the international arena for the peace accord with Israel. In September Sadat rescinded the presidential decree of recognizing Pope Shenouda as Pope of Alexandria, and Pope Shenouda was banished by Sadat to the ancient desert monastery of St.

From the Arabic national point we should not abandon our Palestinian brothers and our Arabic brothers by normalising our relations with the Jews From the church point of view, Copts who go to Jerusalem betray their church in the case of "Al-Sultan Monastery" that Israel refuses to give to the Copts. He also warned that Copts who visited Jerusalem would face excommunication on the premise that there was "no pilgrimage duty in Christianity and it is not a religious pillar, so since this visit can do harm to our national cause and [to the] Muslim and Christian people then we better not visit Jerusalem.

Inthe Holy Synod renewed the decree, urging Copts not to visit the Christian holy places in Israelincluding Jerusalem.

Pope shenouda iii biography examples

In the light of the September 11 attackshe said of suicide bombing as a tactic that: [ 13 ]. People who support and found reasons to feel good over these incidents are doing more than one wrong thing: first, ignoring the tragedy of killing an innocent group of people. Second, not thinking about the reaction of showing they found satisfaction in the incidents.

Third, they are considered accomplices in the crime. Fourth, they are committing a wrongful act not approved by religion. Persecution against Christians during Pope Shenouda III's reign was chiefly conducted by private individuals and organizations, especially radical Salafisalthough the state continued to enforce long-standing discriminatory policies and engage in occasional Christian-baiting.

The police have been accused of siding with the attackers in some of these cases. Hundreds of Coptic Christian girls have been kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam, as well as being victims of rape and forced marriage to Muslim men. Christian properties were also burned. Pope Shenouda III rejected the verdict openly, and told reporters, "We want to challenge this ruling.

We don't accept it. In Aprilone person was killed and twelve injured in simultaneous knife attacks on three Coptic churches in Alexandria. In Novemberseveral thousand Muslims attacked a Coptic church in a suburb of Cairo on the day of its inauguration, forcing Coptic Christians to barricade themselves in. In Apriltwo Christian men were shot dead and another was injured by Muslim men after an Easter vigil in the south of Egypt.

On 18 Septembera Muslim man named Osama Araban beheaded a Coptic Christian man in the pope shenouda iii biography examples of Bagour and injured 2 others in 2 different villages. He was arrested the following day. On the eve of 7 Januaryas worshippers were leaving the Mar-Yuhanna St. John church in Nag Hammadi after Eastern Christmas Mass which finishes around midnightthree Muslim men in a car opened fire, killing 8 Christians and injuring another On New Year's Dayjust 20 minutes after midnight as Christians were leaving a Coptic Orthodox Church in the city of Alexandria after a New Year's Eve service a car bomb exploded in front of the church killing more than 23 and injuring more than The attacks resulted in the deaths of 12 people and more than wounded.

It is reported that the events were triggered by a mixed marriage between a Christian woman and a Muslim man. Successive Egyptian governments have long held in place laws that hampered the freedom of Christian worship and restricted the right to build or even renovate churches. They maintained and enforced Ottoman-era Hamayouni Decree restrictions on building or repairing churches.

These governments also restricted Christians from senior government, diplomatic, military, and educational positions, and there has been increasing discrimination in the private sector. Security agencies sporadically persecuted Muslim converts to Christianity. While there were only four Coptic Orthodox churches in all of North America intoday there are more than parishes in the United States, 38 in Canada and one in Mexico.

Inhe was elevated to the priesthood. Saint Shenoute the Archimandrite was instrumental in flourishing the Monastic Movement, active in Ecumenical issues, a noted Church teacher and writer, and an Egyptian Leader. Pope Shenouda III maintained the legacy of the name he carried. We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.

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