When I left the bishopric and returned to my desert cave at the beginning of January 1964, I found the monk Antonius (Pope Shenouda’s name before becoming a bishop) at the door and he said to me, “I knew that you would return”, as he hugged me tightly so that we became one.
At that point I remembered that Saint Arsanius the Recluse, when he returned to the desert of Shehit, had said to his pupils, ‘They are ready to say about Arsanius what was said in the story of the Flood, “But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned into the ark …” (Gen. 8:9)
