St Macarius is one of the monastic leaders of the fourth century. He was a disciple to St Anthony the first monk. In his life we read this story. “The Lord of Glory sent a cherub, he led him into this mountain and when he had set his seal on Abba Macarius by placing his …
My father, who is like you…Who has offered himself to the Lord?! Who is like you, who has placed his life in the hands of the Lord and sang “My soul is in your hands always”?! Who is like you, who carried the name of a saint who persevered and walked the righteous path before …
It happened on one occasion that the holy Patriarch Abba Kyrillos sent for my father St. Shenouda and Abba Victor the Archimandrite of Tabaneese on account of the impious Nestorius to withstand him. After they had entered the royal city, our righteous father St. Shenouda was walking into the king’s palace when he found a …
St Shenouda was born in ‘Shandweel’ in Sohag on the 2nd of May 333 AD. He was the only child to his parents. His father was a farmer who had a flock of sheep of whom he used to give to a certain shepherd to take care of. Shenouda would ask to join the shepherd …
There was one of the very outstanding brothers, who was practising ascetism by himself. He heard of the godly life of the great St Pachomius and begged him to receive him into the monastic Community. The Great Man received him; and after he had spent a short time with the brothers, he greatly desired to become a martyr, at a …
It is not only a single time that God has talked about the death of the righteous and of the wicked people, it is written that: "When the righteous person dies, it is regretted, but the destruction of the impious person is renounced, and people rejoice over it". And again: "When a good person dies, …
For the monks, cultivating a spirit of humility meant moving in two opposite directions at once: fostering both a sense of one's sinfulness and a sense of one's utter dependence upon the mercy of God. The self-abnegation which the monks so often expressed should not be mistaken for self-hatred. It reflected rather an honest assessment …
Many of the Desert Fathers experimented with harsh ascetic regimens, severely limiting their sleep and their intake of food and drink. For example, Abba Arsenius claimed that “it is enough for a monk, if he is a real fighter, to sleep only one hour”; Abba Dioscorus boasted that he never ate cooked food or fruit …
In 407, a tribe of barbarian raiders known as Mazices came sweeping off the Libyan desert and devastated one of the first great centers of Christian monasticism, the settlement of Scetis. Scetis was located in a remote desert valley west of the Nile and had been founded around 330 by one of the pioneers of …
During my stay near the lakes, I visited two of the Egypt Coptic convents, that are called the Syrian, and that of St. George; where I could observe no traces of any European traveller, but Baron Thunis, whom the Empress of Russia, had sent, some years before, to negotiate a defection on the part of …
