On March 17, we breathe the anniversary of the departure of Pope Shenouda III, the 117th patriarch of Alexandria. . In a brief glimpse of his life, our attention is drawn to its uniqueness and the inerasable traces and indelible marks it left in the memory and conscience of the Egyptian people; Muslims and Christians. He is the Pope whom the Egyptians deemed a father to all, so they called him “the Pope of the Arabs.”
The life of Pope Shenouda III was full of many events that made him a distinguished man of good traits that are rarely combined in one person: overwhelming love, tender fatherhood with firm and solid character at the same time, overflowing feelings of a gentle poet, wisdom of thought and power of logic, ability to spread happiness among those around him, his service to everyone, along with his passion for a life of solitude and speaking to God. Life tried to rob him of his happiness with the death of his mother and laying responsibilities over his little shoulders, yet he countered life with smile, happiness, and giving, throughout a life journey that impacted lives of everyone he met. Most importantly, he was characterized by intense love for thought and culture.
The journey of culture began so early in the life of Pope Shenouda III; in his childhood, he was fond of reading, he read books avidly, including “Leaders of Thought” by Taha Hussein, the Dean of Arabic Literature, and “Sarah” story by Abbas Mahmoud Al-Akkad. He was not satisfied by reading at one branch of science, but rather he read many books of medicine, sociology, literature and stories by various writers and thinkers. Poetry was he liked most, he memorized a lot of poems, then he began to compose poems while still a young boy, he learned the rules of composing poetry at an age below sixteen. This vast knowledge qualified him to take over the editorship of the Sunday School magazine in October 1949 until he was ordained a monk under the name “Antonius the Syrian” in July 1954. He was not separated from his love of books inside the monastery, to the extent that he became the custodian of the library of Al-Sorian Monastery (which is one of the most important monasteries’ libraries). He gave it tremendous care and exerted much effort to index, section and categorize the books, his passion led him to study many of its books and manuscripts, preparing some among them for printing and publication. He deserved to be ordained a general bishop of ecclesiastical education, the seminary, and religious institutes under the name of “Anba Shenouda” in 1962, by Saint Pope Kyrillos VI, to become the first bishop of this great responsibility.
After being ordained a bishop of education, Anba Shenouda was concerned with imparting education and culture to the congregation, following the warning of the Bible: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” He held spiritual meetings for preaching and teaching in the Monastery of Anba Rewis in Abbasiya, and he used to give lectures two days a week, but afterwards, only one day; Wednesday, was assigned for public lectures. The Wednesday meetings were crowded with thousands of people from all the congregation classes, it continued to grow until it became one of the most famous religious meetings in the Middle East. Out of his sense of responsibility for education, he published Al-Keraza magazine in January 1965, and he was its editor-in-chief along 47 years.
The nation’s memory never forgets those national historical lectures delivered by Pope Shenouda III on many occasions, including two lectures at the Journalists Syndicate: the first in 1966 entitled “Israel in the Christian Opinion,” and the second in 1971 titled “Christianity and Israel.” He also delivered a lecture entitled “Jerusalem; the City of Peace” at the League of Arab States in 1995, and he refuted the concepts and allegations of Zionism in a lecture at the Nasser Higher Military Academy in 2002. Pope Shenouda III participated in many conferences and seminars to discuss a number of issues, including: the call of religions to diminish illiteracy, organ transportation and transplantation, coexistence among religions, religions and their role in preserving the environment, reproductive health, euthanasia, Egypt; safety and security, and the Forum of Religions, countering smoking, new global developments, the harmony of Muslim and Copt Egyptians throughout history, population and family planning issues, supporting the struggle of the Palestinian people.
Pope Shenouda III was also interested in establishing the Coptic Orthodox Cultural Center to spread culture to all. In 2012, Pope Shenouda III departed from our world, leaving us a great legacy of writings, lectures, articles, and recordings. So he deserved to be called the “Golden Mouth of the Twentieth Century”… and stories about “beautiful Egypt” never end!
The General Bishop
Head of the Coptic Orthodox Cultural Center
