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Hegumen Fr. Mikhail Ibrahim, born Mikhail Ibrahim Youssef in 1899 in Qafr Abdou, Quisna, Egypt, was raised in a devout household and formed deeply by the Church from a young age. He worked for many years as a police clerk before being ordained to the priesthood in 1951 to serve his home church in Qafr Abdou, after the departure of its priest. His civic life was characterized by integrity, seriousness, and zealous service wherever he was stationed; even then he was known for establishing spiritual communities and leading a pious and active ecclesial life.
He was well known even as a layman to many saints of his day, including St. Pope Kyrillos VI and His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, who related at his funeral that while residing at the Church of Saint Mina in Old Cairo as a layman himself, he would see him come to that church, prostrate himself outside at the front of the church, and again several times between the front door of the church and its altar before standing to pray in deep prayer.
After his ordination, he served his village in all humility and dedication before being caused to depart to Cairo, where he was brought into the service of the Church of Saint Mark in Shubra by its shepherd, Fr. Morcos Dawoud, which parish he continued to serve until his repose on March 26, 1975. His ministry in Shubra was marked by continued fruitfulness and expanding spiritual influence — he shepherded his parish with all purity and selflessness, was granted countless disciples, whom he guided with profound humility and wisdom, and was known for his seriousness, depth of prayer, simplicity, and complete dependence on God. Whenever anyone brought a problem to him, he would say, “let us pray, my son,” and assign a saint to handle the concern, and when anyone complained to him of having been wronged by another, he would simply respond, “this is Satan, my son, this is Satan,” in view of redirecting the complainant to discerning that sin originates from the devil and not from the one who sins, who is rather a victim enslaved by him — a common theme in his teaching. He was not a man of much public teaching, despite his renown as a wise teacher and trusted counselor to many, including several of the Church’s saints of the twentieth century, in personal discipleship and confession.
Upon his departure, Pope Shenouda III, who was his disciple and son in confession for many years — and who officiated his funeral, at which he delivered a deeply moving eulogy, in which he called him a “profound guide,” “loving heart,” and “immense power” — requested that he be buried beneath the altar of the Great Cathedral of St. Mark, because, in his own words, “he was a public man who belongs to no single church, whose children are in every place and every village and every city, who should not be reserved for one place, but who should be buried [in the Cathedral], in a public place,” and, as His Holiness publicly admitted, he also privately wanted his pure body to remain near, as a support to him.
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