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His Eminence Metropolitan Mina of Girga, a contemporary Coptic Orthodox saint, was born in Nag-Hammadi, Egypt in May 1919, and entered the monastic life on April 30, 1939 at the monastery of St. Macarius in Wadi al-Natrun. On November 18, 1939, he was ordained to the priesthood and named Fr. Luka, and in 1943, he was elevated to the rank of hegumen and appointed the monastery's secretary. After completing his theological studies at the Clerical College, Fr. Luka was appointed the personal secretary of His Holiness Pope Kyrillos VI. Shortly thereafter, his father of confession, Fr. Abdel-Messih al-Maqari — another modern Coptic Orthodox saint — predicted that Fr. Luka would be ordained to the episcopacy, and on August 7, 1960, this came to pass. His Holiness Pope Kyrillos VI ordained Fr. Luka as Bishop Mina to oversee the diocese of Girga, Bahjoura, and Farshut; he would later receive the rank of Metropolitan. Metropolitan Mina was renowned for his great piety, deep love, consecration to the service of the Church, innumerable virtues, miracle-working, and life of incessant prayer and prolonged fasting. He received the eskeem — the highest honor in the monastic life, which required increased fasting, prostrations, and spiritual canons — and was said by those who knew him to have been among those who are spirit-borne. On November 7, 2003, Metropolitan Mina departed after a long struggle with illness, and was buried in the church of his teacher, Fr. Abdel-Messih al-Maqari, in Girga.
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