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Reflections on the Life of Saint Abraam, the Bishop of Fayoum and Giza — His Holiness Pope Shenouda III

The words of His Holiness Pope Shenouda III on June 8th (Year Unknown) regarding the life of Saint Abraam, the Bishop of Fayoum and Giza —


[The day] after tomorrow is the Feast of Saint Anba Abraam, Bishop of Fayoum. For this reason, there are people who travel tomorrow in order to go attend his Feast at Dayr al-Azab in Fayoum.


The story of Saint Anba Abraam contains many exceedingly beautiful things, to which we must attend.


The first thing regarding Anba Abraam that I wish to tell you is — there is not found an age [] devoid of saints. Meaning — I read a strange word by an orthodox writer, in his book titled Orthodoxy, [and] at the beginning of the book, he says that the Church lived fifteen centuries in the mire of ignorance, and in the depths of darkness. Of course, a difficult thing [to say].


No age [] has passed over the Church that did not have a light [] shining to the people. There is a verse that says: “God does not leave Himself without a witness.”[1] Meaning, for example — in the beginning of the nineteenth century, in the age of Pope Botros al-Gawli, and the governor Muhammad Ali, [recording cuts, but it is contextually likely that the missing statement is akin to “Anba Abraam was born”] and filled the world with sanctity and love and a good example for all.


So do not pass an unjust judgment as to anyone. Perhaps God might use a monk in the life of solitude and contemplation and prayer, and perhaps He might use another monk in the life of service and guidance, as He used Anba Abraam, Bishop of Fayoum, while he was a monk, and filled the world with service and was a saint more righteous than hundreds of those who live as solitaries in the cells. In his age also many of his disciples were saints. The same pope who lived in his age was among the scholars of the Church and her saints, who was Pope Cyril V.


What is the virtue that was found in Anba Abraam?


The first virtue is the virtue of giving — the virtue of mercy; love for the poor. Anba Abraam, the Bishop of Fayoum, excelled in this matter to the furthest extent. The greatest thing in him [] was not that he merely gave [] — many people give — [] but that he gave to all, [he] gave all that he possessed, even if he had nothing left. Many give, but few give to all. Here is the distinguishing characteristic of Anba Abraam.


And [as to] the one who gives to all, [this] signifies that he has died a complete death towards money and the love of money, and wealth and the love of wealth, and ownership and the love of ownership, [and] the world and the love of the world. The love of all things comes to have no value, meaning that money has lost its value in his sight, and [so also with] ownership generally.


So it was possible for a poor man to approach him, and he would give to him all the money he had. Once, a governor visited him and gave him ten gold pound coins — he loved him, and left them for him. In the past, a gold pound coin was quite effective. A poor person [also] visited him, so he took the ten gold pound coins and gave them to that poor person. Ten gold pound coins today would equal four hundred [or] five hundred Egyptian pounds at least.


Even if he did not have money, he would give anything [he had]. A poor woman visited him and he did not have any money, [so] he took the shawl that he was wearing and gave it to her. They brought to him a new cloth from which to make a new outer garment, and he gave it to [another] poor woman.


Once, they brought him furniture for the diocesan headquarters [المطرانية], because its furniture was weak, and a woman came to him asking for a trousseau for her daughter, who was to be married, so he summoned a few cars and loaded up the headquarters’ furniture on them and they left, and the congregation came and found nothing.


And once, at the beginning of his reign — the congregation could leave the funds with him — they wanted to renovate the headquarters because its structure was dilapidated, so they collected a hundred pounds — [equivalent] to more than a thousand now — and when they returned and asked him “Your Grace, where is the money, because the contractor is coming,” he told them “I have built above.” “Building above” meaning he lost the money — he spent it on the poor. So since that time they no longer gave him the funds whenever there was a project, because he would distribute any money with him.


He was a man who kept nothing for himself, [] and he was generous in giving [] to a degree that pained the trustees or his employees, because he would squander everything.


When he became the head of the Monastery of al-Muharraq, he would spend to a great extent. And despite their great love for him, and great respect for him, and belief in his great holiness, and their election of him as the head of the Monastery, they said that such a man would exhaust the Monastery’s funds, so they expelled him from the leadership because he would spend the money on the poor. He was not upset.


In one instance, they took him to [serve as] trustee of the diocese of al-Minya — before he became a bishop, while he was a priest — and the headquarters was immediately transformed into a guesthouse for the poor and needy, and instead of being filled with noblemen and prominent people who would come to arrange the affairs [of the diocese], it became filled with the poor and underprivileged, so they sent him back to his monastery.


The virtue of giving in him reached quite an unusual level in that he did not like to keep anything for himself. He loved to remain poor and to have nothing for himself; his furniture at the headquarters was simple, and his clothing was simple, and if they brought him anything, he would give it away to the people, and he remained this way.


And some foreigners visited him and were amazed by his simplicity and learned a lesson.[2] What does it mean that they learned a lesson? Everyone can dress luxuriously, but few are those who prefer simplicity.


The first thing for him was giving, and this is the first virtue in his life.


The second thing was miracles. When our Lord found in him the love of the people and the willingness to give to the people, He entrusted to him another talent to give to the people — that is, the gift of healing and exorcising demons. Since his heart was gentle and merciful, and because when our Lord granted him a gift, he utilized it well, He gave him the gift of healing the sick in order for him to complete by it his merciful work.


This kind man, who is remembered for mercy and giving, was also a man firm as to the matters of the Church. So among the famous things about him is that he despised divorce and did not agree to divorce anyone, carrying out the principles of the Bible that there be no divorce except in the case of adultery.[3] And he would identify with what is found in Malachi the prophet, when our Lord said “I hate divorce,”[4] and he never consented to a marriage that violated the canons of the Church.


Saint Anba Abraam was also famed for humility — [he was] a humble man. The cantor, or master (عريف), of the church was praising, and it seems that he did not proceed in the tune [of the hymn] harmoniously with the others. So he alerted him to this issue and rebuked him for it. The following day, he did not find him in the church, [because he was] upset. So he told them, “let us go to where he is,” and he walked to his house and said to him, “I have sinned, my brother, toward you, do not be upset and come back to the church,” to the extent that the man wept when he saw the metropolitan coming to him all the way to his house to apologize to him, and apologizing to him over a matter in which he was right, in which he had not wronged him.


He was a very humble man, and he preferred never to distinguish between rich and poor whatsoever. He would rebuke his chef when he would make one sort of food for the rich and another sort for the poor. [] So he mixed [both sorts of food] together and told him, “give them of this mixture, to the rich and the poor, everyone together. With us there is no such thing as rich and poor.”


For this he was beloved, because he was a humble man and loved to live with the poor.


He spent his whole life with only the rank of bishop, and when they wished to make him a metropolitan, he declined and was content with the rank of bishop.


He was also renowned for prayer and worship, alongside his concern for the poor. It is said about him that he would shut himself in for days, during which he would not be seen, devoted to the work of prayer. And it is said that he would live among the spirit-borne, and sometimes he would spend a very long time in contemplating one phrase from the Psalms, or spend many hours in praying a single Psalm. He was a man of contemplation.


This man was a great saint in his age, and until now the Church confesses his sainthood and some bishoprics build altars in his name. He bears witness to the fact that God does not leave Himself without a witness in any age, and that holiness is not confined to the fourth century, or the fifth, or the apostolic age, having ended at that time. Each age has its saints.


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[1] Acts 14:17

[3] See Matthew 5:32, 19:9

[4] Malachi 2:16

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