His Holiness Pope Shenouda III has died.
Nazeer Gayed was born on the 3rd of August, 1923. After completing his undergraduate degree at Cairo University, and teaching at the High School level briefly, he undertook monastic profession, entering the Syrian Monastery in Scetes. There he was ordained to the priesthood. For a number of years he lived as a hermit where he earned a reputation for sanctity.
He was appointed bishop n 1962 and consecrated by Pope Cyril VI, who later dismissed him from leading the Coptic seminary for his liberalizing tendencies, among other things calling for the popular election of parish priests and bishops.
There is a story I’ve not been able to corroborate that when he learned of his ascendancy to the papacy, he fled into the desert. He had to be captured, tied up, and dragged back for his enthronement. If not true, it should have been. And certainly appears to have been in his character…
Pope Shenouda was a remarkable man and an important leader of the Coptic church. Objecting to the persecution of Egypt’s Copts he refused to hold public Easter celebrations and turned away a presidential delegation. This did not sit well with the then dictator Anwar Sadat who had him deposed and exiled. President Sadat’s successor, the dictator Hosni Mubarek released the pope in 1985.
He was dedicated to Ecumenism, something rare among the Orthodox. Under the pope’s leadership the Coptic church has flourished even in the face of persecution and to expand its influence to Europe and the Americas. He also drew in a number of independent Catholic and Orthodox communities, perhaps most notably what became the British Orthodox Church.
The pope was the author of over a hundred books, was awarded the UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize for the promotion of tolerance and non-violence.
He died on the 17th of March, 2012.
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