Bishop Samuel (Dec 8, 1920–Oct 6, 1981) was the first General Bishop of Public, Ecumenical and Social Services. He played a key role in the establishment of communities in the Coptic diaspora, and represented the Coptic Church in numerous ecumenical settings during the reigns of three successive patriarchs (Yusab II, Kyrillos VI and Shenouda III). 

Born Saad Aziz, he grew up in Giza, which was a particularly active centre for the Sunday School Movement, in which he became an active participant.[fn]On Saad Aziz’s early formation within the Giza School, see Daniel Fanous, A Silent Patriarch: Kyrillos VI (Yonkers, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2019): 164; Samuel Tadros, Motherland Lost: The Egyptian Quest for Modernity (Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 2013): 170–71.[/fn] He received an extensive university education: a Bachelor of Law from the University of Cairo (1942), a Diploma in Theology from the Coptic Theological Seminary (1944) and Bachelor of Arts from the American University in Cairo (also 1944).[fn]John H. Watson, Among the Copts (Brighton, UK: Sussex Academic Press, 2000): 100.[/fn]

He was consecrated as a monk under the guidance Fr Mina the Solitary (the future Pope Kyrillos VI) in 1948, initially for the monastery of St Samuel, but within a few months he had moved to the Syrian Monastery and taken the name Macarius al-Suryani. 

In 1954, he travelled to Princeton Theological Seminary in the United States, where he completed an MA thesis on “Ancient and Contemporary Christian Education in the Coptic Church.” [fn]Held in the Alumni Collection at Princeton Theological Seminary Library. He is listed in the alumni record as “Makary, Samuel Souriany”.[/fn]

When Fr Mina the Solitary became Pope Kyrillos VI in 1959, Fr Makary served as his aide and secretary, before being ordained as a general bishop in 1962, taking the name Bishop Samuel. 

On October 6, 1981, he was fatally wounded during the assassination of Anwar Sadat and died later in hospital.