Fr Matthew the Poor (20 Sept 1919—8 June 2006) was the spiritual leader of the Monastery of St Macarius and one of the most renowned Coptic ascetics and theologians of the twentieth century. In the words of his abbot, Metropolitan Mikhail of Asyut, Abouna Matta was “a brilliant scholar, a turning point, a new level of writing and literary activity through the long period of his monastic life”.[fn]Met. Mikhail, “Obituary for Fr Matthew the Poor” in Autobiography of Fr Matta al-Maskin, iii.[/fn] As recently as 2013, the scholar Samuel Rubenson could describe Fr Matthew as “by far the most discussed and most influential theologian in Arabic-speaking Christianity today.”[fn]Samuel Rubenson, “Matta El-Meskeen”, 415.[/fn]

Biography

By Monks of the Monastery of St Macarius

He was born Yūsuf Iskandar in Banhā, a town in the Delta, 45km north of Cairo, on September 20, 1919. He graduated with a degree in Pharmacy in 1944 and practiced as a pharmacist until 1948.

On August 19, 1948, he became a monk in the poorest monastery in Egypt, the Monastery of St Samuel the Confessor in Upper Egypt, taking the name ‘Mattá’ (Matthew). At the Monastery of St Samuel, he started writing his first book, Orthodox Prayer Life.

He was forced to move to Dayr al-Suryān (Monastery of the Syrians) in Wādī al-Naṭrūn in 1951 where he was ordained a priest. He lived a solitary life, a fair distance from the monastery. After two years, Abba Matta was asked to be the spiritual father of the monastery. At that time he greatly contributed to the revival of the Coptic monastic life. He rediscovered the spirit of the great Fathers of the Desert and became a leading model, having received great grace in matters of fatherhood.

In 1952 at Dayr al-Suryān, he published his first book in Arabic, Orthodox Prayer Life. The second and expanded edition was published in 1968. Orthodox Prayer Life was later translated into French in 1977, Italian in 1998, English in 2002, German in 2007, Ukrainian in 2011 and Hungarian in 2016.

In 1954 Pope Yūsāb (Joseph) II, Patriarch of Alexandria, appointed him as patriarchal vicar for Alexandria after elevating hi clerical rank to hegumen. Abba Matta stayed in this position for two years. At the beginning of 1955, he chose to return to the life of stillness in the desert at Dayr al-Suryān. In mid-1956, he left Dayr al-Suryān and returned to the Monastery of St Samuel, seeking greater solitude. He lived as a hermit in the cave of Wādī al-Rayyān ith his disciples from 1960–1969.

In 1969, Pope Kyrillos VI called Abba Matta and his disciple monks to move to Dayr Anbā Maqār (the Monastery of St Macarius), situated halfway between Cairo and Alexandria in the desert of Wādī al-Naṭrūn. The monks found the fourth century monastery in ruins. Since that time, a great revival within the monastery occurred, both spiritually and architecturally. In 2019, there were 130 monks in addition to great land that surrounds the monastery for agriculture.

At Dayr Abū Maqār, Abba Matta penned, until his last breath, many different works that cover vast topics such as mystical spirituality, monastic, spiritual books, in addition to historical researches and Biblical commentaries. His books are now translated into 18 languages.
 

The late Bishop Epiphanius (1954–2018), Abbot of the Monastery of St Macarius was one of the most beloved and widely-respected Coptic scholars of the 21st century.  Originally a doctor from Tanta, Tadros Zaki Tadros became a monk of the Monastery of St Macarius in 1984 at the age of 29, taking the name Epiphanius al-Makary. As a former doctor, he provided medical care to ill and elderly monks at the monastery, often accompanying them on trips abroad to receive treatment and providing palliative care. His keen intellect and eye for detail caused him to be singled out by the monastery's famous abbot, Fr Matthew the Poor, to work in the monastery's library. At Fr Matthew's command, he was ordained a priest in 2002 (despite his protestations). In 2013, he was elected to succeed Fr Matthew (who had passed away in 2006) as Abbot of the monastery, and was ordained a bishop by Pope Tawadros II: a role he carried out with deep, often confronting, humility (e.g. sitting at the back of churches and lecture halls, and refusing to allow people to make the prostration customary for greeting a Coptic bishop, insisting: "If you prostrate before me, I will prostrate before you!").  Pope Tawadros drew heavily on Bishop Epiphanius' theological learning and his deep monastic experience, appointing him to many delegations and committees, attracting the ire of those who opposed the much debated theological legacy of Fr Matthew the Poor. He was tragically murdered in 2018.

Fouad Naguib Youssef was a patristic and liturgical theologian. As part of the Sunday School Movement, he was discipled by both Naẓīr Gayyid (Pope Shenouda III) and Fr Matthew the Poor.[fn]Fouad Naguib Youssef, “Fr Matthew the Poor,” Bose Monastery, May 2016.[/fn] He was the chief editor of the Word of Life magazine, an English/Arabic publication of St Mark’s Orthodox Fellowship.

Fr Marcus Daoud (1897–1986) was a church educator, Coptic revivalist and patristics scholar. Hegumen Marcos Daoud was an important figure in the revivalist movement the Society of Friends of the Holy Bible and a pioneering scholar of patristics and church history. Born in 1897 in Imbaba, Giza, Hafez Daoud had the blessing of being baptised by Pope Kyrillos V.[fn]Boulos Ayad, “Father Marcos Daoud”, 3.[/fn]

He joined the Society of the Friends of the Holy Bible in 1912, at the age of fifteen, and was elected its secretary in 1921.[fn]Boulos Ayad, “Father Marcos Daoud”, 4.[/fn]

In 1944, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia invited Hafez Daoud to found a theological seminary in Addis Ababa, where he would go on to teach for 10 years. Among the faculty he took to teach with him was Saad Aziz, who would later be ordained as Bishop Samuel. He returned briefly to Egypt in 1948 and was ordained a priest by Anba Abram of Giza, before returning to continue his educational work.[fn]Boulos Ayad, “Father Marcos Daoud”, 5–6.[/fn]

He produced a great many works which are still in print, including Arabic translations of patristic texts and the commentaries of F. B. Meyer.

Dr Noshy Abdelshahid (September 28, 1931–July 9, 2022) was a consecrated servant and the founder and director of the Centre for Patristic Studies in Cairo in 1978.[fn]Samuel Tadros, Motherland Lost: The Egyptian Quest for Modernity (Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 2013): 179.[/fn] He was also a prolific translator, having produced numerous translations of patristic texts from their original languages into Arabic, as well as works of modern Orthodox theologians such as Metropolitan Kallistos Ware. After his departure in July 2022, Pope Tawadros II released the following public letter of condolence to the Coptic Church:

Unto the hope of the resurrection we commit Dr Noshy Abdelshahid: a faithful servant, a patristic teacher, a self-sacrificing consecrated servant (mukarras), a powerful author whose many books and translations, which are rich, spiritual and patristic resources, have enriched Coptic libraries. 

He was a father to many who were discipled by him in service of the Church. He encouraged them to read, research and study, and opened to them fields of rich Scriptural and authentic patristic understanding.

Truly, this is a great loss both academically and spiritually in the life of our Coptic Orthodox Church. We bid him farewell as one of great stature in the Church, who was strongly connected to most of the fathers of our Church. We ask him to pray on our behalf, that Christ might bring our journey and our service to completion for the sake of His Holy Name.[fn]Statement on the Departure of Dr Noshy Abdelshahid, July 9 2022, Coptic Media Center [al-Markaz al-I‘lāmy al-Qibṭy al-Urthudhuksy], Facebook.com, https://www.facebook.com/CopticSP/posts/411256357713025.[/fn]

Wahib Helmy Kozman Bulus (1931–July, 2021) was a patristics scholar, liturgical theologian and scholar of the Orthodox Centre for Patristic Studies founded by Dr Noshy Abdelshahid. 

He was one of a number of students whom Dr Noshy Abdelshahid sent to Greece to earn postgraduate degrees in Orthodox theology. Kozman earned a Bachelor of Theology from the University of Athens in 1985, followed by a PhD in theology at Durham University in England, from which he graduated in 1992. His doctoral thesis, supervised by the Very Rev. George D. Dragas, was titled “St Athanasius of Alexandria’s Doctrine of Grace,” which was published in Arabic in 1993.[fn]Wahib Kozman Bulus, al-Na‘ma ‘ind al-Qiddīs Athanāsyūs al-Rasūlī, 2nd edn. (Good Shepherd Group, 2010).[/fn]

He lived a celibate life in Alexandria, where he was discipled by Fr Bishoy Kamel and also mentored younger servants. He remained an active contributor to the conferences and publications of the Patristic Centre throughout his life.[fn]Announcement from al-Markaz al-Urthūdhuksī li-l-Dirāsāt al-Abā’iyya bi-l-Qāhira, “Doctor Wahib Kozman Bulus,” July 23 2021, Facebook.com.[/fn]

He departed peacefully in July 2021 at the age of 90.