Our  Father,  the  bishop,  asked  a  nun,  the  superior  in  a convent in Cairo, to be in charge of the poor. Shortly there after, he decided to visit those poor people while they were eating. He was surprised to find that the food offered to him was a better quality than offered to the poor. This made him very upset and he dismissed the nun at once.

Once  in  an  "agapi  banquet"  (the  "banquet  of  love"), which  the  bishopric  held  for  the  people,  the  cook  made  a table of fried fish for the rich, and another table of cooked fish for the poor. When the bishop entered to have his dinner with them, he saw the two tables, and he firmly ordered the cook to mix the two kinds of fish. He said, "Who wants to eat from the mixture, let him eat, for God does not separate the poor from the rich, all are the same to Him." When his brethren, the "poor" heard this, they rejoiced for his real fa- therhood. The rich, moved by his love for his children and his high degree of spirituality, also ate from the mixture.

Once a poor woman complained to him of her poverty, he reached  his  hand  under  the  pillow  but  did  not  find  any money, he gave her a new shawl, which one of his children had given to him. The next day the owner of the shawl vis- ited our father and asked him about it. He replied, "My son, the shawl is above." Then the man presented it to him saying that  he  had  bought  it  from  the  poor  woman  to  return  it  to him. "Perhaps you have oppressed her, my son!" the bishop said. "No, my father, I gave her the whole price," the owner of the shawl replied.

Mr. Leeder, the British writer, related to us, about our fa- ther, the bishop, saying: "I have spoken of the poor robe in which the old bishop was wrapped. It was literally like the

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robe of an early Coptic recluse, one Abba Isaac, who main- tained that "the manner of the apparel which a monk ought to wear should be such that if it were cast outside the cell for

three days no one would carry it away...

A rich layman just before my visit did not like to see his bishop in this threadbare cloak, and so went out and bought

a garment, soft and sable. Returning to that upper room, he begged the bishop to discard the old robe; here was a new one. With a wander smile the old man took the robe, and put

it under his pillow. Later on in the day, in the crowd which thronged him, he saw a poor ill-clad fellah (farmer), shiver- ing with cold. 'Ah!' he said, 'the Lord has been mindful of you  this  day,  for  here  is  a  cloak  waiting  for  the  first  man who is in need of it.'

And when the poor man got out into the daylight, he saw that  such  a  cloak  was  unsuitable  for  a  country  fellah;  he would  sell  it  and  buy  a  coarse  "gallabieh,"  then  he  would possess both a cloak and spare money to buy food. The man he offered the cloak to was, by chance, the donor, who rec- ognized  his  gift!  Knowing  the  bishop,  he  felt  that  remon- strance of any sort was useless, so he re-bought the garment, hoping that when the bishop found that he had done this, he would be persuaded to wear it.

Again,  however,  the  cloak  was  tucked  under  the  pillow; and again a poor man received it as of the Lord. And now doubtless the threadbare cloak will persist till the day when the bishop exchanges it for a glorious robe which time can- not corrupt...

Here in the twentieth century, the succession of those ear- lier  followers  of  Christ  truly  survives  in  the  life  of  the

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bishop of Fayoum, to carry out in all their literal simplicity the  teachings  of  the  Man  of  Galilee,  who  Himself  having nothing, sought as disciples only those who would sell all to follow Him."

It is said that the nobles of the bishopric saw the bishop's home was not suitable, they agreed with their father, to re- new  and  widen  it.  They  collected  money  for  the  bishop's house, and when it totaled about L.E. 200, a valuable sum at that time, they brought it to him asking him to make an ap- pointment  with  a  building  contractor  to  agree  upon  the  re- modeling of the building. The bishop looked at them saying,

"My sons, I have already built, I have built."

"Where is the building. our father?!! There is no change in the building !," they asked. "I have built a house for you in the eternal life," the bishop replied.

Mr. Makar Ibrahim El-Barnashawi said:

[One day a poor citizen went to his rich relative. Mr. A.

(Bey) A.A. asking for a contribution for his wife, who was about to give birth to a child, but Mr. A.A.A. refused, and this  sadly  distressed  the  poor  citizen.  The  poor  citizen vowed that he would ask for the money from the bishops of the  Nazarenes.  He  went  to  Anba  Abraam  and  related  his story.  The  bishop  said,  "Is  the  bishop  for  the  Christians only?" Then he gave him the only pound which was under the pillow; its value was very high at that time.

As  the  poor  citizen  was  leaving,  he  met  the  monk  who was  surprised  that  his  brother  "the  bishop"  had  given  the poor citizen all the money that he had, so, he took the pound from him and gave him an Egyptian dollar (20 piasters). The citizen  returned  to  the  bishop  and  complained  to  him.  The bishop called the monk, took the pound from him, and re-

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turned it together with the dollar to the poor citizen. Then he said to his brother the monk, "When we left the house of our father  late  Gabrielle,  what  did  we  possess?..  Is  not  all  that we have now, from the hands of Christ? Have we not taken from  His  hands  for  the  sake  of  His  brethren?  Then  the bishop firmly sent him away.

After three days the monk returned to the bishop with un- cle  Makarious  El-Barnashawi,  to  ask  for  his  forgiveness, which the bishop did grant.

At that time a letter arrived, containing a money order and

a  bill  of  lading,  then  the  bishop  called  the  monk  and  said.

"See..." The monk bowed before him modestly, saying..." I am not like you... Our Lord bestowed upon you the gift of offering."

Fr. Mikhail Astras the priest of St. George Church of Fay- oum,  related;  "One  of  the  nobles  visited  the  bishop,  and handed him an envelope into which he had put it an offer- ing.  The  bishop  accepted  it  and  put  under  pillow.  A  short while later, a poor man entered asking for help, the bishop gave him the envelope, and when he opened it, he found ten pounds.  A  disciple  observed  this,  and  hurried  to  tell  the bishop,  the  bishop  replied,  "This  is  his  portion,  for  God knew his need and He sent someone to offer it."

The  bishop's  contemporaries  related  that  many  persons were coming to Fayoum to bring presents and offerings. The rich men were very generous in their offerings, but he never looked at the amount of any offering, instead he put all the money and gold under the pillow, so that when any person came to him for help, he would reach under the pillow, and give whatever he found.

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It  is  said  that  in  his  time  no  one  was  poor  in  Fayoum,  for they  all  found  in  the  bishop's  house  their  own  home  from which they could get what they needed.

One well-known story is told about three young men who plotted to take advantage of the bishop's love for the poor. Two of them approached the bishop saying that the third had died, and that they had nothing to bury him.

The  bishop  nodded  his  head,  and  gave  them  an  offering saying, "Take it and bury him..." They left laughing, but they were  astonished  when  they  found  their  friend  had  actually died.

They tried to return the money asking the bishop for for- giveness.  He  forgave  them  but  did  not  accept  the  money, telling them to bury their friend with it.

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A MAN OF PRAYER

The mystery of the greatness in our father Anba Abraam is that he was a man of prayer.

The prayer in our church, is not a troublesome routine, nor

a hard law we are subjected to, but rather a taste of sweet- ness of our being children of God, and a practice in fellow- ship with Him. Prayer is love!! We converse intimately with Him, and also with love we blame Him kindly!!! In fear we proclaim our repentance, and with joy we thank Him.

We do not pray for our own benefits only, but also for the benefits of the church and the whole world.

Our holy father devoted his life to prayer, as he loved his God, the Lord Jesus. He was filled with power. He was ac- customed to gathering all his children every evening, at his residence, to pray the psalms and to read some chapters of the holy Bible in order to help them to understand it.

The people who slept in the room close to his, related that he used to rise up at midnight to pray the psalms and stay up until  dawn.  He  used  to  repeat  the  words:  "Create  in  me  a clean  heart,  O  God,  and  put  a  new  and  right  spirit  within me," praying it with zeal.

All who met him testified that his prayers were very deep in spirit until his senility.

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The  English  writer  "Leeder"  said:  "It  was  with  deep emotion that I looked into the face of this saint... To doubt his right to the title was impossible for the power of a pure and beautiful soul made itself felt at once, with a force that was almost overwhelming.

The eyes looked out of a calm, grave face, fringed with a small white beard, which in no way obscured the sensitive mouth. The turban was worn farther back than usual, leaving the broad unwrinkled forehead to suggest that the ascetic, in this case, had been governed by a fine intelligence.

Taking the cross in his right hand, and holding it closely over our heads, the bishop poured out, mostly in the Coptic language,  in  tones  of  rapt  devotion,  the  wonderful  prayers and blessings of his Church.

Of  the  mere  words,  I  of  course  recognized  little,  except the often-repeated 'Kyrie-eleison!' (Lord have mercy!) But I was thrilled nevertheless by the childlike earnestness of the man  who  uttered  them;  never  had  I  heard  prayer  which seemed to establish a link with the throne of Grace with such instant security; it seemed as if earth fell away, to leave  this  man  speaking  in  the  clear  presence  of  God Himself."

Late  Naguib  (Bey)  Erian  said  that  some  believers  saw  a beam of light coming out of his window at night while he was praying.

It is also said that in 1898 A.D, on a Wednesday evening, during the prayer hour the gas lamp hanging from the roof by means of a rope, broke down due to a sudden cut in the rope and caused a fire to flame up. The bishop gave no at-

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tention to this matter, but he went on praying. Later he told the people present who were much afraid of the fire: "Whey do you have such weak faith? Behold, the fire had been ex- tinguished and none was harmed!."

HIS FAITH

In 1902 A.D our father roamed in Egypt accompanied by his disciple Anba Mettaos, the metropolitan of Abyssinia. At Abu-Kerkas,  they  were  the  guests  of  Adib  (Bey)  Wahba, who  was  until  that  time  without  a  son.  He  had  only  three daughters, and his only son died. Adib Bey summoned the saint  secretly  saying  to  him,  "I  have  heard  that  you  are  a

'man  of  God'  and  God  hears  your  prayer.  I  beg  you  to  ask God to give me a son to inherit my name.” He entered the bed-room, prayed on a cup of water and sprinkled the house, then he anointed his wife with oil, saying to her "By God's will  you  will  be  granted  a  son  within  a  year."  He  blessed them and pointed at an open space saying to Adib: "Who is the owner of this?" "It is mine," answered Adib Bey. "Make

it  a  guest  room  for  the  poor,"  said  the  bishop.  After  ten months God granted Adib Bey a son called "Wahbey."

The same thing happened with late Gawher, the preacher of   the   Copts   in   Tanta,   as   God   granted   him   the   son

"Youssef."  We  hear  about  too  many  persons  who  came  to Abbot  Abraam,  asking  his  prayers  that  God  might  grant them sons or preserve their life.

We  would  not  be  exaggerating  if  we  said  that  hundreds but thousands of miracles had happened through his prayers, for which there is no room here.

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The  Christian  pilgrim  Yowakeem  came  to  him  from Cairo, after he had spent all his wealth on doctors because he  was  dumb.  In  the  evening,  people  gathered  to  pray  as usual, and when they began to pray "Lord have mercy," his tongue was healed and he prayed with them.

Mr. Fahmy, the son of the Rev. Abdel-Messieh the priest of Sanouris Church, had epilepsy. Doctors were perplexed, but as our father anointed him with oil and prayed for him he was healed.

Our   father   Abdel-Messieh   El-Baramousy   El   Saghier wrote that once he stayed a week with the bishop. He saw many persons visiting him. One of them was a woman from

"Balout," a village near Manfalout, who was sick for a long time.  She  spent  all  her  wealth  on  doctors,  but  she  was  not healed from her lameness and dumb... Four men took her to the bishop, and he prayed for her three days, then she was healed and went back to her village, in the streets praising the Lord and thanking Abbot Abraam.

Mr. Ayad Abadir related that when he was transferred to El-Fayoum he saw by himself a young man who was very sick, his relatives took him to the bishop, who made the sign of the cross on him, and prayed for him, then he was healed.

When the engineer S.A.Y. was taken sick with cancer, he accompanied  his  father  to  the  saint,  who  told  him  to  use some  well-known  eyedropper  in  Egypt,  called  "The  Seven Girls Eyedropper." He prayed on it and put a drop of it in his eyes, at once the leukemia disappeared.

In 1924, Mr. Mohammed Badr-Eldine, the secretary of the

Public Prosecutor General, at Alexandria, related to his col-

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league Mr. Labib Boulos that his only son was sick and he did his best to get him healed, lastly he sent a letter to Abbot Abraam, who replied to him stating the time when he would be healed, and this actually happened.

Up till now we feel the effect of his prayers for us. The son of the priest of "Manzalet Demian" Church, in Minieh, was afflicted with Lameness. His family visited the tomb of the saint. In the morning they found their son running, and when  they  asked  him  about  the  matter  he  told  them  that  a man appeared to him, prayed for him and anointed his limbs with oil. Then he was able to walk.

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HIS ASCETICISM

"I  discipline  my  body  and  bring  it  into  subjection,  lest, when  I  have  preached  to  others,  I  myself  should  become disqualified" 2 Cor. 9:27.

As much as the heart is emptied from the mortal love of the  world,  it  will  be  qualified  to  be  filled  with  heavenly things.  And  as  far  as  it  is  filled  with  the  heavenly  things, man  will  not  desire  any  earthly  thing.  So  our  father  strug- gled,  refusing  everything  in  order  to  gain  the  Food  of  his soul "Jesus Christ."

His principal food was beans and lentils; and during non- fasting days it was the milk without fat. Once he desired to eat a chicken. He asked his disciple to cook it and bring it to him. When the table was prepared he prayed and asked his disciple  to  take  the  chicken  away  and  to  bring  it  the  next day. The same thing happened on the second and the third days. And on the fourth day the food was spoiled, he looked

at  it  saying  to  himself  "O  myself,  eat  from  what  you  de- sired!"  The  same  thing  happened  with  his  disciple  "Anba Marcus," the metropolitan of Esneh.

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THE MODEST BISHOP

The man of God, Anba Abraam, loved Jesus Christ, and had communion with God on the basis of going on the way of  Golgotha  following  the  Cross,  where  he  left  everything willingly.  He  was  refused  and  humiliated  from  people  for the sake of the heavenly glory. He left all his personal dig- nity joyfully and without grumbling.

He  was  a  loving  kind  father  for  the  poor  and  the  rich alike, and he was never conceited.

Mr.  Leeder  investigated  everything  about  the  character and life of our father after he had visited him. He said that he always saw our bishop hiding his hands with the sleeves of his garment in order to prevent anyone from kissing his hands. He also said: "It is usual, I believe, in every Christian church to kneel in receiving a bishop's blessing; but on no account would Anba Abraam consent to any person kneeling before  him.  "To  God  alone,"  he  said,  "was  such  homage due." He was distressed that I felt obliged to kneel, but when

I explained that my first reverence was to God, and then to

His good servant, he gently gave way."

One of the best habits of our father is that he never per- mitted a priest or a deacon to carry the Holy Bible while he was reading it, but in a very modest way he went to the lec- tern and read it as any priest did. He never permitted any of the deacons to say in his presence any statement, that they

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usually said before reading the Bible to show their respect to him. He absolutely did not distinguish himself from his peo- ple,  and  he  never  sat  on  a  chair  different  from  that  of  his children. The bishop never permitted the priests to burn in- cense infront of him.

Our  father  Anba  Abraam  was  very  pleased  when  any  of his children called him "Our father, the bishop," and never permitted anyone to call him "Our Master, the bishop."

In the sanctuary he used to stand up all the time during the liturgy,  and  when  he  got  older  and  weaker  he  used  to  sit down on the carpet whenever he got tired.

When the Pope Kyrellos V wanted to give him the higher rank of "Metropolitan," he refused completely.

Anba Abraam did not change his cross after becoming a bishop, but he kept the same old cross, and lived the same life as before, without any slight change.

We can clearly see the kindness of this bishop through the stories told by the people:

"Once, during the morning service of Sunday (matins) the bishop noticed that the deacons were not keeping harmony in their prayers. After the service had ended he remarked on that to the teacher (moalem). The teacher misunderstood him and  did  not  attend  the  vespers  on  that  day.  The  bishop  in- wardly  feeling  the  teacher's  anger  due  to  his  misunder- standing went to his home asking for forgiveness. When the teacher saw him he wept saying, "I beg you to forgive me."

Then the bishop returned to his residence late at night.

As his fame spread, he did not leave his children and es- cape  in  the  desert,  flying  from  vain  glory,  but  he  only  re-

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fused  to  meet  anyone  coming  to  him  merely  for  honoring him. This is what the British writer witnessed; saying: "The old  man  apparently  had  no  liking  for  the  idea  of  being sought  out  by  travelers  on  the  purpose  of  venerating  him; this  was  not  his  Master's  work.  If  the  English  man  was

(speaking about himself) poor, or sad, or sick, or in need for any  spiritual  ministration,  or  counsel,  then  he  would  see him, but not otherwise."

When  the  Prince  Serguios  (uncle  of  Nicola  the  Tzar  of

Russia)  and  his  wife,  heard  about  him  they  visited  him  in

1898. The governor received them, and the Coptic noblemen of  El-Fayoum  tried  to  buy  new  furniture  for  the  bishop's residence,  but  the  bishop  refused  completely.  The  visitors came  and  bowed  infront  of  him  on  the  ground,  and  he prayed for them. When they offered him a bag full of golden pounds he refused, and lastly he took one pound and gave it to his disciple Rizk. The Prince said that he did not feel such as inspiring awe all his life as at that moment when he was standing infront of this saint, Anba Abraam.

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EXPLAINING THE WORD OF TRUTH

Anba  Isidore  said,  "He  was  a  scholar  in  the  holy  Bible studies, so that he learned the extracts by heart and repeated them  from  memory.  This  was  a  result  of  his  studying  the Scriptures at the Monastery of El-Baramous." Some monks said that he read all the Bible every forty days.

It is said that he used to collect his people every evening for  prayers,  and  gave  someone  responsibility  for  reading many chapters of the Bible, and then he would explain them. He encouraged the priests and preachers to deliver sermons, and he himself used to attend those meetings, and to com- ment  on  anything  wrong  they  might  say  concerning  the dogma or the rites of the church.

It  is  said  that  nobody  heard  him  speaking  about  earthly matters,  but  all  his  speech  was  spiritual  and  concerning heavens. His life itself was a real sermon for all. For in his days all were close to Jesus Christ, joining the church, and no one dared to abduct any of the children of the church. On

1908 A.D someone tried to spread some heresies in Fayoum, then the father wrote a strong evangelistic letter to his peo- ple, so that they might not deviate from the orthodox faith.

A  Christian  girl  once  was  seduced  by  a  deceptive  non- Christian  man  who  made  her  yield  to  him  and  despise  her faith as a price for their marriage. The authorities informed the bishopric office of her desire to change her religion. The

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bishop  did  not  send  any  priest,  but  went  personally  to  the police office to meet her, but she refused to accept his ad- vice.  The  bishop  angrily  said,  "You  don't  desire  the  other religion  but  you  only  desire  the  youth.  Your  aim  is  very wicked. Go out and God will do His will." As soon as the girl left the room, she fell on the ground and all believed that she had died. The policemen hurried to the girl thinking that the  bishop  had  killed  her.  The  bishop  full  of  courage  ap- proached the girl, blessed some water and sprinkled it over her. She immediately arose and said: "I have seen with my own  eyes!"  Then  she  changed  her  desire  for  marriage,  and lived in righteousness and modesty.

The same story was repeated with a Christian youth who wanted to change his religion for the sake of money. He re- fused the bishop's advice, who told him that God would do His will. The youth died in the same day.

The same thing occurred again with a wicked woman who was presented to the bishop's residence, she had determined to deny the Lord, Jesus Christ. As soon as she left the place she was afflicted with leprosy.

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