February 07, was the departure of Abouna Andrawis El Samueli. May his intercessions be with us all. I don't know if anyone has seen the movie depicting his story, but it's really good! I couldn't find his story online anywhere except from his facebook group. Here it is:

A 20th century Coptic saint, Father Andrawis the Samuelite (or El-Samueli, i.e., of St. Samuel's Coptic Orthodox Monastery in Egypt) was born at Algafdon village, Alfashn, Beni Suef governorate, Egypt, in the year 1887.

The name of Fr. Andrawis was "Youssef Khaleel Ibrahim", and he related, according to what his parents told him, that he lost sight when he was three years old.

When he was thirteen years old, he headed to the village "El Zawarah" where the residence of the monastery of St. Samuel is located.

There he was well received by the church instructor, and he acquired and learned church rituals, chants and hymns at the hands one of the monks named "Ibrahim El Fayoumy". He completed his learning in less than ten years!

He was in charge of the hardest tasks to be done at the monastery, he had to raise water from the monastery well to fill a very large basin everyday manually.

Some people saw scorpions beside him but causing no harm, they discovered a serpent sleeping on his shoulder as if they were friends.

He stayed alone in the monastery for four months living on dry bread, and salty water. He used to bless people saying: "May God be with you, not against you".

Fr. Andrawis died on February 7, 1988, he lived about 75 years as a monk, but is still performing miracles even after his departure.

May his blessing be with us all, Amen.
Posted by: Nansy Abdelmalak

Back to news page