Pischoi

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St. Pischoi (Passios the Great)
Coptic icon of St. Pishoi, including scenes from his life
Coptic icon of St. Pishoi, including scenes from his life
Born 320 AD (Shansa, Egypt )
Deceased July 15, 417 AD (Mount Ansena , Egypt)
Holiday 8. Epip
Place of worship St. Pishoi Monastery
in the Sketian Desert in Egypt
Attributes Monk who carried Jesus Christ and washed his feet.

The Holy Pischoi ( Coptic Ⲁⲃⲃⲁ Ⲡⲓ ϣ ⲱⲓ Abba Pišoi and Greek Όσιος Παΐσιος ο Μέγας ; * 320 AD in Shansa ( Egypt ); † July 15, 417 AD, Antinoupolis) in the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria also as "Star of the Desert" and known as "The Beloved of Our Good Savior" was an Egyptian desert father . He is said to have seen Jesus Christ and his body is said to be in the St. Pischoi Monastery in the Satron Valley . He is venerated by the Oriental Orthodox Churches and the Byzantine Orthodox Churches . The latter know him by the Greek version of his name, Passios. He is not to be confused with the Egyptian Pishay .

Life

Saint Pischoi was born in 320 AD in the village of Shansa (also called Shensha or Shesna) in what is now the Egyptian administrative district of Al Minufiyah . He was the youngest of seven brothers and he was weak and fragile. His mother saw an angel in a vision asking her to give one of her children to God, and by that she meant Pishoi. She wanted to give up one of her stronger children, but the angel insisted on Pischoi.

At the age of twenty, Pischoi went to the Sketian desert and became a monk under his grandfather Poimen , who also consecrated St. John the Dwarf as a monk. After Poimen’s death, Pischoi was led by an angel to the site of today's St. Pischoi Monastery , where he lived as a hermit . He became the spiritual father of many of the monks who gathered around him. He became famous for his love, wisdom, simplicity and goodness, as well as for his extremely celibate life. He was also known to love seclusion and silence. His abstinence was strict, he even tied his hair and hands to the ceiling with a rope to resist sleep during his night prayers. His abstinence made him so famous that he was visited by Saint Ephraim the Syrian .

The Copts believe that Pischoi saw Jesus Christ several times. Once an old monk asked him to help him climb mountains, so Pishoi carried him on his shoulders and found out that the old monk was Jesus. The latter told him that because of the extent of love, his body would not rot. The Copts also believe that Pischoi washed Jesus' feet when he visited him as a poor friend.

Pischoi is also said to have seen Jesus in his monastery. When Pischoi's fellow believers heard that Jesus was coming, they gathered together in the hope of seeing him. An old man had previously asked them to help him on his way, but they had ignored him. When Pischoi saw the old man, he helped him into his room. He used to wash the man's feet and then revealed himself to be Jesus.

Pishoi became known as a defender of orthodoxy against heretical teachings . After hearing of a hermit monk on Mount Ansena who taught that there was no holy spirit , Pishoi went to him with a woven basket with three handles. When the old man asked him why the basket had three handles, Pishoi replied, "I have a Trinity and everything I do is like the Trinity." After a long study of the Scriptures, the Old and the New Testament , the old monk returned to Orthodoxy.

Saint Pishoi also has the title of Perfect Man .

Death and relics

When the Berbers invaded the Sketian desert in 407/408 AD , Pishoi fled and lived in the mountains near Ansena . During this time he met Saint Paul of Tamma in Antinoupolis and the two became very close friends. When he was with Ansena , he built the St. Pischoi Monastery in Dair al-Berscha . Pischoi died on July 15, 417 AD.

On December 13, 841 AD (4th Koiak ), Pope Joseph I of Alexandria fulfilled the wish of St. Pischoi and left his body, as well as that of St. Paul of Tamma, in the St. Pischoi monastery in the Sketian Bring desert . It is said that at first they only wanted to transport the body of Saint Pishoi, but after they had put it on a boat on the Nile , the boat did not leave until they also brought the body of Saint Paul of Tamma onto the boat. Today both corpses are in the main church of the Coptic Orthodox St. Pischoi Monastery in the Nitrian Desert. Eyewitnesses report that the body of Saint Pischoi allegedly did not rot.

Monasteries named after Saint Pischoi

There are currently three monasteries named after Saint Pischoi:

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America: Paisios the Great ( Memento from June 20, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Coptic Orthodox Monastery of St. Bishoy the Great: Wadi El-Natroun, Egypt. Coptic Network, accessed January 22, 2016 .
  3. ↑ Commemorations for Baba 7: 1. The Departure of St. Paul of Tamouh. Coptic Orthodox Church Network, accessed January 22, 2016 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Pischoi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bishoy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Egyptian desert father
DATE OF BIRTH 320
PLACE OF BIRTH Shansa , Egypt
DATE OF DEATH July 15, 417
Place of death Mount Ansena , Egypt