Samuel (Coptic Bishop)

Anba Samuel (Arabic: الانبا صموئيل) (maiden name: Saad Aaziz ) (born December 8, 1920 in Cairo ; † October 6, 1981 ) was a general bishop of the Coptic Church .

Life

Bishop Samuel second from right and Pahor Labib third from left

After graduating from school, he began studying law at Cairo University in 1937 . After graduating in 1941, he worked in the Egyptian National Bank. At the same time he began studying theology , which he completed in 1944 with a diploma at the Theological College in Cairo. He then received a scholarship to study educational science and psychology at the American University Cairo (AUC). He taught both subjects until 1946 at the Theological College in Cairo. In the following two years he was sent to teach at the Ethiopian Theological College Holy Trinity Theological College in Addis Ababa . In 1948 he became a monk under the direction of the hermit Mina el-Baramousy, who later became Pope Kyrillos VI. With the name Makari es-Suriani, Anba Samuel was ordained a monk and sent to es-Surian monastery .

Act

In 1954 him the Coptic Pope Jossaph II. (= Sent Yusab II. ) As representatives of the Coptic Church for Christian-Muslim dialogue in Lebanon . In August 1954 he was a member of the delegation to the second meeting of the World Council of Churches in Evanston (Illinois), together with the priest Salib Sourial and the Coptic historian Aziz S. Atiya . There he took the chance to continue his theological studies in the USA; he wrote his master's thesis on the subject of "Christian pedagogy in the Coptic Church in the time of early Christianity". After his return in June 1956, his church appointed him as a representative in the World Council of Churches . On September 30, 1962, Pope Kyrillos VI consecrated him general bishop , with the bishop's name Samuel, for general and social affairs of the Coptic Church. In this office he stood up for all Egyptians, Christians and Muslims, especially during times of war. He founded a community called the Brotherhood of Working People to help the unemployed and improve their standard of living.

He was a member of the Christian Peace Conference , in whose working committee he was elected at the IV All-Christian Peace Assembly in 1971.

For the Muslim Brotherhood , Samuel was a target in the military parade on October 6, 1981 - alongside Anwar ās-Sādāt - and was fatally wounded.

credentials

• Obituaries in: Le Monde Copte 10 (1983) 3-5 (with photo) and Proche-Orient Chrétien 32 (1982) 164-166.
• Kyrellos Boutros: The History of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Germany after the Second World War , Master's thesis, Heidelberg, 2007