Saint Sidoros the Recluse
Saint Sidoros the Recluse
Our father the Patriarch Pope Benjamin I of Alexandria said: While I was fleeing from the oppression of Heraclius, I went to some monasteries of Upper Egypt and asked the monks of the monastery whether there was among them a sick person or a stranger I should visit. They said: “We have a monk who has been in the monastery for 25 years and has shut himself in. He said, ‘My door will not be opened except by Pope Benjamin.’”
When I heard this, I was filled with wonder. I went with them to the dwelling of this monk and called him by the name they had told me. He answered, “This is the voice of the Pope, the Patriarch Anba Benjamin.” My amazement increased, and when I placed my hand on the door, it opened as well. I marveled even more and glorified God. I entered, and he received me in the best manner. He asked me to pray for him, yet my soul desired that he pray for me, because he was an ascetic, solitary, and devout worshipper. So I prayed for him, and his face shone, and I saw upon him a radiant light. I asked him about his life.
He recounted how his father and brothers had died, so he worked as a hired servant for a man who owned a boat. On it were faithful people speaking about the news of the monks and their virtues, and his soul longed for the monastic life. When the boat docked at Alexandria, he entered the church of St. Mark, attended the liturgy, and prayed. There he met one of the monastic fathers, told him his story and his desire. The father advised him to ask permission from the boat owner and come to him.
After that, he brought him to this monastery, clothed him with the Eskimo (monastic habit), led him into this cell, and shut him in. He told him: “This door will not be opened for you by anyone except Pope Anba Benjamin, and that will be on the day of your departure.”
Then this monk said to me: “I have known what will come upon you from the Romans, and after that a people from the Arabs will come and expel them and take their place. Their leader will seek you, and you will be honored by him. In your time, a great church will be built, and you will consecrate it, and your remembrance will remain upon it.”
Pope Benjamin says: I was greatly amazed at all this الكلام. Then I rose from him and returned to the place where I was. Shortly after, the head of the monastery came to me weeping, saying: “No one will close my eyes except the Pope, the Patriarch.”
My amazement increased, and I hurried quickly and found that he was near death. He turned his face and asked me to pray for him. So I prayed the absolution prayer over him and asked for his prayers. He stretched out his hand and drew me to him until I came near his face; he kissed me, and I kissed him, and he departed from the world like one asleep.
I closed him and ordered that a place be dug for him in his dwelling to bury him. When the monks uncovered the ground, they found an empty grave in which no one had been buried, and in it was a stone coffin according to his length. My amazement increased even more.
They opened it, and I found around it a Greek inscription which said: “I, the weak monk Simon, when I was dwelling in this place, I saw something like an angel at my feet saying to me: Someone wealthy from Persia will come to you with a gift. Take it from him and ask him for a stone coffin to be a burial place for a holy man who will dwell in this place.”
Pope Benjamin says: My amazement increased. We buried this saint, and I remained at his grave for three days, and many miracles occurred from his body. Then I departed from this monastery to another monastery of Upper Egypt.
This is the biography of Saint Sidoros the Recluse, who lived in the seventh century and was born in the region of Ashmunein in Upper Egypt.
An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – in El-Keraza Magazine – Year Eight (Issue Fifty-Two), 30-12-1977.
For better translation support, please contact the center.
