He lived during the time of Anba Isaac, who narrated his biography. Therefore, he was a contemporary of Anba Galyon the Wanderer. However, Anba Galyon was an elderly old man, while Anba Misael became a wanderer when he was still very young, which  that wandering has no relation to age.

Anba Misael arrived at the monastery at the age of twelve. He stayed in the monastery only a few years and then went out into wandering; that is, he became a wanderer at around seventeen years of age.

His parents, at the beginning of their lives, were far from God. They were very rich and had no children. They complained of their condition to one of the saints, who advised them to repent and God would grant them offspring. So they repented and distributed many alms to the poor. God granted them a son whom they named Misael, and they raised him in the best manner.

The child Misael became orphaned at a young age. His father died when he was five years old, and then his mother died when he was six. The bishop father took care of him and kept his wealth for him. When he reached the age of twelve, he felt the vanity and transience of the world, so he went to Father Isaac, the head of the Monastery of Anba Samuel, to become a monk.

Misael was intelligent and had spiritual insight.

Father Isaac was amazed when Misael recognized him without having seen him before. He asked him, “How did you know me?” He replied, “I saw upon you authority for the obedience of the monks, so I knew that you are the one appointed over this monastery and those in it.”

Father Isaac chose a cell for him and assigned to him an old holy elder to teach him the monastic disciplines. He learned the monastic covenant and memorized the Psalms of David. Within a year, he had learned everything, which amazed his elder teacher as well as the head of the monastery. Father Isaac clothed him with the Eskim after testing him and finding him worthy.

He began monastic life with seriousness in his fasting, prayers, and solitude.

He lived alone in his cell, ascetic, reproaching himself much before God, and disciplining his body. After a time, his father Isaac visited him and found his body like dry wood, and his legs had become like palm branches, and the freshness of youth had departed from him. He wept for him and said, “You entered the monastery, my son, a beautiful child like the sons of kings, and now you have become like the dead…”

Shortly after, Anba Misael went out into wandering. The wanderers came and took him with them. He appeared to his father the following year.

He had the spirit of prophecy and foretold many things. He prophesied about his departure from the monastery and about a famine that would strike the land, so Anba Isaac prepared for it and stored provisions for the monks.

When the governor heard about what had been stored in the monastery, he sent soldiers to harm it. Anba Misael came with his spiritual men, delivered the monastery, and drove away the soldiers. Then he asked Anba Isaac to go to the bishop of his town, take his money from him, and build a church for him in the monastery. Anba Isaac took Anba Misael’s money from his bishop and built a beautiful church in his name in the monastery. Then he went to all the surrounding cities announcing the day of its consecration. Some of the fathers, the bishops, gathered, headed by the bishop of Fao.

The day of its consecration was in the year 390 of the era of Diocletian, that is, the year 674 AD. On that day, Anba Misael and his spiritual men attended the consecration.

He also prophesied to his father Isaac that he would depart from the world in the following year.

He said to him, “Make for yourself a tomb in this church, and rejoice and be comforted.” Father Isaac says, “And he went, and I did not see him again. So I went and made for myself a place for my body in the northern side of this church.”

“I, Isaac, have seen this monk and what God granted him because of his faith and his solitude, for he rejected the world and all that is in it and became like the angels who have nothing except praise and rejoicing.”

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Article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – Al-Keraza Magazine – Year Eight (Issue Fifty-One) 23-12-1977

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