Introduction and brief biography
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III was born in Girga in 1883, and his name before the priesthood was Maltī. He was distinguished from his youth by intelligence, a playful spirit, and courage, and he entered the clerical college in 1899 at the age of 16. He graduated from it in 1903 and was ordained a priest in 1904, serving in Mallawi and then moving to Asyut where he became the vicar of the diocese for several years.

His apostolic services and public activity
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III served as vicar of the Khartoum diocese in 1912, and his activity extended to public sermons that sometimes included spiritual and political matters. He built a local church before the 1919 revolution, and he preached in Al-Azhar and in major mosques, earning respect among some Al-Azhar scholars for his eloquence and fluency.

His confrontations and writings
He faced legal and political challenges that led to his imprisonment for a period by the English, and he also entered into disputes with the church in some stages. He was a writer and journalist who issued the magazine “Al-Manara” and engaged in debates with scholars, and he wrote several works including large Gospel commentaries and books on Islamic affairs.

Ecclesiastical positions and public participation
He became patriarchal vicar in the 1940s and a member of the National Council, and he was among the first priests to participate in such public bodies, being known for his simplicity and influential presence in open sessions that saw the interaction of journalists and the people.

His morals and spiritual personality
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III was kind with a playful spirit, but he was strong and courageous and did not fear the truth. In his later days his sermons shifted to a deeper and calmer spiritual tone, moving away from the youthful zeal but preserving the essence of the spiritual message.

A story from a personal experience
The narrator recounts an experience that occurred when His Holiness Pope Shenouda III was suddenly arrested, and another person was asked to preach in his place; that person underwent the experience and demonstrated the skill of spiritual preaching before a congregation that had come specifically to hear his sermon, which was about John the Baptist “He must increase and I must decrease.”

Conclusion and end of earthly service
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III departed to the heavenly glories in 1964. He left behind a large literary and spiritual legacy, of commentaries, volumes, books and a magazine, and his sermons in the last years of his life bore a spiritual character that distanced itself from his earlier political fervor.

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