Saint Anba Roweis.
From the Lives of the Saints
The Church celebrated on the past 31st of October (21 Baba) the commemoration of the righteous man,
Saint Anba Roweis.
This great, virginal, poor, ascetic saint obtained his great fame without any position or ecclesiastical rank. He was neither a monk nor a bishop nor a holder of any clerical order. Yet he was greater, more famous, and nearer to God and to the people than those who had ranks, positions, and degrees.
He was born with the name “Farīg” in Meniet Bamin in Gharbia, to a farmer father named Isaac. He used to help his father in farming, and he sold salt on his small camel named “Roweis.” This camel is often depicted with him in his icons. It was said that it was a clever camel, responding to his call, covering him if he slept, and waking him at the time of prayer.
His Asceticism:
Anba Farīg lived as a stranger on the earth, renouncing everything…
He renounced dwelling, living as a wanderer with his camel from place to place, having no residence. He had no house or lodging. He sometimes spent the night in the roads, and sometimes in the homes of believers. He used to chant with a sorrowful, touching tone the words of the psalm: “Woe is me, for I am a stranger, and my sojourning has been prolonged upon me.”
And he renounced clothing, wandering almost naked, enduring heat, cold, and the blasts of wind, appearing in a manner mocked by people, bearing because of it the insults of crowds and children.
And he renounced food, being severe in the subduing of his body and in his abstinent fasting. He would pass two or three days fasting. Once he fasted a week, and Pope Mattheos, who lived in his time, testified that he refrained from food for 11 days. And it was said that once he refrained for 26 days.
And he renounced money, refusing the gifts offered to him by the rich. Once he was walking with one of his disciples, and he cried out to his disciple warning him: “Beware not to step with your foot on this scorpion lest it sting you and kill you with its deadly poison.” The disciple turned and saw no scorpion, but rather a gold dinar, which was what the saint meant.
And he renounced fame and honor: When the name “Farīg” became known among the people, he changed it and took for himself the name of his camel “Roweis.” And when this name also became known, he rejected it. When they asked him in his wanderings about his name, he said: “Tigi Eflio,” meaning “the mad neighbor”; and the name “Tigi” also became known. This is the name by which the Church knows him in the hymn “Pim-shti” and others.
He used to endure with great patience the insults of children and rulers. He was once beaten 400 lashes and thrown into prison… He used to rebuke himself saying: “Blessed are you, John the Forerunner. You offered your head to the sword, but I, the aging old man, cannot endure even a small stab!”
His Visions and His Being Carried Away:
Anba Roweis was a man of visions: In his childhood he saw in his sleep two luminous men who carried him to a heavenly church and returned him. In his solitude he saw the Lord Christ five times in inexpressible glory, and He spoke to him mouth to ear. And the Spirit would sometimes carry him from one place to another. The Spirit once carried him from the Church of Harat Zuweila to Asyut, to carry a paralytic man named “Wahba” to the Church of the Two Martyrs “Peter and Bashay,” where the paralytic was healed, and Anba Roweis returned in the same hour with the offering, which he delivered to Pope Mattheos, and he distributed it as a blessing to those present. This miracle was recorded in an icon.
And once the Spirit carried him to the Levant, where he saved the son-in-law of al-Zuhri from the soldiers of “al-Mantaashiya” and carried him to the palace of Sultan al-Zahir Barquq.
His Love for the Virgin:
He loved the Virgin very much and visited her church in Harat Zuweila, and her church in the Monastery of al-Khandaq – the area of Anba Roweis – where he was buried. He departed on the Feast of the Virgin on 21 Baba, when the Mother of God was beside him at the hour of his departure, and one of his disciples saw her.
He sought her intercession. When the Patriarch was imprisoned, Anba Roweis said to one of his disciples: “Our Lady the Virgin will deliver him.” And the disciple saw in a vision a cross of light in the sky, from which a dove emerged and spread its wings over the head of Pope Mattheos, and he heard Saint Anba Roweis telling him: “Matta, Matta! Let not your heart fear, for the good dove whom you love has gone forth today for your deliverance.” And the Patriarch was saved from prison, and the prophecy of the saint was fulfilled.
His Constancy in Receiving Communion:
Anba Roweis was constant in receiving Communion on Sundays and feasts. He approached Communion with great fear and trembling, saying: “None deserves to receive from these holy mysteries except he whose inward parts are pure and clean like the inward parts of our Lady the pure Virgin, who deserved to carry Christ in her womb.”
His Knowledge of Secrets:
He was a man “with opened eyes,” to whom God revealed hidden things, so he knew the sins of people and their secrets: Once he saw the teacher Suda facing the icon of the Virgin in supplication, so he rebuked him saying: “What is this false display?! How do you dare to stand before the pure holy Lady while you accompany an evil woman?!” The man was shocked, and the saint led him to true repentance, and he became a monk, and Pope Mattheos chose him as steward of his cell…
Another time he exposed a deacon who was hiding a knife to kill a certain woman… And once he seized a young man and disciplined him because he broke his fast and defiled himself in Great Lent. And another time he broke a water jar of some laborers, and a dangerous serpent came out of it.
Sometimes he used his knowledge of the unseen to save people: He once entered the house of Dawud al-Sharbatli and took the quantities of sugar present and threw them into the well; the man’s wife was astonished. Shortly after, the police came and searched the house – because the sugar was stolen – but they found nothing, and the man was saved. And in a similar manner he saved a deacon from scandal.
The Gift of Healing:
How many miracles of healing God performed through his hands: He healed many possessed, mute, lame, and blind people. And sometimes he required repentance from the sick person before healing him: “Mikhail al-Banna” of Meniet al-Serg was epileptic. In his seizure he saw black slaves attacking him with fiery arrows, so he sought help from Anba Roweis; the saint said to him: “If you repent of what you are in, I will rescue you from them.” He repented, and the saint healed him from epilepsy.
Another time they brought to him Sa‘id Baraka, whose leg was broken, to heal him. He said: “If this man had had mercy on his poor hungry brothers… I would have asked for his healing.” The man repented, and the saint healed him, and the man increased in works of mercy until he used to distribute yearly 1000 ardebs of wheat to the poor and cared for the monasteries of monks and nuns.
His Tomb:
Anba Roweis was ill for 9 years, which he endured with patience without complaint. When he knew his hour, he blessed his disciples and signed all his members with the sign of the Cross and delivered his pure soul on 18 October 1404 A.D. He was buried in his present tomb, and God performed miracles from his tomb after his departure.
He rested near the Church of the Virgin, and some tried to move him but could not.
On the eighth day after his burial, his body was stolen, and he appeared to his disciples and informed them of what had happened, so they returned him to his grave. Then some tried to move his body by ship to the Monastery of Shahran, but storms and waves rose against them, so they returned him to his place. In our modern history, Armanius (Pasha Hanna) – overseer of the Patriarchate in the days of Pope Cyril V – wanted to demolish the saint’s tomb to rebuild it in a more modern style. But the worker’s right hand was paralyzed, and the tomb remained as it is.
Thus the Association for the Revival of Churches also could not renovate the tomb.
Blessed is Anba Roweis. May God keep him in this place as a blessing for him and for the whole Church… And may God benefit us through his prayers and intercessions.
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Article by His Grace Bishop Shenouda, Bishop of Education – Al-Keraza Magazine, Year One – Issue Nine – November 1965
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