• The Patriarch's Reply
  This challenge came like a bolt from the blue, ten years into a reign that had become one of relative peace and security for the Copts. The Patriarch was stunned into silence, and prayed that God would give him the wisdom to know how to reply. After sending up this 'arrow prayer', he then asked for, and was granted, three days' grace before giving his answer. He immediately called on all Christians in Egypt to fast for three days from dawn till sunset and to pray fervently for the Church's deliverance from this ordeal.
  The Patriarch then went to the Hanging Church in Babylon (still to be found in what is now called 'Old Cairo') and summoned there all the bishops, archdeacons and monks in the vicinity. He told them, 'We must fast and pray for three days, so that the Lord may show mercy upon us in his grace, and provide us a way of deliverance.'
  So fasting and vigils began in earnest throughout Egypt, and all the Copts who heard the call prayed for deliverance from the ordeal ahead. At dawn on the third day, when the Patriarch was due to give his answer to the Caliph, he had a dream. According to Coptic tradition, the Virgin Mary appeared to him in it and said, 'What is the matter with you?'
  The Patriarch answered, 'You know what it is lady of the heavenly and earthly beings.' In reply, she said, 'Fear not, faithful shepherd… for your tears which you have shed in this church, and the fasts and prayers which you and your people have offered up shall not be forgotten. Now, get out through the Iron way out, you will find a one-eye man in front of you carrying a water skin. Take hold of him; for he is the man by whom the miracle will take place.'
• Simaan the Tanner
  As soon as the Patriarch awoke, he went out through h iron gate and found the man spoken of in the dream e took him inside, closing the gate behind them. Then he told him everything that had happened, the Caliph's ultimatum: and the dream that had revealed by whom the miracle would take place.
  The stranger looked puzzled, then replied, 'Forgive me, my father, for I am but a sinful man.'  
  But the Patriarch persisted and insisted that this was a heavenly command. On hearing this, the man submitted. The Patriarch asked him his name. He answered:
  'My name is Simaan the Tanner. I work in tanning animal skins. But I wake up early every day to fill a skin with water to give to those who can’t fetch it for themselves because of old age or illness.
  'When I have done this, I return my water skin to the house and go to my work at the tannery where I Work till evening. And at sunset I go out with the others and eat just enough to keep myself alive. Then I turn to prayer …’
  Simaan insisted that while he was still alive the Patriarch should not tell anyone who he was or anything about his role in the ordeal to come.
  Suddenly it seemed as if Simaan knew what God was asking of him. He said, 'My honorable father, go up the mountain and take along with you the religious leaders, the deacons, and the archdeacons. Make them carry on high the Bibles, the crosses, and the long candles, these being lit, and the censers full of incense.
  'And ask the king and his retinue to go up with you. You must stand on one side of the mountain, while they stand on the side opposite you. As for me, I will stand among the people, so no one will recognize me.
  'Then, after administering the holy sacraments, raise up your voice with all of the people, repeating, 'Kyrie Eleison' ('Lord, have mercy') 400 times.
  'Then, after that, keep silent for some moments, and worship, you and the priests, before the Most High. Repeat this three times, and every time you stand up after worshipping, draw the sign of the cross over the mountain, and you shall see the glory of God.'
• Power Encounter
  The Patriarch prayed a prayer of thanksgiving to God, who had allowed the trial to come, but was providing a way out.1 He then told the Caliph that he was ready to carry out his request by the grace of God.
  The Caliph rode out with several important men of his retinue, and all his soldiers. He met the Patriarch, along with many bishops, priests, deacons, archdeacons and laity. Among the laity, of course, was Simaan the Tanner. The two parties took up their positions on the mountain facing each other.
  The Patriarch and the bishops lifted up the sacraments and administered them. The people then repeated the Kyrie
  Eleison prayer 400 times: 100 towards the east, then the west, the north and the south. After this, they remained silent, placing themselves at God's mercy.
  The people then began to worship: While the Patriarch drew the sign of the cross, they bowed down to the ground and then arose again. And as they did this, a great earthquake convulsed the mountain. Each time the people bowed down, the mountain was thrust down, and each time they stood up, the mountain was raised up so that the rays of the sun could be seen shining through underneath it.
  This happened three times, the mountain crashing down and rising up as the people prostrated themselves and stood up again. The Caliph was overcome with awe and fear as were all his followers. He cried out at the top of his voice 'God is great; may his name be blessed!' and he begged the Patriarch to stop what he was doing, for fear his city would be completely destroyed.
  When calm finally descended on the scene, the Caliph confessed to the Patriarch, 'You have proved that your faith is a true one.'
  And so it was that the mountain, the surface of which was originally level and connected, became divided into three parts leaving space between them. The Arabic dictionaries say that the word Muqattam means 'cut up'. The Caliph had the space to enlarge his new capital, but the miracle had profoundly affected him.
  First, he asked the Patriarch privately what he could do for him. The Patriarch answered wisely, 'The only thing I ask is that the Lord may lengthen your span of life, and give you Victory over your enemies.
  But the Caliph insisted on granting a favor, so the Patriarch said, 'All right, since you press me, I would dearly love permission to be granted for the church of Saint Markorios Abu Seifeyn to be rebuilt, for it has been torn down and what was left used as a storehouse for sugar-cane. Also, I would like the walls of the Hanging Church to be restored, for they are now cracked.'
  The Caliph immediately drew up a decree authorizing the repairs and even offered to pay for them out of the State treasury. Yet the Patriarch politely refused the money, saying that God would provide. And indeed this was the beginning of a new age of church building and renewal throughout Egypt.
  This was all done with the active support of the Caliph.
  When his decree authorizing the repairs was issued, mobs gathered outside the church of Abu Seifeyn, which was in Babylon, Old Cairo. 'Abu Seifeyn' literally means 'father of two swords' and is a name given to Saint Markorios, to whom the church was dedicated. Markorios came to know Christ while serving as a soldier in the Roman army. According to Coptic tradition, God appeared to him in a vision and encouraged him. In addition to the sword he carried as a soldier, God gave him a divine sword to wield for him. Markorios was eventually martyred in God's cause.
  The mob was in no mood, however, to see a Christian martyr honored, and were determined to stop the rebuilding. But in the event, they found 'God's sword' wielded against them. When the news of the mob reached the Caliph, he was furious, and rode his horse into Babylon at the head of his army. There he ordered the builders to work in his presence, and under his own supervision. The mob was dumbfounded by this demonstration of the Caliph's determination.
  Indeed it was whispered in some quarters that the Caliph had become a Christian. According to Coptic records, he was indeed secretly baptized in the great baptistery for adult immersion which is still to be seen at the church of Abu Seifeyn. Soon afterwards, though, he handed over power to his son and disappeared.
  Again, according to Coptic sources, no official announcement of his death was made until at least six months after the event. The circumstances that surround it are shrouded in mystery.
• Adham's Head
  Clearly it was part of God's design to use the name of St Simaan as a source of inspiration for the present-day ministry in Muqattam. It seemed only right, therefore, to expect God to work just as powerfully for his glory as he had done in answer to the prayers of Simaan the Tanner in the tenth century.
  One very wonderful thing happened even in the building of the church itself. They could get cement and sand and metal, but there was no water available. In fact, there was not a single source of water in the whole area. People would buy water from below the mountain, but it took half a day to fetch it.
  A month later all the materials were ready and waiting _ except for the water. One day after worship, Farahat went out on the Muqattam road and found a tractor pulling a water tanker near the roads up to Muqattam. Farahat was sure that God was saying to him, 'Go in here and he will give you water for the church.'
  So he went up to the tractor driver and said, 'Can you help us? We're building a church and we need Water.'
  'Go and see Abd Al-Kareem, the engineer,' said the tractor driver. 'He's in charge.' Kareem? This name surprised Farahat. In the form it was given, it was a non-Christian name, but Copts also used it to mean 'generous'. Perhaps it was auspicious after all. Farahat felt that God was insisting, so he entered the hut and greeted the engineer. ‘Good evening,’ the man responded.
  But Farahat simply blurted out, 'We're building a church and we need water.'
  'Min ayneya!' Kareem responded. Literally this means, 'from my two eyes', and in practice is a promise that the service requested will be granted. 'Our premises are up in Muqattam and this is the address,' he said to Farahat. 'Build a cistern to take water and we will send you the tractor with the water-tanker.'
  Farahat could hardly believe that the problem was finally being solved. So he went and found a type of chamber in the hill and sealed it up. It had the capacity for 70 cubic meters of water. Next he contacted the organization and immediately they sent three tractors with water-tankers to fill the cistern.
  By the beginning of 1977 they had reached the stage of constructing the second storey of the church building, and on 19 January Farahat was due to preach at an evening service. After finishing work that day, he went to the church and asked how the work was getting on. The reply shocked him.
  'Adham is dying in the AI-Azhar hospital.'
  'Who is Adham?' he asked. (Adham means Adam.)
  It turned out that Adham was one of the builders and had met with a tragic accident on the site. They explained what had happened: 'A tractor was backing up and he was sitting between the tractor and the tanker, He fell off and the wheel crushed his head.'
  This news shocked Farahat deeply. Why should someone be killed for building a church? It didn't seem Possible. He then said, 'Today we will neither preach nor sing. We will do only one thing - pray. What is that chair made from?”
  'Wood,' one worshipper responded, looking puzzled... 'If it broke, what would we do about it?'
  'We would mend it with wood.'
  'Who would mend it?' he asked.
  'The carpenter.'
  Farahat said, 'Adham was made from dust. So who made him?'
  'Our Lord.'
  Farahat summed up. 'That's all there is to it, then. We need to say to our Lord, "please mend his head - or make him a new one!'"
  The people of Muqattam were very confused as to how this could happen, but when it came to the word of the Lord, they believed it.
  So Farahat sent for a doctor to visit Adham in the hospital. But when the doctor saw Adham, he pronounced. 'There's no chance of him recovering. Nothing short of a miracle could save him now.'
  Yet the doctor himself was to be greatly helped in his spiritual life by what followed. Three days later Farahat went to the hospital with some companions and found Adham still in a coma. In fact, he looked like a corpse. The tractor wheel had squashed his head just about flat, so it looked like the local bread - more in the shape of pita bread than a farmhouse loaf! Blood was trickling out of his nostrils, mouth and ears. His eyes had almost disappeared into his head. Farahat was horrified by the severity of Adham's injuries.
  With tears pouring down their faces, they prayed there and then in the heart of the hospital. 'Lord, you are the one who made Adham's head and you can create a new head. You are the God of miracles and wonders.'
  At that moment, there was a very slight stirring; it was just enough to show that life was still present. Then they left.
  Precisely nine days after the accident, the church workers asked Adham's friends how he was getting on. 'He's at home,' they replied.
  'At home?' they questioned incredulously. 'Yes.'
  So they went to his house, and found Adham asleep on a mat. He had recovered sufficiently to be playing with his children. Yet his new head was noticeably larger than the old one. God really had worked a miracle.
  This particular miracle gave a big boost to God's work in building the church. It enabled Farahat and his team to finish the second storey of the church, spurred on by enthusiasm. There was still very little money, but one Sunday evening when Farahat arrived at the building site there was some news for him. Earlier in the day a man had driven up in a Mercedes and asked for Farahat. When he didn't find him, he left a message.
  At that point, the work had ground almost to a halt, because they couldn't get cement for the upper storey of the church. Financing it was proving very difficult, and so was getting a license. Farahat read the message and found it was brief and cryptic. It read, 'Samy Saad, Engineer, 14 Hassan El Akbar St. The appointment is for six in the evening.'
  Farahat didn't have a clue who the man was. But he left right away to keep the appointment for six o'clock, and found the company in a central district of Cairo called Abdeen. He went in and found a secretary and some engineers in the office. He showed someone the piece of paper and they told him, 'Samy Saad is the owner of the company.' Eagerly Farahat said, 'Oh - please take me to see him!' As they got talking, Farahat soon realized that the Owner of the company and the owner of the tractor bringing them water were one and the same. 'We are very grateful for the water, but now it’s run out.'
  It turned out that Samy had heard about Adham - how the tractor had crushed his head and how God had miraculously healed him when he was at death's door. This inspired Samy to offer Farahat more help. 'What exactly do you need?' he asked.
  'What we really need is cement.'
  'OK, take 10 tons of cement from AI-Ha ram, and whenever you need more we will send it until you have finished the church.'
  So the miracle of Adham's healing had still further consequences. By amazing Samy, it had made it possible for the building work to go on. Through such miracles, God encouraged the laborers to forge ahead with their task. The new church, which covered an area of around 1,000 square meters, was now due to be finished in 1977
• Ordination
  At this time the Patriarch made an announcement in the pages of Al-Kiraza magazine, the official bulletin of the Cop tic Church. In it he said that he was going to ordain another man - not Farahat - as priest for the church of St Simaan the Tanner. Farahat, as the manager of Al-Kiraza Press, could not fail to notice the announcement. Given his strong sense of calling to this church's work, it is not hard to imagine his feelings.
  Many zeballeen shared those feelings, for they formed a delegation to make an appeal to the Patriarch. Everyone who had heard about the announcement went to him and said, 'Please, your holiness, all the people here know Brother Farahat. He is the one who has been with us since the beginning, sharing with us, working with us, and visiting us. He knows our homes and our lives and has always come back to us, even when we felt like giving it all up.'
  The Patriarch paused to think. 'All right, I'll put this first ordination on hold and look into the situation again.'
  The Patriarch is a firm believer in the principle that it is the people who should choose their priest. They won't accept an ordained they don't know sent to them out of the blue. They must be convinced that the candidate should be ordained having seen the person at work during a period of practical service. So right from the beginning the candidate must be believed to be a true child of God. He must be living his ministry and getting to know the different kinds of service through being among the people.
  This issue is never easy to settle. It takes prayer and tears, and in later years the church at Muqattam would agonize over future candidates for as long as four years before making their final choice. Even then, the ordained were to travel at least three times a week, and in some cases every day, to the clerical college.
  Finally, the Patriarch interviews the candidate and, if all goes well, ordains him. For Farahat, that day of decision was 15 January 1978. It was then that Pope Shenouda III 'in his love chose me - an ignorant zabaal'.
• NOTES:
1. of 1 Corinthians 10.13.

Top