B. 275. Shenouda’s Intense Striving.
2 76. His Tumultuous Age.
- He Shelters Twenty Thousand People.
- His Care for Monks and Nuns.
- The Red and the White Monasteries.
B. 275. Shenouda of Akhmim was among the
Fathers who had accompanied Abba Kyrillos to Ephesus,
a man historians consider as one f the ‘giants’ of the
Coptic Church.
Shenouda had been born to God-fearing parents,
and his father owned a farm and flocks of cattle. Like
David of old, his father sent him to attend to the sheep
while yet he was little boy, for wealthy though he was, he
believed in hard honest labour as the surest way for
training in responsibility.
When he was ten years old, he was put under the
guidance of Abba Pijol, his maternal uncle, and Abbot of
the Red Monastery in Upper Egypt. He proved to be
spiritually attuned to a rare degree, and strove
continuously after spiritual excellence. The intensity of
his yearning after righteousness was such that he attained
great sanctity and enjoyed studying as well as teaching
others both monks and laity. One day, some old ascetics
in the monastery heard a voice saying: “Behold Shenouda
is become an Archimandrite” (i.e., Chief of Anchorites)
and so when Abba Pijol entered into the joy of his Lord,
Shenouda was elected to take his place as Abbot. Under
his guidance, the number of monks reached four
thousand: eighteen hundred of them in the Red monastery
and the rest in the White monastery,^40 while a few of them
preferred the solitary life.