Leaving for St. Samuel Monastery Part 1- Life of Fr. Mettaos El-Suryani

Hegumen Fr. Matta El-Meskeen (Matthew the Poor)

Leaving to St. Samuel the Confessor Monastery with a Group of the Fathers the Monks of the Monastery – Friday July 20^th, 1956:

The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein. (Psalm 24:1)

When Fr. Mettaos resigned from the position of robeta, the office was vacant and none of the Fathers wanted to take that position!! This was during the beginning of January 1956, as we mentioned earlier, shortly before the glorious feast of the Nativity. This provoked the anger of H.G. Bp. Theophilus abbot of the monastery, so that H.G. shut himself in the cell refusing to accept any festal congratulations or greetings from the Fathers and insisted on not leaving his cell until the Fathers agreed on picking one of their own for this position.

At that time Fr. Matta El-Meskeen was living in a cave outside the monastery, he went back to the monastery to attend the feast and to greet Bp. Theophilus and the Fathers. He found out from the Fathers of the monastery that Fr. Mettaos resigned from the robeta and that Bp. Theophilus shut himself in his cell until they agreed on the new robeta. Whereupon Fr. Matta El-Meskeen was fully ready to be the robeta. The Fathers informed Bp. Theophilus of this, he agreed with this decision, came out of his cell and accepted the greetings from the Fathers concerning the feast, and the crisis ended peacefully.

During the period of Fr. Matta El-Meskeen as robeta, there arose some sort of spiritual connection and attraction between Hegumen Mettaos El-Suryani and the late Fr. Matta El-Meskeen. Finally, this connection was perfected when Fr. Mettaos became one of Hegumen Matta El-Meskeen’s sons through Confession.

The resignation that led to the appointing of a new robeta did not last very long! Soon there arose disputes and different views between Bp. Theophilus as abbot of the monastery and Fr. Matta El-Meskeen as robeta, concerning private matter regarding the affairs of the monastery. This is a normal thing and expected in these responsibilities!!

These disputes grew and events unrolled rapidly as Hegumen Matta El-Meskeen left Der El-Suryan and went to Cairo to Hegumen Mina El-Baramosy the Hermit (the late Pope Kyrillos VI) who was serving the church of St. Mina in Zahra, Old Cairo and [Fr. Matta El-Meskeen] stayed there with him.