Pope Shenouda III dead: Anglican Ink, March 17, 2012

Pope Shenouda III

The leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Pope Shenouda III has died from cancer.  He was 88 years of age.

An aide to the Egyptian Christian leader, Hany Aziz told the Reuters news agency the pope had “died from complications in health and from old age”.

Born Nazeer Gayed on 3 August 1923 in Egypt, the future pope was educated at Cairo University and Coptic Orthodox Theological Seminary. On 18 July 1954 he was tonsured and become a monk, known as Fr. Antonious El-Syriani.

He lived in a cave as hermit on the edge of the Egyptian dessert for six years, but on 30 Sept 1962 he was named president of the church’s seminary and consecrated as bishop, taking the name, Shenouda. On 4 November 1971 he was elected the 117th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark.

Read it all in Anglican Ink.