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Everything that God did with Moses on the mountain of Sinai, God has granted it to me on the mountain of Atripe. -St. Shenoute
His upbringing
St. Shenoute was born in Senalolet in Upper Egypt. From a young age, he dedicated himself to communion with his Maker. The young Shenoute would spend his days with his father’s shepherd. When the sun set, instead of going home, he would walk to a nearby cistern, stretch his hands up towards heaven, and pray well into the night.
Needless to say, little Shenoute’s absence worried his parents, who clashed with the shepherd for his perceived failure to return their only son at the end of the day. The shepherd was innocent – he did indeed send Shenoute home at the end of the day. He was, however, unaware of the boy’s pursuit of the Good Shepherd:
And come, my dove, to the shelter of the rock, and take hold of the wall. Show me your face, and cause me to hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is beautiful.
-Song of Songs 2:14
The shepherd decided to investigate Shenoute’s absence. One day, after the sun had set and his work drew to a close, he sent away Shenoute as his parents requested but followed him at a distance. The shepherd hid in a sycamore tree by the cistern and watched him get into the water and pray. All of a sudden, Shenoute’s ten fingers lit up like ten flaming lamps:
Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph and said to him, “Abba, as far as I can I say my little office, I fast a little, I pray and meditate, I live in peace and as far as I can, I purify my thoughts. What else can I do?”
Then the old man stood up and stretched his hands towards heaven. His fingers became like ten lamps of fire and he said to him, “If you so desire, you can become all flame!”Abba Joseph of Panephysis
Seeing this, the shepherd fled. When the morning came and Shenoute’s parents quarrelled with the shepherd again, he replied, “Take your son with you! I am not worthy to have him stay with me!”
Ten days later, the young Shenoute accompanied his father to the White Monastery to visit his (maternal) uncle, St. Pcol, who was the head of a federation of two monasteries (White and Red), one nunnery, and associated hermits in the area, and receive his blessings. As they approached the monastery, Pcol rose and went to greet his guests. When he saw Shenoute, he put the little boy’s hand on his (i.e. Pcol) head and took his blessing instead. That night, an angel instructed Pcol to make the boy a monk and vest him with the mantle of Elijah sent from heaven (i.e., the Schema). And so, at the age of nine, Shenoute’s monastic journey began.
Shenoute the Monk
Shenoute immersed himself in the ascetic life with great labours, vigils, and fasts “without number”. He prayed 12 times a day, each time making 24 prostrations. He spent around three decades conversing with God through the Holy Scriptures. As a result, his renown spread and many tired and misguided souls sought his advice. He also pored over the monastery’s library, through which he learned how to compose in Coptic, a rare skill at the time.
Because of his great love for Christ and the degree to which their wills were aligned, Shenoute was given the vision of his God: when he was in the monastery, he would see the sins committed throughout the whole world, and he would pray for them all so that they might find mercy. From this we see that for Shenoute, the ascetic life was not only a pathway to intimacy with God, but also a preceding step towards serving the rest of the human race – this would be a common theme throughout his life.
Shenoute would converse with his Saviour regularly. Besa, his disciple after he became head of the federation, reported that many times, Shenoute would see Christ standing at the altar and breaking His Body with him.
Pandemonium in the Federation
In his late thirties, Shenoute was granted a vision revealing to him that a senior monk in charge of one of the functions of the monastery had committed a grave sin, probably involving homosexual activity. Worse still, this man conspired with some other monks to prevent the word from spreading. Shenoute, following a command from God, reported the incident to the father of the community.
By this time, St. Pcol had gone to be with the Lord. He was succeeded by a certain Ebonh. When Ebonh heard Shenoute’s report, he rejected it and turned the heart of the senior monk against Shenoute. Quickly, the monks accused Shenoute of slander, judgment, and desiring to usurp leadership of the community. Shenoute immediately regretted not keeping his mouth shut and viewed the turmoil as God’s judgement against him:
Woe to me, for I have sinned. Therefore my heart has become troubled. If the Lord has decided to trouble my heart, who is going to say to him, “What are you doing?” For, that which he willed, he has done.
Shenoute begged Ebonh’s forgiveness for the trouble and warned his brothers that the sanctity of the monastic community was in peril:
A voice has sounded three times around our community, saying: “The Destroyer has come in to you. The Destroyer has mastered a portion among you, and he has taken it captive to a distant land. The Destroyer has demolished the enclosing wall of your community, and he has destroyed the choice bunches of grapes, and stripped bare the vines, and ruined the fig trees, and destroyed the pomegranate trees and the apple trees and the olive trees, and harvested or reaped their fruit and let it fall to the ground, and cut down the best of the tall trees in your midst, and destroyed the lambs of the flock, and destroyed the grown-up rams. For, except that the Lord has left something over among us, we would have become like Sodom and we would resemble Gomorrah.”
He then withdrew into the desert.
From this, we see that while Shenoute took responsibility for the unintended consequences of his righteous actions, he did not disavow his rebuke of sin or tone it down to appease his audience:
He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the just,both of them alike are an abomination to the LORD.
-Proverbs 17:15
Just like the prophets of old, God instructed Shenoute to call his people to repentance. Just like the prophets of old, Shenoute obeyed. Just like the prophets of old, his message was rejected by its recipients. Just like the prophets of old, rejection did not make Shenoute compromise on God’s truth.
It is important to note that this incident was not the first sin in the community. From the time of St. Pcol’s departure, the monks slowly became more lackadaisical in their approach to the monastic life, banking their salvation on their status as monks in a monastery isolated from the outside world by physical walls. It is clear why this attitude is problematic. It is also important to note that Ebonh was not acting out of malice in the way he treated Shenoute’s report. Shenoute remarks that he was “too innocent” to believe that the monastery was infiltrated by such a level of corruption, again trusting purely in the physical wall he built to protect them from sin.
After all this took place, a second incident similar to the first was exposed. Shenoute was vindicated. His former opponents revered him for his prophetic insight. Shenoute, however, had no use for respect without repentance, writing:
Not only does this person [Shenoute] have no desire for what you are considering in your foolish heart, which speaks [nothing but] foolishness, but not even the Lord’s ministering angels want to get near you.
Eventually though, Shenoute succeeded Ebonh and became the third father of the federation.
Shenoute the Archimandrite
Shenoute, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be a prophet, separated to the gospel of God.
Shenoute’s identification with prophethood might strike us today as arrogant or even delusional. It is actually the opposite: if God desires to endow one with the gift of prophecy, as he did with our father Shenoute, it would be the pinnacle of arrogance for such a person to reject the label God places on them. If a person’s response to God’s calling is senseless platitudes about “unworthiness”, such a person disposes of God’s judgement and puts themselves in His seat. I do not say this to oppose humility, but rather, false humility. Humility is accepting God’s will for our lives and all that comes attached to it, which could entail being in a position of authority, for which we will have to give an account as well. We also ought to distinguish between true and false prophets, discerning by God’s guidance and by examining their fruits (Matthew 7:16).
Now in charge of the federation, Shenoute worked to steer the community back to doing its first works. To start, he moved to further integrate the three congregations within the federation and enforce a unified set of standards across all three, ensuring that none were left behind. However, he faced resistance, both from the nunnery (which tried to maintain some level of autonomy) and from a monk who also claimed to receive revelations from God. These challenges could not stop him, and Shenoute ultimately succeeded insetting out a plan for the monastic life that would at last separate his community from the world and bring an end to the licentiousness of times past.
The restoration of order in the federation did not prevent Shenoute from serving his broader community. Laity and clergy, young and old, men and women, all sought his aid. The Arabic Life recounts a story where a man had his sons taken as collateral for a loan – if the man delayed repaying the loan, his sons would be taken to a faraway land and presumably sold into slavery. Shenoute gave the man the sum owed, with which he repaid the creditor, and thus secured the release of his sons.
Our father, the prophet of God, also served as an instrument of Divine justice. In a separate instance, an indebted man was thrown in prison for defaulting on the loan. The man asked his wife to go to the servant appointed for the care of prisoners and have him ask for Shenoute’s intervention. The servant visited Shenoute and obtained a letter from Shenoute addressed to the creditor, requesting the release of the man so that the creditor’s sins might be forgiven too. Instead of directly taking the letter to the creditor and obtaining the release of the poor man, the “servant” told the man’s wife that he would only go to the creditor if she fulfilled his desires. She was, of course, unwilling, but ultimately gave in to secure her husband’s release. Following the release of the man, the “servant” went back to Shenoute with flattering words: “When the rich man heard your name, my father, he released the indebted man.” Shenoute knew what this wretch did and wanted nothing to do with his empty words. He said, “May the Lord who ordered the earth to open its mouth and swallow Dathan and Abiram also order the earth to swallow you now like them, O son of perdition!”And the earth complied.
Having spent countless hours in the monastery’s library reading (among other things) theology, Shenoute developed a high-level understanding of theological concepts that would serve him well upon his elevation to leader of the monastic federation. In a world racked with a myriad of heresies and competing ideologies, Shenoute immunised his children, both those in monasticism and in the world, with Orthodox doctrine and systematically took apart heresies in his homilies. As a result, the babbling of heretics failed to take root in the hearts of the simple.
On a more global scale, Shenoute attended the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus held in 431 AD, upon the request of Pope St. Cyril I. Upon the conclusion of the council, Shenoute went to board the ship back with the Pope. The crew did not recognise this old man in shabby clothing and refused him entry. Shenoute went a short distance away and prayed, and behold, a cloud came down from heaven and took him home.
Shenoute did not intend for the renaissance he started in the federation to be limited to just the ascetics under his purview. Not at all. Just like how his own asceticism served as preparation for his service, so too would the restoration of true monasticism in his community serve as preparation for its service to society, and society was in dire need of their service.
It happened that the Blemmyes conquered some cities near the federation and took their residents captive, approximately 20,000 people. Shenoute would not stand for it. He crossed the river and went to meet their king. Multiple groups of soldiers met him, each time raising their spears to kill him, and each time their hands stiffened. When he reached the king, the king bowed before our father and asked for the restoration of his men. Shenoute made the sign of the cross over them, and they were healed. The king freed the captives, and they went with Shenoute to the monastery.
For three months, the freed captives lived there, with Shenoute arranging to have all their needs met, spending unbelievable sums of money on their sustenance and hiring seven doctors to treat any injuries sustained. He also ransomed 100 prisoners and covered the expenses of their rehabilitation and return home. Shenoute was never stingy, recognising that the money he gave away was not his, but Christ’s. He also noted that the small spring that the monastery relied on would not have been able to meet the needs of the people had God not blessed it. Shenoute also preached to the people gathered in his monastery, thanking God for His providence in bringing His children together in His house through the unfortunate series of events, and encouraging them to keep watch over their souls and do good:
I think that even if soldiers were sent out for us they would not be able to gather us like this from the places whence each one (of us) has come. Let us not be neglectful. For this grace does not belong to us; rather, it belongs to the one who invites, Jesus. -St. Shenoute, God is blessed
War on Injustice
Deliver a person who has been wronged from the hand of the wrongdoer, and do not be faint hearted when you judge his case.
-Wisdom of Sirach 4:9
It is impossible to talk about St. Shenoute without discussing his social teaching. Shenoute faced a world where the oppression of the poor by the rich was standard practice. Shenoute’s homily, Not because a fox barks, enumerates these abuses: forced labour beyond their strength, extortionate pricing, selling (by force) substandard products, little to no remuneration for labour, or downright theft of what little the poor had. There is another abuse Shenoute mentions here that I feel a particular need to emphasise, especially in today’s labour market:
And what about the Great Pasch? You do not permit them any leisure to observe it. Even the new boats that you have made, you make them launch them into the water during it (the Pasch)! Instead of them mourning during it (the Pasch), you have caused them to sing songs unwillingly.
How many Holy Weeks have unscrupulous (and unbelieving too!) employers forced their employees to miss?
Shenoute viewed this oppression as plain violence and rallied hard against it. In no uncertain terms, he preached against these practices and even wrote to guilty parties he knew would not be in attendance. He described the oppression he witnessed as a new persecution, sternly warning that these new persecutors who ignore the Ultimate King and Landowner will answer to Him. In his homily, A26, Shenoute says:
You have not cared about doing anything good, so that you might escape God’s judgment. Who can hinder the word of God from openly saying, “Just as whoever kills a person is killed in his place, in accordance with God’s law, so too the rich person who abuses the poor will be punished by God.” Just as God the Father says in Isaiah about the Only Begotten, “I will give the wicked for his burial and the rich man for his death,” so too on that day God will pass judgment on the evil and lawless rich people instead of the poor people whom they abused on earth.
And just as those people will be punished who crucified the Lord and did not give him to eat or to drink when he was hungry but added to his suffering by making him drink vinegar in his thirst, as it is written, “They gave me vinegar to drink in my thirst,” so too the Lord will punish every rich person who is unmerciful and abusive now on earth. Although they should give people to eat and clothe them when they are naked, they have afflicted them all the more.
Oppression of the poor is equivalent to crucifying the Lord – a terrifying conclusion.
Where homilies and letters failed to move the hardened hearts of those wicked people, Shenoute appealed to provincial governors and even the Emperor to denounce the violence inflicted on the poor and hopefully obtain their repentance. But words were not the only tool in Shenoute’s arsenal. As an instrument of Divine justice, Shenoute was empowered by God to defend the poor by more direct means if necessary. The Coptic Life and the Arabic Life recount an incident where some farmers came to Shenoute complaining about oppression they faced at the hands of the inhabitants of an island called Paneheou. Incensed at the suffering of his children, their father went to the island at night and struck the soil with a palm branch, sinking the island and putting an end to the tyranny its inhabitants exercised.
It is important to clarify a common misconception about Shenoute’s war on injustice. Despite what modern writers claim, Shenoute was not an activist for Egyptian nationalism, nor did he express separatist tendencies. Shenoute never critiqued a Roman Emperor or the Roman Empire, even visiting Emperor Theodosius II and blessing him. Shenoute opposed landowners who neglected their responsibilities to the poor, using his connections with the authorities to bring them to justice. My point is not to tear down Egyptian nationalism or paint Shenoute as a Roman patriot or make any political statement whatsoever. Rather, it is to show that Shenoute opposed injustice for what it is, violence against the poor and an affront to God, rather than because it was done to his countrymen by foreigners. It is not hard to imagine that Shenoute would be just as vigorous in his opposition to injustice if, say, he moved to Syria and witnessed the plight of Syrian paupers. It is extremely unhelpful (and dishonest) to obscure the true motives of Shenoute’s actions to push a nationalist agenda.
Perfect Communion
Aside from works to do with injustice, there are three overarching themes in the homilies of our father:
1. God is good and is constantly offering Himself to us. In A priest will never cease, he says:
It is through his medicines that the doctor takes away this state of sickness. But as for Lord Jesus, he says to those sick with the disease of every lawlessness, “Your sins are forgiven you,” and they are immediately healed. The doctor likewise takes his fee. But Jesus gave himself as a ransom for everyone who has no hope apart from him. As for the doctor, his medicines are from plants and also multitudes of compounds. But as for Lord Jesus, his medicines are from his mercies, his compassion, his goodness, his patience, his forbearance, his blessedness, and his love of humanity. As for the doctor, he washes out the wounds of the sick with water. But Jesus cleanses the wounds of our sins with his love.
2. We are free in our choices and can choose to cleave to God or turn away from Him. God does not constrain our will, and neither does Satan. In A beloved asked me years ago, he says:
For God has not destined us for destruction at the hands of the Evil One; rather, (he has destined) that the demon and his sins should be destroyed by us. The Lord has not appointed him to have power over human beings, but human beings to have power over him. In fact, this is the judgment: that he has given to humanity the authority to trample upon him; he has not given a demon the authority to trample upon humanity. If a person is godless, he (God) turns him over to him (Satan), as it is written, but if a person cleaves to the Lord and places his hope in him, as it is written, he (God) places his enemies under his feet and subjects to him all who rise up against him
3. We absolutely have no reason to fear the devil or those who work with him (even if these workers are people of authority) if we are in Christ. Not because a fox barks is addressed to Gesios (a petty tyrant who was resisted by Shenoute) and other wicked people. It begins as such:
Not because the fox – that is, you, the slave of mammon –barks with loud noises does the lion – that is, I, the slave of Christ – become afraid. I know that it is not I whom you fight against; rather, you fight against Jesus, who lives in the Christians. Moreover, Jesus is a match for you – you and your father, the devil, who lives in you and in whom you hope – and they (the Christians) too and their father, who lives in them, Jesus, in whom they put their trust. No person who has Jesus is ever “shamed,” as you have said.
Shenoute was a father to almost 4,000 monks and nuns, exhorting them to always aim upwards in their spiritual lives and caring for every aspect of their growth. After decades of service, St. Shenoute departed aged almost 118 and went to be with the Lord he so eagerly pursued from his youth. God granted him good health all the days of his earthly life, with which he worked tirelessly in service of his children and broader society. The Church commemorates him on the 7th of Epip. May his prayers and blessings be with us, and glory be to God forever, Amen.
Prayer for Repentance from Homily A26
We beseech the Lord:
We are not worthy that you might overlook all our impieties and open our heart to you and your words, so that we might do all the things that you want from this day. Merciful Lord, blessed Good, we have sinned in every work. As the prophet said, “When the righteous person turns away from his righteousness and performs injustice, in accordance with all the lawless acts that the lawless person has done, all the acts of righteousness that he did will not be remembered on the day of his transgression that he did. He will die in his sins that he did.” But accept us, like the lawless person whom you accepted when he turned away from all his lawless acts and kept all your commandments and performed righteousness and mercy. All his lawless acts that he did will not be remembered, and he will live by the righteousness that he performed. Make us worthy, Lord, and righteous [ … ], so that your will might be in us from this day and you might be willing to love us, instead of the evils by which you hate us, for your desires are not in us because we have sinned before you. If we broke the yoke and burst our bonds in those days so as not to keep your commandments, [ … ] renew our days so that we might break the yoke of complete lawlessness and burst their bonds by your power, for it is you who breaks the rod of the sinner and [ … ] Satan. We will obey the one who says, “Let us burst their bonds and cast off their yoke from upon us.
Written by
The Beloved
