Bishoy of Scetis

Description

Bishoy of Scetis (Coptic: Ⲁⲃⲃⲁ Ⲡⲓϣⲱⲓ Abba Pišoi; Greek: Ὅσιος Παΐσιος ὁ Μέγας; 320 – 417 AD), known in the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria as the Star of the Desert and the Beloved of our Good Savior, was a Coptic Desert Father. He is said to have seen Jesus, and been bodily preserved to the present day via incorruptibility at the Monastery of Saint Bishoy in the Nitrian Desert, Egypt. He is venerated by the Oriental Orthodox Churches and the Eastern Orthodox Churches, and is known in the latter under the Greek version of his name, Paisios.

Saint Bishoy was born in 320 AD in the village of Shansa (Shensha or Shesna), currently in the Egyptian governorate of Al Minufiyah. Younger to six other brothers, he was weak and frail. His mother saw an Angel in a vision asking her to give God one of her children, and pointed at Bishoy. When the mother tried to offer one of her stronger children, the angel insisted that Bishoy was the chosen one.

At the age of twenty, Bishoy went to the wilderness of Scetes and became a monk by the hand of Saint Pambo, who also ordained Saint John the Dwarf a monk. When Saint Pambo died, Bishoy was guided by an angel to the site of the present Monastery of Saint Bishoy, where he lived the life of a hermit. At this time, he became the spiritual father of many monks who gathered around him. He was famous for his love, wisdom, simplicity and kindness, as well as for his extremely ascetic life. He was also known to love seclusion and quietness. Bishoy’s asceticism was harsh to the extent of tying his hair and hands with a rope to the ceiling of his cell, in order to resist sleeping during his night prayers. This asceticism made him so famous that he was visited by Saint Ephrem the Syrian.

The Copts believe that Bishoy saw Jesus a number of times. When Bishoy’s brethren learned that Jesus was coming, they gathered at the top of a mountain so that they might see him. On the way, they met an old man that asked these monks to help him on his way but they ignored him. Bishoy saw the man and carried him on his shoulders, only to discover that the old monk was none other but Christ himself. The latter told him that, for the extent of his love, his body will not see corruption. The Copts also believe that Bishoy washed the feet of Jesus who visited him as a poor stranger.

Bishoy is known as a defender of Orthodox faith against heresies. Having heard of an ascetic in the mountain of Ansena who taught that there was no Holy Spirit, Bishoy went to him carrying a weaved basket with three ears. When the old man asked him about the reason for making three ears for a basket, Bishoy replied “I have a Trinity, and everything I do is like the Trinity”. After much debate from the Scriptures, the Old and New Testaments, the old ascetic reverted to Orthodoxy.