Life
The Arabic life of the saint gives the following details.
Samuel was born in AD 597 in the city of Daklube, Egypt, to a non-Chalcedonian priest called Arselaos. He spent most of his early years as a disciple of Saint Agathon at the Monastery of Saint Macarius the Great in Scetes, Egypt, where he was ordained a priest. Samuel became known for his great ascetism, and for abstaining from food and drink a week at a time. While at the Monastery of Saint Macarius, a Byzantine imperial envoy attempted to convince the desert monks to confess the Chalcedonian faith. Samuel became zealous and seized the imperial letter and rent it into pieces saying "Excommunicated is this tome and everyone who believes in it and cursed is everyone who might change the Orthodox faith of our Holy Fathers." Seized with anger, the envoy ordered Samuel to be beaten with pins and to be hanged up by his arms, and that his face be smitten. One of the strikes enucleated one of his eyes. Samuel was also beaten by Cyrus, the Chalcedonian patriarch of Alexandria. The latter also ordered Samuel to be driven away from the Nitrian Desert.
After leaving Scetes, Samuel dwelt in Mount Qalamoun, currently in the Upper Egyptian governorate of Al Minya. At Mount Qalamoun, Samuel founded a monastery that carries his name, and still exists to this day.
Samuel also suffered at the hands of sun-worshiping Berbers who took him captive for some time. In his captivity, he met and befriended Youannis the Archpriest of Scetes, who was also captured by the Berbers. When the Berbers failed to convince Samuel to worship the sun, they tied his leg with an iron chain to that of a maiden, and sent them to attend the camels, hoping that the maiden would seduce Samuel and win him as a sun-worshipper. Yet, Samuel did not deny his faith and remained strong in his Christian faith. Eventually, after healing his master's son who was on the verge of death, he was released and permitted to return to Mount Qalamoun. After his return, he prophesized about and witnessed the Arab invasion of Egypt in 641.
Samuel the Confessor departed in 8 Koiak (18 December) 693.
Read more about this topic: Samuel The Confessor
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“... the hey-day of a woman’s life is on the shady side of fifty, when the vital forces heretofore expended in other ways are garnered in the brain, when their thoughts and sentiments flow out in broader channels, when philanthropy takes the place of family selfishness, and when from the depths of poverty and suffering the wail of humanity grows as pathetic to their ears as once was the cry of their own children.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)
“Reminiscences, even extensive ones, do not always amount to an autobiography.... For autobiography has to do with time, with sequence and what makes up the continuous flow of life. Here, I am talking of a space, of moments and discontinuities. For even if months and years appear here, it is in the form they have in the moment of recollection. This strange form—it may be called fleeting or eternal—is in neither case the stuff that life is made of.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)
“One of the lies would make it out that nothing
Ever presents itself before us twice.
Where would we be at last if that were so?
Our very life depends on everything’s
Recurring till we answer from within.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)