Early Life
Shenoute was born in 348 AD in the Upper Egyptian village of Shenaloletto to devout Christian parents. His uncle was Saint Pigol, another famous Egyptian saint and the founder of a monastery in Upper Egypt known today as the White Monastery. At a young age, Shenoute helped taking care of his father's flock of sheep.
During one of Shenoute's trips to his uncle's monastery, Saint Pigol kept him as a result of a vision and later made him a monk. Around 385 AD, he was chosen by his fellow monks to succeed his uncle as the abbot of the White Monastery. When he took over that task, the monastery was inhabited by 30 old monks. By the time of his death in 466 AD, the monastery had 2,200 monks and 1,800 nuns, who lived over an area about 3,000 times its original size.
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