[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III








Saintly monks beheld the Great Lent. Their whole lives were days of fasting, but the days of Lent were of special sanctity for the first generations of monks who used to leave the monasteries during the sacred forty days and live in isolation on the mountains. An example is found in the story of Saint Zosima and his encounter with the repentant Saint Mary the Copt.
The same zeal was found in the monasticism of Saint Shenoudah, chief of hermits, and in many of the Ethiopian monasteries.