Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God

The Life & Virtues of a Modern Saint: Fr. Andrew the Samualite

The Life of Fr. Andrew the Samualite

Born in a simple poor family in 1887 with the name Youssef Khaleel Ibrahim. He rested in the Lord in 1989 living to be over 100 years old. Came from a village in Upper Egypt. He lost his sight at the age of 3 years old.

His Monastic Life

Because he was tutored by a Church instructor in the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, he grew to love monasticism and decided to join the monastery at age 22. The monastery of St. Samuel at that time was one of the most difficult to live in. It was nearly deserted with only a small number of monks. To reach the monastery, one had to go by animal. The water there was undrinkable and had to be brought from other areas. Because of his strong build and noted obedience, Fr. Andrew was given some of the hardest tasks at the monastery. He was known for totally isolating himself from any disputes in the monastery, living there in total peace for over 70 years.
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His Monastic Life

He learned the Church Hymns by heart and especially loved to chant the Psalms, which he often did in a loud voice throughout the night. He had the gift of spiritual tears and was often found weeping out of repentance. He was friends with the animal creation as evidenced by: He was often stung by scorpions which caused him no harm. He was often found sleeping next to serpents which didnt touch him. For some time, he had a cat which would sleep under the sleeve of his monastic garb and lead him to wherever he needed to go. When the head of the monastery heard of the cats story, he, at first, did not believe it until he saw her himselfand so he hurried, while he was confused, towards Fr. Andrew, and kissed him saying, Our father, it is not a cat, this is an angel.

Why people were so attracted to him

From his biography: When you see, my dear reader, this saint, for the first time, you find yourself before an elder, advanced in years, with his white beard pending on his breast. Never do you observe at all that he is blind. If you are in his company for a whole day, and no dialogue occurs between you and him, you are not bored to look at him, as his face is angelic with pleasant features. He spoke very little, and hours might probably pass without his uttering a word. He did not speak unless spoken to, or asked to pray for your own sake. He might stay silently, in deep quietude, without moving restlessly, and so he would make you feel how far beyond he enjoyed astonishing inner peace. He was not a man of moods, one day calm and on another furious. He was never seen glad in one hour, and sad and depressed in another, but firmly settled all the time were his heart, image and life. Thus, it is true to say that he was a closed treasure.

The Virtues of our Father St. Andrew the Samualite

Bishop Gregorios said of Fr. Andrew: He is a typical monk. Indeed he is an ascetic forsaking worldly pleasures. He is blind but his inner eyes are open. His heart is illuminating and enlightened. He dreams Godly dreams sees heavenly visions. He is truly a blessing in our generation. He is a rare spiritual personality in our time whom God granted talents of recovery, and equipped him with a sorting and discriminating spirit. He lived a righteous simplicity. He passed more than one hundred years enjoying spiritual peace. He had a spirit of prophecy, and so he prophesied private matters, and public ones as well. When one sees him, one immediately remembers Christ, Glory be to Him, saying except you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
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Life of Prayer
He was always praying. Sometimes he was seen sitting quietly moving his lips without being heard. Some other times he was heard chanting Psalms in a loud voice for long hours, by day, or at night. He was astonishing as his incessant prayers were concerned in spite of his old age, and worn out health. Dr Kamal Abdalla relates: "It happened that when I shared his room in Saint Mina's monastery with him, he went on with psalms in an audible voice, without stopping from the moment we went to bed at ten o'clock p.m. until the dawn of the following day. Once I saw father Andrews with a sweet smile on his face. So when I asked him why he was smiling, he replied that the angels were bantering, and joking with him.

Life of Prayer (cont)

As to his love for the church, it is not surpassed by any other love, as it is his heavenly father's home, and no wonder, it is therein he passed his life chanting, worshipping and thanksgiving to God all the time. In the church he finds true consolation, and enjoyment, and meets with angels, and saints. Whenever you tell him: "Let us go to church", he never hesitates for a moment. His contemporaries admit that when the liturgy, or the Psalmody comes to an end, he does not show any concern to go out of the church, and he repeats: "Inside it we are protected, this is Noah's ark, inside which there is security, and outside it there is the flood".
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Blessed Humility
His penitence made of him a man without enemies. We never noted him speak violently to anybody, nor did he impose his opinion on anybody, nor did he try to master a discussion about any subject. He had no ambitions, or gains to realize, and so he did not enter into heated discussion with anybody. In addition, he had no desire or liking whatsoever to posses anything that might lead into difference of opinion or quarrels. Fr. Matthew the Poor says, "Father Andrew does not know the word "condemnation", as he never condemned anybody, or revealed his error, or sin to his face". Or as Fr. Kyrillos Al-Makary said: "He is too shy to tell a man that he is in the wrong, as he himself is oversensitive concerning his own sins".

His Fasting
The principal monks' dish was cheese whey', as the monks used to sit round the cheese whey dish in the middle of which there was a small piece of old cheese, none of them dared to touch out of politeness. At times when the jars become empty, they wash them with water to be food for the monks. Fr. Andrew used to commit himself to more restrictions, as he did not eat except once daily. He used to eat if food was served to him, but if the fathers happened of forget him, he never asked anybody for it.
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Poverty and Thanksgiving

Nothing worth mentioning was in his cell, as he never cared for bed or food. On very many occasions he used to sleep, and sit on the floor. He considered that all he possessed was God's grant. Many a time did Dr Kamal Abdalla see him take off his cap to give it to a visitor who asked for it. Even his outer garment, he was about to take off, in order to give it to the person who admired it, or wished to have one like it. Throughout five years We never heard him utter one of our phrases that we say ignorantly when we are compassed by troubles, "What have I done, my God? or Why, my God, do you do this to me whereas all my life I have not caused any harm to anybody?". On the other hand, whenever we asked him if he felt any pain, he would refute this completely and would reply, "Thanks are due to God".

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Faithfulness
When cruel conditions in the monastery , once, deteriorated to such an extreme that the stay therein was an impossibility, all the monastery occupants deserted it, but that blind monk who refused to yield to his master's efforts to convince him to accompany them, reminding him of his handicap. Our saint stayed alone, bearing such life, for four months. This incident is quite an evidence to prove that he is considered among the martyrs. What a faithful man!! He preferred to live lonely in the deserted monastery, to feed on dry bread, and drink salty water rather than to leave the monastery seeking for perishable food, because the food of the like of this holy man is to do the will of God: "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work". (John 4:34).
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Faithfulness (cont)
He did not leave the monastery for fear of the Bedouins settling down around it. So, he used to ring the bell, as usual, twice a day to prove that the place was inhabited, and populated, in spite of the hardships he met, and the long time he took to reach the bell each time. Moreover he was subject to stumbling over hindrances that hurt his body, and caused his feet to bleed. Nobody knows what would have been the fate of the monastery if the bedouins had found out that it was deserted, and its gates were open. When Archpriest Isaac Maksimos returned, after his tour for collecting contributions, father Andrews received him with gaiety, embracing one another and kissing each other. Immediately the head of the monastery asked him, "Why didn't you desert the monastery with the rest of the monks?" With his well known, familiar simplicity, Father Andrew replied: "It would have been a disgrace, and a big shame, my father, if I had left my monastery, and gone away".
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His Love
Father Archpriest Elia of Alexandria said, "Father Andrews was endowed with entire love for the Moslem and the Christian, the Orthodox, the Catholic and the Protestant, the sinner and the saint, the old and the young". We can add without any exaggeration that it is not possible at all that he hated anybody, or that he knew hatred. His holiness related to us that Arch priest Isaac Maximos, the monastery head, once, slapped him so severely that he fell down on the ground although he had not done anything wrong worthy of punishment. So, Arch priest Isaac felt sorry for that, and hurried towards him asking for pardon. Then father Andrews said to him, "Nothing has happened. You are my father, and you are entitled to punish me to improve the rules of my behavior". Soon after that, Father Isaac started crying out of penitence.

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Beloved of the Saints

He also told a female physician, once, that whenever he called on the Virgin, he felt she smiled to him, and added that she was very pleasant, kind, and gentle like a soft blowing breeze. Since Father Mina the Solitary (Pope Kyrillos VI) came to be the head of the monastery for some time, love had grown between both of them. When we asked Father Andrew to tell us about his memoir with his Holiness, he said, "Pope Kyrillos VI, may his soul rest in peace, stayed for some time with us in Saint Samuel's monastery during which period he was very pleasant, and he loved me too much. He used to laugh with me, and to take me with him to pray in the church. I used to call him: "Our Lord", but he (may God bless his soul) used to object by saying "Why do you say", Our Lord, when you speak with me? "I always replied, in the near future you will see that you will become (our lord)". Pope Kyrillos left the monastery, and so I became very sad, and cried for his going away. in the stream of days Father Mina the Solitary came to be Patriarch, and visited Saint Samuel's monastery. When he saw me, he laughed with me, and told me, "Here, I have become "Our lord", as you always called me and predicted in the past".

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Beloved of the Saints (cont)

On Father Andrews first visit to Saint Mina monastery during his treatment in Alexandria, he headed to the burial place of the Pope. His face was radiating with happiness while he was feeling the marble of the grave, and then he kissed it many times, stood up to pray, and repeated many times, "May his soul rest in peace". Afterwards he requested to sleep beside the bed of his beloved, Pope Kyrillos, as he called him, and so we left him for half an hour. On our way back to Alexandria, he said to his pupil, "Father, I met Pope Kyrillos in his Shrine, and talked with him". We were surprised by this sudden news, and his pupil asked him what the Pope had told him. He replied "While I was sleeping beside the burial place of Pope Kyrillos, he came to me and said, "Have you come, my beloved?" I replied, "If I am your beloved, ask Christ to call me so that I may be comfortable beside you. In his reply he said, "It is not your turn, or time yet, Andrew". I, then asked him to intercede, and call me, but he firmly answered that I had still a long time to go. Archpriest Athanasios, one of Alexandria fathers who was in our company, commented by saying: "Father Andrew is going to live not less than five years as long as Pope Kyrillos told him this remark". But Dr Kamal Abdalla, as a physician, did not take these words for granted due to his irremediable diseases, and he kept his opinion to himself, and prayed God to prolong the life of Father Andrew. In the end what the Pope already said was realized, and Father Andrew lived five years more starting that day.
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His Sufferings
Beginning in 1980 Fr. Andrew was afflicted with many diseases, including heart failure, difficulty breathing, edema, arterio sclerosis, and circulatory failures. Despite the pain and discomfort, he never once complained. His health continued to deteriorate until his departure.

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His Departure
Reposed in the Lord on February 7, 1989 at 10:00PM in Alexandria. Several thousands received his holy body at St. Samuels Monastery. The next day, the Fathers of the monastery noticed a sweet perfumed odor similar to scents used on saints relics emanating from Fr. Andrews body in a noticeable manner.
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His Miracles

Healings Clairvoyance Spirit-Borne

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Pray for us

Pray to the Lord on our behalf, O our holy father, Abba Andrew the Samualite, that He may forgive 20 us our sins!