| Saint Shenoute | |
| Birth Date: | 348 (uncertain) |
| Death Date: | 1 July 465[1] |
| Feast Day: | 7 Epip |
| Venerated In: | Oriental Orthodox Churches |
| Birth Place: | Egypt |
| Death Place: | Sohag, Egypt |
| Titles: | Archimandrite |
| Major Shrine: | White Monastery |
Shenoute of Atripe, also known as Shenoute the Great or Saint Shenoute the Archimandrite (Coptic:) was the abbot of the White Monastery in Egypt. He is considered a saint by the Oriental Orthodox Churches and is one of the most renowned saints of the Coptic Orthodox Church.
Shenoute was born in the middle of the fourth century CE[2] (the date 348 CE, often mentioned but not universally accepted, is based on an inscription in his monastery, dating from the 12th or 13th century[3]).
Around 385 CE, Shenoute became the father of the White Monastery in Upper Egypt.[4] It has often been assumed that Shenoute was the immediate successor of the White Monastery's founder, Pacol. However, the reconstruction of Shenoute's literary corpus made it possible to realize that Pacol died in the 370s and was then succeeded not by Shenoute but by another father, Eboh and that a spiritual crisis during Eboh's tenure as head of the White Monastery, a crisis which seems to have involved carnal sin, enabled Shenoute to come to prominence and to become Eboh's immediate successor.[5]
Because of his popularity in Upper Egypt and his zeal for Orthodoxy, Shenoute was chosen by Saint Cyril the Great to accompany him in representing the Church of Alexandria at the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in 431 CE.[6] There he provided the moral support that Saint Cyril needed to defeat the heresy of Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople. The eventual exile of the latter to Akhmim, Shenoute's backyard, was a testimony to the impression that Shenoute had made upon the attendees of this council.
On 7 Epip (14 July) 466 CE, following a short illness possibly brought upon by advanced age, Shenoute died in the presence of his monks.
From his uncle, Saint Pigol, Shenoute inherited a monastery based on the Pachomian system, though more austere and stringent. This made its followers few in number and probably promoted decline rather than growth. Shenoute implemented a more comprehensive system that was less stringent and more suitable to the surroundings and the background of the people. This new system had an unusual component, which was a covenant (diatheke) to be recited and adhered to literally by the new novices. It read as follows:
Transgressors of that covenant were expelled from the monastery altogether. This was considered a near death sentence for those peasant monks.
Another interesting feature of Shenoute's monastic system was the requirement for the new novices to live outside the monastery for a period of time before they were deemed worthy to be consecrated as monks. This seemed to be at odds with the Nitrian monastic system, which allowed the monks to live away from the monastic settlements only after they became proficient in the monastic life. Shenoute also utilized the time of the monks, outside prayer and worship, in more varied tasks within the monastery than the Nitrian monks were exposed to. Aside from the traditional trades of rope and basket weaving, the monks engaged in weaving and tailoring linen, cultivation of flax, leather work and shoemaking, writing and bookbinding, carpentry, and metal and pottering-making. All in all, Shenouda tried as much as possible to employ the monks in their old professions. Such activities made the monastery a vast self-supporting complex, which occupied some 20sqmi of land.
As a monastic leader, Shenoute recognized the need for literacy among monks. So he required all his monks and nuns to learn to read and encouraged more of them to pursue the art of writing manuscripts. This made the monastery more and more appealing to belong to and consequently made the threat of expulsion more painful.
See also: Apocalypse of Shenute. In his laudatory Life of Saint Shenoute, his disciple and biographer Saint Wissa (Besa) recounts several incidents of Shenoute coming to the aid of poor Coptic peasants. One time he went to Akhmim to chastise a pagan because of the oppression he was inflicting on the poor (Vita #81-2). Another time he acted to eliminate the cause of grief of the peasants, that the pagan landlords of Paneleou forced them to buy the latter's spoiled wine (Vita #85-6). On a third occasion he risked his life to successfully ask for the freedom of the captives at Psoi from the hands of the Blemmyes warriors (Vita #89). He also at times appealed on behalf of the peasants to those in power, including the Roman emperor Theodosius I. In summary, Shenoute fully recognized the misery of his people and emerged as their sincere advocate and popular leader.
To talk about Shenoute's writing is to discuss Coptic literature at its best. He wrote in a style that was essentially his own, with writings based on a careful study of the scholastic rhetoric of his time, which displayed the wide and deep range of knowledge he possessed. They were adorned with endless quotations from the Holy Scriptures, a typical feature of patristic writings. The scriptures were quoted whenever a presented argument needed support. In doing so Shenoute also displayed an astonishing memory as he rendered these passages with amazing accuracy.
Shenoute's knowledge was not confined to the Holy Bible, as was the case for the majority of the monks in Egypt. He was fluent in both Coptic and Greek, and was fairly well acquainted with Greek thought and theology. The sprinkling of Greek loan-words in his writings was both extensive and sophisticated, and it was definitely not a product of his living environment. He also expressed knowledge of the works of Aristotle, Aristophanes, the Platonic school, and even some of the Greek legends. He certainly read some of Saint Athanasius' works like the Life of Saint Anthony and some of his homiletic works. Shenoute also knew the letters of Saint Anthony, some of the letters of Saint Pachomius, and most likely some of the works of Evagrius. His knowledge further extended to such popular non-canonical texts as the Acts of Archelaus and the Gospel of Thomas.
The writing of Saint Shenoute can be grouped into four categories:
As more and more identifications of Saint Shenoute's literary works are made, his contribution to Coptic literature appears to be even greater than previously assumed. On the one hand, it is becoming clear that he treated a wide range of subjects, not only monastic ones. This suggests a more favorable assessment of the theological character of his writing, his spirituality, and his moral and nationalistic behavior. On the other hand, he accepted the inclusion of literary activity in the religious field. This sets him apart from the Pachomian system that tended to treat religious literature as mere written instructions with no regard to style being given. He further developed a style that is clearly a product of careful study of the scholastic Greek rhetoric of his time.
Four Coptic Orthodox monasteries worldwide are named after Saint Shenouda the Archimandrite, namely:
There is also a Coptic Orthodox church – St. Mary and St. Shenouda – in Coulsdon, England.
There has been difficulty in accessing and reconstructing the works of Shenoute for a variety of readings. The number of legible manuscripts his works survive in are not many, and he wrote in Coptic, which is a language that ceased in use early in the history of Christianity, which added to the obscurity of his writings. For a long time, his works stopped being transmitted, and the remaining manuscripts were subject to decay from then one. Shenoute was responsible for collecting his own literary works into two collections, which were then transmitted. These were the Canons and the Discourses (or Logoi).[7] Johannes Leipoldt published several volumes of his works, although he did so without access to all the manuscripts and so did not produce a critical edition.[8] The transmission and structure of these two collections were first reconstructed in a dissertation by Stephen Emmel.[9] Dwight Young has published some Coptic editions of this work with English translation.[10] Bentley Layton has additionally published new Coptic texts of his rule and their translations.[11]