Bishop Epiphanius (1954–2018)

The late Bishop Epiphanius (1954–2018), Abbot of the Monastery of St Macarius was one of the most beloved and widely-respected Coptic scholars of the 21st century.^[1]Wadid El-Makari’s Preface to Bishop Epiphanius, So Great a Salvation: Biblical Meditations of a Contemporary Desert Father, trans. S. Kaldas & R. Bassilious, ed. Markos El-Makari (St Macarius Press, 2019): 17–33. Originally a doctor from Tanta, Tadros Zaki Tadros became a monk of the Monastery of St Macarius in 1984 at the age of 29, taking the name Epiphanius al-Makary. As a former doctor, he provided medical care to ill and elderly monks at the monastery, often accompanying them on trips abroad to receive treatment and providing palliative care. His keen intellect and eye for detail caused him to be singled out by the monastery’s famous abbot, Fr Matthew the Poor, to work in the monastery’s library. At Fr Matthew’s command, he was ordained a priest in 2002 (despite his protestations). In 2013, he was elected to succeed Fr Matthew (who had passed away in 2006) as Abbot of the monastery, and was ordained a bishop by Pope Tawadros II: a role he carried out with deep, often confronting, humility (e.g. sitting at the back of churches and lecture halls, and refusing to allow people to make the prostration customary for greeting a Coptic bishop, insisting: “If you prostrate before me, I will prostrate before you!”).^[2]Ibid., 19. Pope Tawadros drew heavily on Bishop Epiphanius’ theological learning and his deep monastic experience, appointing him to many delegations and committees, attracting the ire of those who opposed the much debated theological legacy of Fr Matthew the Poor. He was tragically murdered in 2018.