São Paulo – Pope Shenouda III, of Alexandria, patriarch of the Copts, the Egyptian Christians, will be buried on Tuesday (20). The religious leader died last Saturday, at 88 years of age, after a series of health problems.
According to Egyptian papers, the religious rites of the funeral are taking place at St. Mark Cathedral, in Cairo. Shenouda’s body will later be taken for burial in St. Bishoy Monastery, in Wadi Al-Natroun, about 100 kilometres away from the capital.
Shenouda had been Pope since 1971. Although the Christians are a minority in Egypt, the Pope was an influential figure in the country, both in the religious and political aspects. His death caused a commotion and three people died of suffocation in the crowd that was trying to view his body, in St. Mark Cathedral, on Sunday. The successor has not yet been announced.
Shenouda visited Brazil in 2006 to consecrate St. Mark Church, in São Paulo, the first Coptic temple in the country.
*Translated by Mark Ament
