How Mary protected the Coptic Church through the faith of Saint Samaan (I)

Saint Samaan lived in Egypt towards the end of the tenth century AD. He was a contemporary of the Syrian bishop Abram Ibn Zaraa, who occupied the see of St. Mark's in 975 AD. He seems to have lived in a small town, Babylon or the Wax Palace (today's Old Cairo), during the reign of Al-Mu'iz Li-Din Illah, first governor of the Fatimid dynasty, where he worked as a tanner. This trade involved not only the tanning of hides, but also various related crafts such as shoemaking. This is why Saint Samaan is also known as a shoemaker or cobbler.

Saint Mark went to this shoemaker to repair his damaged shoes. When the tool Samaan was wielding pierced his hand, Saint Mark exclaimed "Ious Theos", meaning "O Unique God", an expression that surprised the tanner and opened his heart to the revelation of the Gospel.

The icon of Saint Samaan shows him deprived of his right eye. An episode from his life explains the event that caused him to lose his eye. One day, a woman came into his store to give him some shoes to repair. When she took them off and handed them to him, she revealed her legs, and Samaan looked at them with lust.

But regaining control of himself, Samaan took his awl and thrust it into his eye to pluck it out, taking to the letter the Lord's injunction: "But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is to your advantage that one of your limbs should perish, and that your whole body should not go into hell. "(Mt 5: 28-29)

From The Biography of Saint Samaan the Shoemaker published by Saint Samaan Church, Mokattam, Cairo 

Excerpt from an article by Mohamed Salmawy published in AL-AHRAM Hebdo 

Week of March 8-14, 2000