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The Miracle Of Moving The Mountain
Saint
Simon the Shoemaker (10th
century), also known as Simon
the Tanner (Sama'an
el-Dabbagh in Arabic), is the Coptic
Orthodox saint associated with the legend of
the moving the Mokattam Mountain in Cairo,
Egypt, during the rule of the Muslim Fatimid
Caliph Al-Muizz Li-Deenillah (953 - 975).
Note that the
legend as related below is in its the most
common form, taken from coptic popular
culture. It is not clear what real historic
event inspired this myth.
Saint Simon the
Tanner lived towards the end of the tenth
century when Egypt was ruled by the Fatimid
Caliph Al-Muizz, and Abraam the Syrian was the
62nd Coptic Pope (975 - 978).
At the time, many
Copts (Coptic Christians) in Egypt were
engaged in handicrafts. Saint Simon worked in
one of those crafts widespread in Babylon (Old
Cairo) which was tanning, a craft still known
there till this day. This profession involved
also other crafts that depend on the process,
from where St. Simon carried several titles
related to skins; Saint Simon the Tanner, the
Cobbler, the Shoemaker.
The Caliph
Al-Muizz
used to invite different religious leaders to
debate in his presence. In one of those
meetings in which Pope Abraam and a Jew named
Yaqub (Jacob) Ibn Yusuf Ibn Killis were
present, the Pope got the upper hand in the
debate. Plotting to take revenge, Ibn Killis
quoted the verse where the Lord, Jesus Christ,
said in Matthew: If you have faith as small
as a mustard seed, you can say to the
mountain, Move from here to there, and it will
move, nothing will be impossible for you
(Matthew 17:20), and demanded that the Pope
prove that his religion is right by means of
this. The Caliph saw in this a unique
opportunity and asked Pope Abraam to move the
Mokattam Mountain. If they proved unable to do
so, it would be the proof that the religion of
the Christians was wrong and the Caliph would
do away with them completely.
And so, after three
days of prayers and fasting by the Copts
throughout Egypt, Pope Abraam was directed by
the Holy Virgin Mary (in an apparition of her
to him) to choose St. Simon to mediate for
moving the Mokattam Mountain. On the set day,
as the people, with St. Simon the Tanner among
them, were saying Kyrie eleison (Lord have
mercy), the mountain was thrusting up and
down, and the sun could be seen from under it.
After the miracle was performed in the
presence of the Caliph, the Pope turned left
and right looking for St. Simon the Tanner,
but he had disappeared and no one could find
him (a sign of the saint's great humility).
Shortly after the
miracle took place, Al-Muizz decided to
convert to Christianity. A baptismal font,
large enough for the immersion of a grown man,
was built for him in the Church of Saint
Mercurius. This font continues exists to the
present day, and is known as Maamoudiat
Al-Sultan, which means, Baptistry of the
Sultan.
In commemoration of
this miracle, the Coptic Orthodox Church
observes three days of fasting before the
beginning of the Nativity Fast (Advent).
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The Departure Of St. Nicholas
St. Nicholas (1),
Bishop of Mora (Myra), departed. He was from
the city of Mora, his father's name was
Epiphanius and the name of his mother was Tona.
They were rich, as well as God-fearing,
people. They had no children to bring joy to
their hearts and to inherit their wealth after
their deaths. They remained without a son
until they grew old and they were enveloped
with despair. God had pity on them and gave
them this saint. He was filled with the Divine
grace since his young age. When he reached
school age, he demonstrated, through
intelligence and knowledge, that he learned
far more from the Holy Spirit than he did from
his teachers. He learned all the doctrine and
the teachings of the church since his young
age and was ordained deacon.
Then he became a monk
in a monastery wherein his cousin was the
abbot. He lived an ascetic and a righteous
life, and was ordained a priest when he was 19
years old. God gave him the gift to work signs
and wonders and to heal the sick.
St. Nicholas is too
illustrious to describe all the signs that
were performed by his hands, but an example of
his good deeds and benevolent works follows:
There was a very rich
man in the city of Mora who lost all his
wealth. He had three daughters who had passed
the age of marriage, and he could not marry
them because of his poverty. Satan tempted the
man to think that he should make his daughters
live in sin so that they might get their food
by means of fornication. God revealed to St.
Nicholas the thoughts which were in this man's
head, and what he intended to do. St. Nicholas
took 100 dinars of his father's money and tied
it up in a sack. During the night, secretly
and without anyone seeing him, he threw the
money into the window of that poor man's
house. When the man found the gold, he was
astonished and rejoiced exceedingly and was
able to give his eldest daughter away in
marriage. During another night the saint threw
another hundred dinars into the man's house
and the man was able to give his second
daughter away in marriage. The man wanted to
know who this charitable person was. The third
time when the saint threw the gold into the
house, the man was watching and immediately
when he felt the drop of the sack, he ran out
of his house to see who was throwing the gold
to him. He found the kind bishop St. Nicholas
and the man bowed down at his feet and paid
him great homage and thanked him because he
saved his daughters from poverty and from a
life of sin. The saint refused to accept any
thanks and asked them to thank the Lord Who
put this thought in his heart.
St. Nicholas drove
out the devil and his angels from people, he
healed many sick people, and he blessed little
bread to satisfy many people, with much more
left over.
Before being selected
bishop, he saw in a vision, a great throne and
magnificent vestments placed on it and a man
said to him, "Put on these vestments and
sit on this throne." Another night he saw
our Lady, St. Mary, giving him the vestments
of the priesthood and our Lord Jesus Christ
gave him the Gospel.
When the Bishop of
Mora departed, the Angel of the Lord appeared
to the Archbishop and told him the one who was
chosen for this rank was Nicholas and
described his virtues to him. When he woke up
he told the bishops what he had seen, and they
all believed that vision. They knew that it
was from the Lord Jesus Christ. They took St.
Nicholas and made him Bishop over the city of
Mora.
Shortly thereafter,
Diocletian reigned, and incited the pagan
worship. When Diocletian arrested many of the
believers, he heard about this saint. He
seized him and tortured him severely for many
years. The Lord Christ strengthened him,
protected him, and raised him whole from all
these tortures so that he might become a
mighty branch of the tree of faith. When
Diocletian was tired of torturing him, he cast
him into prison. Saint Nicholas wrote to his
congregation from prison to teach, encourage
and confirm them in the faith. He remained in
prison until God perished Diocletian and
established the reign of Constantine the Just.
Constantine brought out all the confessors
from prison, among them was St. Nicholas, who
returned to his city.
When the Council of
Nicea convened in the year 325 A.D. to judge
Arius, he was one of the 318 fathers assembled
there.
Having finished his
course and guarded his flock, he departed to
be with the Lord. He sat on the episcopal
throne for more than 40 years, and all the
days of his life were about 80 years.
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