Pope Tawardos II: Murder of Epiphanius ‘a big shock’ to Church

CAIRO – 8 September 2018: The murder of Head of St. Macarius Monastery in Wadi El-Natroun, Bishop Epiphanius, was a big shock to the Orthodox Church in Egypt, said Tawadros II, pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark on Saturday.

“We should look at it [the incident of the murder] as a wake-up call for all of us... the death of Bishop Epiphanius was like an alarm call,” he said during a mass marking the 40^th day of the bishop’s death, praising the deceased.

In Gharbia governorate (Delta), another prayer was performed for the late bishop on the 40^th day of his death.

Following the death of Bishiop Epiphanius, Pope Tawadros II issued new monasticism laws, topping which is the deactivation of the social media accounts of all monks and bishops. He also suspended the monasticism for a whole year.

Bishop Epiphanius was found dead on July 29 inside the monastery and two monks, who were kept in detention pending investigation since then, confessed their crime.

On Aug. 19, the court charged the suspected monks - expelled monk Ash’eyaa, whose birth name is Wael Saad, and Monk Faltaous al-Makary, whose birth name is Raymond Rasmi Mansour- with the deliberate murder of Bishop Epiphanius.

The death of Bishop Epiphanius revealed the struggle between the school of Pope Shenouda and the ecclesiastical school of Matthew the poor.