WATANI International
5 December 2010
Life as a faithful
On 26 October 2010, Samir Fawzi Girgis passed away in Zurich, Switzerland. Girgis was a true son of the Coptic Orthodox Church and faithfully served the Church in general and specifically the Church in Switzerland. This week marks some 40 days since his death.
I personally came to know Girgis when Pope Shenouda III selected me to serve in the Coptic Church in Switzerland in 1983.We remained close until Girgis’s death.
Girgis gained the love and trust of Pope Shenouda, who assigned him to take the necessary procedures for me, as a new monk, to travel to Switzerland in 1983.
Girgis visited Pope Shenouda III at the Anba Bishoi Monastery when the pope was detained there by a presidential decree of President Anwar al-Sadat in 1981. In those days he visited Egypt regularly for Pope Shenouda III to review his research studies and books on Coptic history. Girgis’s wife Ruth played a vital role in the service especially in translation.
Studies in Switzerland
Samir Fawzi Girgis was born in Ashmoun, Menoufiya on 8 April 1934. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Ain Shams University in 1956, and two years later travelled to Switzerland to continue his studies. In 1962 he was awarded a prize for scientific research by Zurich University. Having received a doctorate from the same university in May 1966, he taught history at several Swiss universities before being appointed vice dean in the history department at the Bukhman Academy in Zurich.
Girgis made full use of his knowledge to serve the Church. He taught Coptic history on request from Pope Shenouda III, who invited him to teach the Church history curricula at Pope Shenouda’s Theological College in Germany. He carried out several research studies in Coptic history, focusing on the Theban Legion and its leader, St Maurice, and supporting the study with documents and manuscripts. The study was the first to prove that its members were Copts, and it helped to commemorate them among the Swiss people and among the Copts inside and outside Egypt. I remember the effect of the St Maurice and St Verena study on me; it helped me to tell their stories to Coptic congregations. Churches were dedicated to their names; the first one was built at the building of Bishopric of Services in 1994 in Egypt, and a second was built in Los Angeles.
Encyclopedia
Samir Girgis published several works on Coptic history, including nine articles on the Theban Legion, St Maurice, St Verena, St Felix, St Regula, St Exuperius and St Victor in the Coptic Encyclopaedia. He was appointed editor of The Coptic Heritage Encyclopaedia, an Arabic encyclopaedia in six volumes
As I have mentioned, Girgis was an active member of the Coptic Orthodox Church in Switzerland and I have known him since I went there in 1983 to serve at St Mark’s Church in Zurich, where I ordained him as a deacon in 1985. When I began my service he helped me learn German, and he translated the sermons during Mass. Whenever I was invited to a Swiss monastery or church to give a lecture, he helped me write it in German and trained me to deliver it correctly.
Girgis can be considered one of the founders of the Church in Switzerland; he helped finalise the procedures for obtaining the necessary government licences and allowing a Coptic priest to live and serve there. He made a special effort to gain approval from the authorities in Geneva for the church to be built before buying the current church building of St Mary’s.
Girgis ran an anonymous service to help new Coptic immigrants. He also helped the late businessman Adli Abadir in giving aid to Coptic students studying at European universities. He is a man whose contribution and service to the Church will live on forever.