Fr Arsanius Wadid, a Coptic priest who was born in 1966 and ordained a priest in 1995, lost his life on 7 April 2022 when he was stabbed three times, one of them a deadly stab in the neck, on the street in Alexandria. The stabbing occurred in the evening on Alexandria’s main thoroughfare, the beachfront Corniche, in the east Alexandria district of Sidi Bishr.
Fr Arsanius had been accompanying a group of young men and women from his church, the church of the Holy Virgin and Mar-Boulos (St Paul) in Karmouz, for a leisurely day on the beach. As they gathered to board microbuses and head back to their church at around 8pm, a bearded man attacked the priest and stabbed him. Fr Arsanius was directly moved to hospital where he breathed his last. The stabber, a 60-year-old bearded man who was described by eyewitnesses as uttering incoherent phrases and making strange gestures, was caught by the passers by and handed to the police who quickly arrived at the scene. He is now in police custody, as official investigations take place.
Pope Tawadros II mourned Fr Arsanius as a “virtuous priest and active Church servant who was faithful to his church and enjoyed good relations with everyone, Muslims and Copts, young and old”. With great pain we bid him farewell, the Pope wrote in his message of condolences, and we raise our eyes to heaven, asking our Lord to console Fr Arsanius’s virtuous wife and blessed family, as well as his congregation, his loved ones and spiritual children. “We bid him farewell in these holy days of Lent,; he will celebrate the glorious Resurrection with Christ the Risen, and he will be praying and interceding for us in heaven.
On the Coptic Media Centre page, the Coptic Church posted a statement mourning Fr Arsanius as “a blessed father who dedicated his whole life to God, as a faithful witness to Him … ‘If we live, we live to the Lord; if we die, we die to the Lord; if we live or die; whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s”
The funeral service for Fr Arsanius was held 8 April at Alexandria’s St Mark’s Cathedral. Presiding over the service were the general bishops Anba Hermina of central and eastern Alexandria; Anba Pavli of Montazah; Anba Illarion of western Alexandria; and Fr Abra’am Emil, deputy-general of the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate in Alexandria.
Fr Arsanius was then buried in the collective grave of Alexandria’s martyrs of 2000 and 2017, at the monastery of Mar-Mina, some 70km southwest Alexandria.
The Coptic public have been expressing outrage at the stabbing, and wariness lest the killer be pronounced mentally deranged and thus not responsible for his deeds. A common demand has been to battle the Islamic extremist thought that breeds such hate crimes. Yet it must be owned that the Egyptian government has been fiercely battling such thought the proponents of which base on the Qur’an.
As statements of condolences poured from all Christian sects in Egypt as well as public figures, Islamic senior figures vocally condemned the crime. Al-Azhar Grand Iman Sheikh Ahmad Al-Tayyeb said that killing a human soul no matter of what faith is a major sin; whereas Shakir Abbas Shuman, his deputy, wrote: “What a difference between a priest in Sohag who offers Ramadan meals to Muslims, and the treacherous hand that murdered Fr Arsanius in Alexandria.”
Under the title “Father forgive them for they know not what they do”, Watani’s Editor-in-Chief Youssef Sidhom wrote:
“This is not the first year that the Divine allows Egypt and her Church to undergo a painful situation that puts to test the patriotism, coherence, and faith of Egyptians. Sadly, this occurs as we prepare to complete Lent and celebrate Holy Week and the Resurrection, and as Muslims prepare for Eid Al-Fitr once Ramadan is completed.
“It was God’s will that the venerable Fr Arsanius Wadid, priest of the church of the Holy Virgin and St Paul the Apostle in Karmouz, Alexandria, should be martyred by a deadly stab wielded by a lost soul who has been arrested and is under investigation.
“I have no doubt whatsoever that God, who allowed this painful event as He had allowed others during similar times of the year, is able to overflow His comfort and peace over the family of Fr Arsanius, the congregation of his church, and the entire Coptic congregation. Again, I have no doubt that Egypt’s Muslim officials and people feel with our pain and loss.
“The statements issued by Al-Azhar’s Grand Imam Sheikh Tayyeb and Pope Tawadros have been cause for comfort, given that they help absorb the wrath experienced by those pained by the incident.
“As for me, the only words I can say are those uttered by Jesus the Lord on the Cross: ‘Father forgive them for they know not what they do’.”
Watani International
8 April 2022