ܐܦܛܪܘܦܘܬܐ ܦܛܪܝܪܟܝܬܐ
ܕܡܪܥܝܬܐ
ܕܐܘܚܕ̈ܢܐ ܡܥܪ̈ܒܝܐ ܕܐܡܝܪܟܐ
| Mor Habib, September 20 |
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St. Habib was from the village of Gilgo (Egypt). For in the time of the reign of the faithful King Constantine, the Blessed St. Habib went out from his village and from his family when he was about fifteen years old. He was educated with the teaching of the church sufficiently and he was reading the divine books continually. His mind was divinely enlightened from them. St. Habib entered a monastery of Abo Pachoum near Alexandria, feigning ignorance, although he was quite knowledgeable in the scriptures and philosophers. He acted as if he did not know a thing because the teacher was exasperated with him. He removed St. Habib from before him when (his teacher) said to him. “It is right for you to cease from these practices of obedience when the thing from this instruction is not helping you. But you lack knowledge and are ignorant in your speech. It is right for you to toil in domestic duty as you find that an advantage for yourself.” But when St. Habib heard this he drew near to him and kneeled and said to him, “Father pray for me that the will of God be fulfilled in me. I will obey all what you have decreed unto me.” St. Habib returned to domestic duty. He pleased his brothers in everything. He toiled and worked all day in domestic duty. And in the night he crucified himself upon a pillar that he found it there. Now he ate once every two days. But his humility was unsurpassed.
After St. Habib finished with the domestic work, three years in the vigilant and earnest race, it was given to him from God as a gift that he saw contemplations of these heavenly things. One day Abba Pachoum called him and said to him, “It is enough for you, my son, in the domestic work. Go sit by yourself in a cell. Take the experience of silence and temptations of the demons.” Then the Blessed Habib went out equipped in the power of prayer of his Abbot and all those brothers, the Blessed One chose a little cell which was enough to gather his members (hands and feet).
In the first year from Sunday to Sunday he came out to take the Holy Sacraments. But in the second year he was not seen outside his cell. But his fast was from week to week. He had dried bread which he did eat plainly. But a garment he wore was of camel hair. He had the Bible. He never touched silver of gold in his hand at all.
But when Satan realized this, he could not stand this because of his jealousy and from there he began a war with him. For he was coming in the night to him and with harsh wounds he was beating the Holy One. And when he came one of the nights, Satan and his powers, he beat the harsh wounds without mercy until he left him cast on the earth like a dead man. After a while he was visited by Divine Grace. He began in the divine work and again on another night when he was in the services of midnight, there was seen by him the Prince of the Devils. He was standing in the form of a column of light from the earth to heaven. He answered and said to the Holy One, “I am the Messiah, the light of the world. Because I saw your beautiful manners I came to reward you for your toils.”
The Blessed One made a sign upon himself of the Cross and rebuked him and said to him, “Our Lord Jesus the Messiah by the spirit of his mouth shall banish you.”
But the demon immediately when he saw the symbol of the Cross, fled and disappeared from him and he did not see him. One day he manifested the divine revelation being caught up in the ecstasy of divine ministry. His mind was speechless for two days and then his faculties returned.
St. Habib determined to visit Jerusalem, so he asked for prayer from the Blessed St. Pachoum and from all his brothers and left the solitary life in order to go to Jerusalem. He went to Alexandria to receive a blessing from the Patriarch who saw his holiness said to him, “As I think, my brother, the Holy Spirit has chosen you to be a leader and pastor of the church of Athens. Bend your shoulders to bear and take the yoke of the Messiah (Christ) because you have been set apart as a pastor and leader.” and made St. Habib Bishop for Athens. Having to chase down the saint, the Patriarch succeeded in making St. Habib a Bishop and sent him to the city. He was received in Athens with great adulation and miracles of walking on water.
In Athens he battled over money with a fellow by the name of Dionysius who had confiscated the money of the church and also from the poor. St. Habib through a dream discovered where the money was hidden and had it brought to him. Habib prayed and made the money magically fly to him. Afterwards, Dionysius committed suicide and St. Habib fled back to Egypt to the Nitrian desert and joined the holy band of St. Augin (+363).
St. Augin (Eugene) and his band left Egypt and traveled to Syria, crossing over to Beth Nahreen (Mesopotamia) to the border of the city of Nisibin and they went up Mount Izla east of city. They sat in it and they began building a great and famous monastery for St. Augin. St. Augin dwelled on a cliff above his temple. They built a church and a small cell beside it. They began the work of angels. The Holy St. Habib built a cell next to the cell of St. Augin and it was revealed to the divine elder St. Augin that they should go to the region of Qardu and convert its inhabitants from paganism to the Christianity. They went out like the Holy Apostles, that divine band. They moved until they got to the Tigris River.
St. Habib traveled with the troop to the Kardu mountains where he miraculously healed a man who had been mauled by a lion. He was taken to the village of the man and there St. Habib destroyed their house of idols and converted the village to Christianity. He baptized 6,006 people and stayed there and taught them for one month. He returned to Mt. Izla with the man he healed and had become his disciple, Barboze. Later he traveled to the village of Domaane which was north-west of Mt. Izla. He and Barboze built a monastery and gathered sixty monks there. Later they traveled to Beth Lafat where they worked for seven years among idol worshippers. When it was discovered that they were Christians, the people of the city threw them in prison. The chief of the Magis beat St. Habib but the son of the chief of the Magis died as a divine consequence. Through a dream of the Christian servant, the chief of the Magis had St. Habib released and come and raise his son from the dead. St. Habib mocks the pagan priest whom he asks first to try to revive the dead son. When they fail St. Habib revives the son and converts the city and many nearby villages to Christianity. He baptizes 10,635 people. He stays with them for three years.
St. Habib then goes to the city of Shigur (Sanjar) and pays a carpenter to make a living idol. He mocks the man and the idol and for this he is cast into prison again. But St. Habib prays and casts down their house of idols. The people ask St. Habib to show them the power of his God. St. Habib has them bring two dead children to him, a Persian and a Jew. He revives them and converts the city to Christianity. He baptizes 1,027 souls. He conducts ministry of healing and teaching and stays with them for six months.
He was preaching in the villages like the divine apostles, in his life many idol houses he pulled down, many churches built, many deacons and priests he raised up, many dead he revived, many blind eyes he opened, many lepers he cleansed, many demons cast out, and all type of diseases he healed.
Finally he leaves the city and goes and builds a small cell near
the Tigris River across from a small village.
It was revealed that his
departure from this world was near. At the time of the arrival
of his ship came to dock at the harbor of life. In the
exclamations of the heavenly kingdom, the Holy One prepared that
he should leave the world and go to heaven and his body weakened
for two days. He heard a voice it said to him: “Come in peace my
brother and my beloved, come in peace O Habib, come in peace for
the heavenly ones await you
The heavenly company went down with the spirits of the righteous ones and received his pious and divine soul. They raised it to the Lord in a great procession and sounds of encouragement and chants of their songs. They accompanied St. Habib and no bodily person drew near to him in the day of his transition.
St. Habib’s life was one hundred and twenty three years. He went out from this world on the twentieth of September. May his memory be for blessings and his prayer and all the saints and his friends. Amen.
They are saying that a monastery was built near the Tigris River being called by his name until today. Another monastery was built between Romanus and the village of Anhel. Many monasteries were built in his name. May his prayer be with us! Amen.
They are saying that a monastery was built near the Tigris River being called by his name until today. Another monastery was built between Romanus and the village of Anhel. Many monasteries were built in his name. May his prayer be with us! Amen.
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