His Holiness Pope Shenouda III was the 117th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark. His holiness had the original name of Nazeer Gayed and was born on August 3,1923. At the age of 16 he was actively involved in the Sunday School movement to improve Christian education within the church. He graduated from Cairo University and joined the Coptic Orthodox Seminary, where he later became apart of the faculty. On July 18th, 1954 he chose the solitude of the Egyptian desert. He became a monk and then later a priest monk with the name of Fr. Antonious El-Syriani. On September 30, 1962, he was called by the late Pope Cyril VI to be the consecrated Bishop of Christian Education and President of the Coptic Orthodox Theological Seminary. He was known as His Grace Bishop Shenouda.
On November 14, 1971, His Grace Bishop Shenouda was consecrated as His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, the 117th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark. He used to conduct weekly meetings with more than seven thousand people in attendance. He was the editor-in-chief of El-Keraza Magazine and opened branches of the seminary in America, Australia, and the United Kingdom. He also published 101 books on various subjects, most of which have been translated into English, French, German, Italian, and other languages. His Holiness passed away on March 17th of 2012 after more than forty years as the Pope and Patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church.