Saint Pishoy

Saint Pishoy (Paisios the Great)
Coptic Icon of St. Pishoy, including scenes from his life
Star of the Desert
Born	320 Shansa, Egypt
Died	15 July 417 Mountain of Ansena, Egypt
Venerated in	Eastern Orthodox Churches Oriental Orthodox Churches
Major shrine	Monastery of Saint Bishoy Scetes, Egypt
Feast	8 Epip
Attributes	Monk carrying Jesus, Monk washing the feet of Jesus

Saint Pishoy (Coptic: Ⲁⲃⲃⲁ Ⲡⲓϣⲱⲓ Abba Pišoi; and Greek: Όσιος Παΐσιος ο Μέγας; 320 – 417 AD), known in the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria as the Star of the Desert and the Beloved of our Good Savior, is an Egyptian desert father. He is said to have seen Jesus and that his body is preserved to the present day in incorruptibility at the Monastery of Saint Pishoy at the Nitrian Desert, Egypt. He is venerated by the Oriental Orthodox Churches and the Eastern Orthodox Churches, and is known in the latter under the Greek version of his name, Paisios.

Saint Pishoy was born in 320 AD in the village of Shansa (Shensha or Shesna), currently in the Egyptian governorate of Al Minufiyah. Younger to six other brothers, he was weak and frail. His mother saw an angel in a vision asking her to give God one of her children, and pointed at Pishoy. When the mother tried to offer one of her stronger children, the angel insisted that Pishoy was the chosen one.

At the age of twenty, Pishoy went to the wilderness of Scetes and became a monk by the hand of Saint Pambo, who also ordained Saint John the Dwarf a monk. When Saint Pambo died, Pishoy was guided by an angel to the site of the present Monastery of Saint Pishoy, where he lived the life of a hermit. At this time, he became the spiritual father of many monks who gathered around him. He was famous for his love, wisdom, simplicity and kindness, as well as for his extremely ascetic life. He was also known to love seclusion and quietness. Pishoy's asceticism was harsh to the extent of tying his hair and hands with a rope to the ceiling of his cell, in order to resist sleeping during his night prayers. This asceticism made him so famous that he was visited by Saint Ephrem the Syrian.