Matta el Meskin

Father Matthew the Poor (Matta El-Maskeen) (1919-2006) is the spiritual father of the Monastery of St. Macarius the Great, Wādī al-Naṭrūn, Egypt. In 1948 he became a monk in the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, in Upper Egypt. In 1969 Pope Cyrill VI asked him to refound the Monastery of St. Macarius. Father Matthew has greatly contributed to the revival of the Coptic monastic life as well as of the patristic and theological studies. He has been a great advocate of Christian unity. He has hundreds of publications in numerous fields only some of which have been translated so far.