Blessed Feast of Saint Philopatir Mercurius - Abu Sefein.

Today we celebrate the Feast of Saint Philopatir Mercurius- Abu Sefein our family’s patron Saint.

Friendship with Saints

What makes us drawn to a certain Saint more than another? Do we connect with aspects of their lives or their spiritual struggles? Is it by association?

I grew up in a family who loved Pope Kyrillos the 6th so naturally, he became one of my Saintly friends.

Saint Philopatir was more of an “acquaintance” of the family rather than a friend.

Incidentally, my friend Laura has a great program for children, to introduce them to Heavenly friends, you can read about it here: Heavenly Friends

I can’t really remember when Abu Sefein became my favourite Coptic Saint.

My favourite Catholic Saint remains Saint Francis of Assisi and I long for the day when I no longer have to make this distinction and we are all one denomination!

I was drawn to Saint Philopatir when I discovered a book about his miracles when I was a teenager. I stumbled upon the first collection of his miracles entitled God loves me and I got hooked.

All of his miracles were imbued with grace and extreme kindness. He appeared when he was needed and when the caller was just about to lose hope.

A heroic figure, a knight in shining armour and a kind friend. As my admiration for Saint Philopatir increased, I longed to have a son to name him after his namesake.

You can read his story here: St Philopateer Mercurius Abu Sefein

After posting, I made a new friend on FB who very generously shared her miracle and allowed me to post it. And, what a miracle it is!!!

” Hi Mireille, it’s a very long story but two years ago my daughter was born suddenly two months early, on the exact day that we were supposed to travel to the USA for good, my blood pressure was 250/120.

I had a severe pre-eclampsia, she weighted 1.2 kilos, she looked fine at first just needed NICU to grow. I was I wreck, the second day I was dismissed from the hospital. I went to Abu sefen in Egypt, I let go of all the crying and screaming for help for ” irene ” my daughter. The nuns saw me and gave me holy oil, they told me this is from tamav ereny. I took the oil and went to the hospital the second day to see irene where I got the worst news ever: my daughter has NEC ( necrotizing enterocolitis), her survival chance is less than 15% and if she does she’ll have multiple surgeries and serious complications for the rest of her life.

My heart sunk, the doctor said we can’t do anything but stop all feeding now, give her fresh frozen plasma daily, antibiotics and wait 14 days then start feeding her breast milk, she said I can’t promise anything this is really not good…I said can I put some oil on her, she said we’ll do something better, she took an insulin syringe filled it with oil, and put it directly into her feeding tube, she said her intestine can’t get any worse than it’s already.

She was baptized at the age of 5 days in the hospital because she wasn’t supposed to make it… Ups and downs for 14 days, her weight fell to 900 gms, but again we put the oil, started feeding her, her intestine was new again, was discharged after Saint Philpatir feast in December, 43 days in the hospital, no complications what so ever, beautiful healthy 2 years old, her doctor posted about her and said it’s a miracle by all means”

By Mirette Wadie. God bless you Mirette and bless your whole family and miracle baby!