St. Samuel The Confessor’s Monastery, Qalamoun Mount, Maghagha, Minya

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The monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor in Mount Qalamoun is located near the northern end of the El-Moleeh Valley. Mount Qalamoun (with a height of approximately 180 meters above sea level) surrounds the northern and eastern sides of the monastery. The western side of the monastery is surrounded by Mount Ghalion (which is two metres high in the area facing the monastery).

The monastery can be reached from the western Cairo-Asyuit Desert Road, heading south until the 283rd kilometer sign to Asyuit, then west for 25 kilometers until the gate of the monastery.

The monastery’s saints:
Banin and Bano the martyrs, the great Saint Samuel the Confessor, Abba Yostos (Saint Samuel’s disciple), Abba Apollo (Saint Samuel’s disciple), Abba Stephen the Bishop (Saint Samuel’s disciple), Abba Ghalion the Anchorite, Abba Stephen the Anchorite, Abba Misaeel the Anchorite, the Female Anchorite of the Wilderness of Qalamoun.

The monastery’s churches:
-The Church of Saint Samuel of the Fort
-The Church of Saint Virgin Mary
-The Church of Abba Misaeel the Anchorite
-The Cave and Church of Saint Samuel the Confessor
-The Church of Archangel Gabriel of the Fort
-The Church of Saint Mina and Pope Kyrillos of the Lighthouse
-The Church of Abba Ghalioun the Anchorite
-The Church of the Martyrs
-The Church of the Anchorites
-The Church of the Virgin and Saint Samuel
-The Church of Saint Mark, next to Saint Samuel’s Cave

The monastery’s abbot: Bishop Basilious

Before Saint Samuel came to it, the monastery was known as: ‘The Monastery of the Virgin, Mount Qalamoun’.

H.H. Pope Gabriel V (the 88th patriarch) was one of the monastery’s monks.