Damanhur (180 kilometers north of Cairo) received the news of the selection of one  its beloved residents, pharmacist Wagih Subhi Baqi Sulayman, as the 118^th Coptic Pope with great delight. Its people deemed it a bestowal of honors upon a man of their governorate loved equally amongst its Christian and Muslim communities.

Damanhur (180 kilometers north of Cairo) received the news of the selection of one  its beloved residents, pharmacist Wagih Subhi Baqi Sulayman, as the 118^th Coptic Pope with great delight. Its people deemed it a bestowal of honors upon a man of their governorate loved equally amongst its Christian and Muslim communities.

Coordinator of ‘Female Egyptians for Change’ in El-Beheira, Hadeer Sharqawi, expressed her joy about the news: “Pope Tawadros has been popular since childhood. All his colleagues at the school of Copts in Damanhur were eager to befriend him as well as talk and get photographed with him,” she said.  “He used to give me toys and candies throughout our primary and middle education.”

He was so close to children and the youth and was chosen as a Rapporteur of the Childhood Committee at the Holy Synod and an assistant at the Youth Bishopric. He is the owner of the idea of the Pharmacist Day when graduates of the Pharmacy College would meet to spend a social day together.

Muhammad Abd Allah, an employee at the El-Beheira Housing Directorate, says it is an honor for the Governorate that the Pope is from Damanhur, especially Pope Tawadros who is well known for his love toward everyone, whether Muslims or Copts.

The early years

Pope Tawadros’ childhood friend, Father Paul Nemetallah – the pastor of St. George church in Damanhur – remembers that the pope was found of reading and did not like playing during his childhood; rather, he spent the most of his time reading in the church library. When they grew up, Father Nemetallah went to engineering college while Tawadros went to the pharmacy college and they used to meet in the train on their way to their respective colleges.

While studying in the 1970s, Nemetallah adds, Pope Tawadros was adventurous and visited Bishop Antoine Convent and Bishop Paula Convent in the Red Sea, which was deserted. He had to cross a bumpy, unpaved road and his car broke down, so he walked for a long distance, but when he came back he was full of joy.

Proficient pharmacist

Pope Tawadros II started his religious career at St. George Church at Sa’aa Square in downtown Damanhur, then moved to Angel Michael Church as a servant. After studying pharmacy at the University of Alexandria he worked at the Ministry of Health’s pharmaceutical factory in Damanhur and advanced until he became the manager.

In 1986, he became monk Theodor’s at the Monastery of Saint Pishoy and in 1990 he started working with Pope Pachomius before becoming the bishop of the El-Beheira Metropolitan, which includes El-Beheira, Matrouh and the churches of five Western countries.

 Dr. Bshara Abdulmalek, member of the Congregation Council in El-Beheira, says he has known Pope Tawadros since university. “We were colleagues at the Pharmacy College in Alexandria and I liked studying from his copybook since he used to write down all lectures in a fine handwriting,” said Abdulmalek, adding that Pope Tawadros was very popular among his co-workers at the Damanhur pharmaceutical factory where he worked after he graduated.

“Pope Tawadros”, says Abdulmalek, “is humble, highly cultured and an excellent listener. He has no disagreements with anyone and uses science to communicate information. It was his idea to create a museum to exhibit the church history, using the state-of-the-art technology.”

Not only the Copts are happy

Even Damanhur’s Muslim residents are happy about the news.

Yasser Sahali, the Pope’s neighbor who lives in a rented apartment in Abu Abdallah neighborhood and works as an employee in the educational buildings, says that all the neighborhood residents rejoiced when Dr. Wagih was chosen as Pope Tawadros II. “He used to visit us each feast and when he was working in the pharmaceutical company, he always gave me medicines, gauze and mercurochrome,” Sahali remembered.