Sisoës the Great (also Sisoi the Great, Sisoy the Great, Sisoes of Sceté or Shishoy; Coptic: ⲁⲡⲁ ϫⲓϫⲱⲓ; died 429 AD) was an early Christian desert father, a solitary monk pursuing asceticism in the Egyptian desert in a cave of his predecessor, St Anthony the Great. St Sisoës is revered as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, who consider him a wonderworker. His feast day is observed on July 6 [O.S. July 19].[1][2]
Sisoës was a Copt by birth. Having withdrawn from the world since his youth, he retired to the desert of Sceté, and lived for some time under the direction of his teacher, Abba Or. The desire of finding a retreat yet more unfrequented induced him to cross the Nile and hide himself on Mount Colzim where Anthony the Great had died some time before.
References
- 1.In some Latin Calendars his feast day was held on July 4.
- 2.Patristic scholar and Roman Catholic theologian Jean-Baptiste Cotelier bestowed much space on Sisoës in his Ecclesiæ Græcæ Monumenta, t. i. 662-678.