St. Serapion

St. Serapion of Thmuis lived in the fourth century and died around 360. A monk of the Egyptian desert and a close friend of St. Anthony the Great — who at his death bequeathed to him one of his sheepskin cloaks — he was drawn from solitude to become bishop of Thmuis in the Nile Delta. For his wide learning he was nicknamed 'the Scholastic.'

A staunch ally of St. Athanasius, he stood firmly for the Nicene faith and the divinity of the Holy Spirit against the Arians, and he wrote against the errors of the Manichaeans. A collection of prayers for the liturgy and sacraments, the 'Sacramentary of Serapion,' bears his name and is a precious early witness to Christian worship. Esteemed for his charity, orthodoxy, and scholarship, he suffered for his fidelity and is venerated as a saint and bishop of the early Church.