EgyptÃs Coptic Christian leader Pope Shenouda III (Photo: AP)
Egypt’s Patriarch Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria has cancelled, at present, his annual visits to the country’s monasteries during Easter due to health problems.
Every Easter the pope performs the “Friday of Final Fasting,” in the Bishop Bishoy’s monastery in Wadi Natroun. He then goes on to visit the surrounding monasteries, performing the Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday prayers.
The pope has been struggling with health problems for the past few months and consequently travels regularly to the US to be treated at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. Last week, he suffered a health crisis, on Wednesday 6 April, only minutes before he was due to deliver his weekly sermon in the Abbassiya Cathedral and was transferred to the El-Salam Hospital. He was advised by his doctors to cancel his usual Easter visits in order to recuperate.
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