Topic: Documentary on Coptic Hermit Fr. Lazarus

[EkhristosAnesti]

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKXf_7Tt0-c

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag6WE__82Q8

[Salpy]

From the director of C13H16CINO, a truly remarkable story of the last Anchorite, Father Lazarus El Anthony, a coptic hermit who has been living in solitude on the Mount Colzim (the mountain of st Anthony's cave, Egypt) for several years. He is Australian and worked as a university lecturer teaching literature and philosophy.

He spent about forty-years of his life being an atheist deriving his philosophy from Marxism.
After his mother was diagnosed with incurable cancer and died, he abandoned his life in Australia and went in quest of God and freedom. His pilgrimage, brought him ultimately to live as Coptic monk. He met H.H. Pope Shenouda III, who eventually lead him to where he is today.


I copied the above from the youtube page, for those who want to know something about the videos before clicking onto the links.  I'm pretty sure this is the remarkable monk we saw in the Extreme Pilgrim BBC videos.  Thank you for finding this EA! 

[EkhristosAnesti]

I'm pretty sure this is the remarkable monk we saw in the Extreme Pilgrim BBC videos. 

Yes, same monk.

Btw, I don't understand why the producers of this documentary entitled it 'The Last Anchorite.' Abouna Lazarus is not the only living Coptic Orthodox anchorite, and certainly, he is not nor will be the last...

[Pilgrim]

Beautiful. I love the music. I couldn't understand the language, but if this is Egypt, do they refer to God as "Allah"?

[EkhristosAnesti]

Yes, this is filmed in Egypt. Abouna Lazarus is a hermit of St Antony's Coptic Orthodox Monastery located near the Red Sea in Egypt.

"Allah" is simply the Arabic word for God. The segment you are referring to is an Arabic reading from one of the Psalms, which precedes the Gospel reading. The next bit of chant you hear (from 8:05 of part 1 and onwards) is in the Coptic language.

[Andrew21091]

I found this yesterday on another forum and I really enjoyed watching it. Very beautiful and informative production though I agree the name is a little weird.

Fr. Lazarus is the monk that is on Extreme Pilgrim.

[Orthodox11]

Btw, I don't understand why the producers of this documentary entitled it 'The Last Anchorite.'

Isn't he the last anchorite to be living around St. Anthony's monastery?

[EkhristosAnesti]

He's the only anchorite in St Antony's monastery at present. That doesn't make him the only anchorite (I can think of about 4 others off the top of my head, and they're only the ones that are known--these known ones testify to many others whose names they don't/can't disclose). And I don't see how that makes him the "last" either. The latest anchorite (of St Antony's monastery), yes, but who is to say the last? I realise 'last' can in a sense be synonymous to 'latest'--but that's not the obvious sense in which the common person is likely to take it. And the title does not make any reference to his being the last of St Antony's monastery, so nor is the obvious intent of the title to be understood with reference to that monastery alone.

[Orthodox11]

I watched a documentary about Timkat in Ethiopia a while back. Lots of great shots, several interviews with clergy, inside access to various off-limits holy sites, etc. It concluded with a visit to the Debre Birhan Selassie church, where the presenter explained that the icon of the three old men (the Holy Trinity) was a depiction of the three wise men, whose visit to the Christ-Child is what Timkat (Epiphany) is all about  So I wouldn't put it past the makers of such documentaries to be ignorant of things a simple wikipedia search could inform them of. I just assumed that if St. Anthony's had previously had several anchorites living in the area, the fact that there is only one now would explain the title.

[Salpy]

The title was probably for dramatic effect.