السيرة
Among the faithful stewards whom the Lord raised up for His Church in the land of Egypt was the blessed Buqaira al-Rashidi, called Ebn Baqar, the cross-bearer and a chief among the archons of the Copts. He lived in the eleventh century, in the days when the Church of Alexandria was shepherded by the holy Pope Zacharias, the sixty-fourth Patriarch, when affliction lay heavy upon the believers under the rule of al-Hakim and afterward of the Caliph al-Zahir.
He was a man clothed in the zeal of God, gentle toward the weak and bold before the powerful. His word was heard among the clergy and the notables, and he carried the Cross of Christ openly, not ashamed of the Name before kings. For this reason the people called him the cross-bearer, and in the love he bore for his Lord they named him the steward of Christ, because he spent himself and his substance for the household of the faith.
When the see of Saint Mark was burdened, and a heavy tribute was laid upon the Pope of Alexandria to be paid at the very hour of his consecration, the blessed Buqaira drew near to the Caliph al-Zahir, by whom he was greatly beloved and trusted. With wisdom and meekness he pleaded the cause of the Church, and he obtained from the Caliph a decree lifting that tribute from the Patriarch. Thus through one faithful servant the Lord granted relief to His shepherd and to the whole flock.
His zeal shone most brightly in the recovery of a holy treasure. The venerable head of Saint Mark the Evangelist, the founder of the See of Alexandria, had passed into the hands of a Turkish emir. Buqaira did not rest until he had ransomed the relic for three hundred dinars of his own giving, and he bore it with reverence and joy and delivered it to the father Patriarch, the Pope Zacharias, that the throne of Saint Mark might be honored again with the relic of its evangelist.
He was a father to the poor in the day of trouble. When a grievous famine fell upon the land and bread failed, he went about the quarters of the needy, inquiring after their hunger and supplying their want. By night he visited the sick and consoled them, and he comforted the imprisoned, remembering the word of the Lord that what is done to the least of these is done unto Him.
After the repose of Pope Zacharias, when the Church was without a shepherd, Buqaira the cross-bearer, in whom the zeal of God still burned, gathered to himself some of the chosen believers and went up to the vizier al-Jarjarai, speaking with him concerning the affairs of the Church and the choosing of a new patriarch, that the flock of Christ might not be left scattered.
Having labored faithfully all his days as a steward of the mysteries of God and a defender of His Church, the blessed Buqaira al-Rashidi departed to the Lord whom he had served, leaving behind the memory of a righteous archon who loved the Cross and the poor. May his prayers and his blessing be with us. Amen.