Religious Leader. The 116th Pope of Alexandria and the See of Saint Mark, he was born Azer Youssef Atta in Damanhour to a Coptic Orthodox family. Resigning his position within the civil service to become a monk in July 1927, he took his vows on February 24, 1928 at the monastery of Paromeos, assuming the name of Mina el-Baramosy. Overseeing the construction of the church of Saint Menas in Cairo in 1947, he was elected Pope of Alexandria on May 10, 1959, becoming thus the only monk to be elected to such office without first being bishop or metropolitan through the course of the twentieth century. Elevating the archbishopric of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church to the title of Patriarch-Catholicos, with Abuna Basilios becoming the first Ethiopian patriarch, as a sign of gratitude, Cyril was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Star of Solomon by Emperor Haile Selassie. Laying the foundation stone of the monastery of Saint Mina in the Mariout desert in November 1959, he presided over the Committee of Oriental Orthodox Churches in Addis Ababa, the first ecumenical and non-Chalcedonian synod of these churches held in modern times in January 1965. Receiving the relics of Saint Mark the Evangelist and Apostle in June 1968, taken from Alexandria to Venice over eleven centuries earlier, they were interred beneath the then newly completed cathedral of Saint Mark in Cairo, built under his tenure and inaugurated in a ceremony attended among others by President Gamel Abdel Nasser, the named Emperor Selassie and delegates from most other churches. A holy man, said to have been with prescience and that he knew who was coming to see him along with their needs before they revealed them, he is also said to have had the gift of bilocation, with countless miracles attributed to his intercession. Passing away after a short illness, originally buried under the altar of the new cathedral, his body was transferred in a great solemn cortege to the monastery of Saint Mina the Martyr in Mariuot, where in accordance with his wishes, was laid to rest near the remains of the named saint. On June 20, 2013 the Holy Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church canonized Pope Cyril.