Tunt Samira 

With this months theme, let us look at another modern saint who many are not aware of. It is the

beauty of modern, everyday saints that we don’t know them because they are living among us.

Samira Dougherty (commonly referred to as Tunt samira) is an amazing example of how we can

all achieve sainthood.

In my weakness, I will never be able to fully capture even a fraction of the beauty of our beloved

Tunt Samira’s life. Through God’s grace, however, I hope we can reflect on her example and

strive to live the same Christ-centered life that she lived so effortlessly.

Tunt Samira was pronounced dead when she was born. Her father urged the doctors to revive

her, not knowing how much the Coptic Church would yearn for such a beautiful heart. On March

16, 1941, she was born in Egypt into a family of 7, being the youngest of 5 siblings. As she grew

up, she lived a life of simplicity and obedience. She studied and was graced with an education

that allowed her to be a school math teacher. She wanted to take monastic vows, but her family

wanted to immigrate to the United States. She sought the help of her spiritual guide, St Pope

Kyrillos, who urged her to go with her family.

Though she never desired marriage and initially opposed it, she eventually married a convert

named William. They lived many happy years until his passing in 2002. She considered

marriage life an act of service. To her, it was martyrdom. William had suffered a back injury from

work, and was not able to support them or their two children with much. Nevertheless, she

stayed steadfast in her faith, prayer, and Christ-like love.

Tunt Samira lived a very simple life. Those who had the blessing of entering her house

described it as a convent, and described her room as a monastic cell.

Tunt Samira was plagued with diseases the last fifteen years of her life, including bone marrow

cancer and psoriasis. Despite this, she lived a life of service, constantly serving those in her

church. The beauty of her story is that on the outside, she looked like your simple church

servant– like any typical faithful Sunday liturgy tunt. She was very humble, and kept all her

virtues and spiritual encounters to herself. It was because of her devotional love for God, that

this was second nature to her.

Tunt Samira had a very beautiful relationship with St Pope Kyrillos. One time while she was in

Egypt, she was not happy with her job and her friends suggested she speak to St Pope Kyrillos.

At this time, they were not yet close. When she went to see him, he picked her out from the

crowd, and told her she would receive a call the next day and she should be home to answer it.

The next day she received a phone call from a school she never applied to, and said there was

a position she would be perfect for. The school later said that a man dressed like a military

general had personally delivered her resume. She later realized it was St. Mina. She grew so

close to the great saint that he was her “baba.” She saw him and spent much time with him

before his passing and after when he would frequently visit her. She even had his keneka

(Turkish coffee pot)!

Her father of confession, Abouna Kyrillos Ibrahim, relayed one specific moment that captures

the beauty of their relationship:

“One night she was very sick and it took all her strength to get out of bed and perform her

prostrations. She completed the first prostration and then the second. But after the second she

could not get up. She cried out from her heart and then found the great St. Pope Kyrillos VI next

to her. He told her to complete the third prostration which she was finally able to do. But she

could not get up again. In awe and tears she relayed how St. Pope Kyrillos picked her up and

gently placed her back in her bed smiling at her. He blessed her and left.”

Too often we dismiss such stories or doubt them, but in doing so we risk overlooking the

beautiful reality of the communion of saints. How beautiful it is that we have the glorious church

and the King of the world at our fingertips! Oftentimes, me being first and foremost, we only ask

for the saints during times of prayer and during small things like exams. Tunt Samira talked to St

Pope Kyrillos about everything. He was her spiritual guide on earth and remained so in heaven.

Why allow ourselves to be deprived of such grace?

Abouna Anthony Paul describes their first encounter:

“I went to St. Marina’s church for a weekday liturgy. There are some liturgical mysteries in the

life of a priest that are hard to explain to others, but I had one of my first mysterious events

during that liturgy. Standing at the altar thinking myself to be “praying”, I felt overpowering

prayers pouring over the altar. I do not know how to explain how one feels that, but I am sure

God permitted it for my repentance. I felt powerful prayer rushing past me and on the altar of

God, and I knew quite well they were not my prayers. It was not my heart producing something

so beautiful and transforming. I could not bear the urge to look behind me, and it was almost

instantaneous that I knew who it was.”

Abouna Kyrillos Ibrahim highlights an encounter she had with the angels:

“About the prayers of blessing the water during the feast of Epiphany, which we often call ‘the

prayer of Lakaan’ she said, ‘I was attending [these] prayers and God opened my eyes and I saw

a great, huge angel standing by abouna while praying on the water. The angel was sooooo tall

that I couldn’t see his face, it reached the ceiling. Other smaller angels were all around the

container of water. But the great angel was blessing the water with abouna. Every time abouna

puts his hand in the water to bless it while saying the prayers, the big angel would put his hand

on abouna’s hand and stir the water with him!’ She continued, ‘I asked Baba (Pope Kyrillos VI)

about this angel and why I can’t see his face, he said ‘it’s archangel Rafael! You can’t see his

face!’ Baba also said to her, ‘this water is very powerful, it has power to cleanse from sickness

and diseases and sins. People take it lightly and they don’t know its power and the level of

blessing in it.’”

Even in her moment of exaltation, she explains everything as a blessing to her. She takes it all

in in simplicity and humility.

To many of us, we dismiss people like this as saints and say this is completely unattainable.

This is quite the opposite! Tunt Samira lived a life of intense prayer and love, and it is in this that

God allows her story to remain with us, that we can learn from her and live like her.

In the gospel, Christ spoke concerning the end of times: “‘Then the righteous will answer Him,

saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When

did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You

sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say

to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me’” (Matt

25:37-40). Although Tunt Samira was not going around healing people of demon possession or

opening people’s physical eyes, she was a beautiful emulation of Christ. As she walked around,

she helped those who were spiritually oppressed and opened people’s spiritual eyes and hearts

to seeing and living a life for God. She took people in for thanksgiving, was a mother to the

widows, and was a friend to the traveler.

It was because of her persistence for the virtues, she was given these beautiful graces. It is

through her life that we are given hope of our own sainthood. In the tasbeha, we pray “the

righteous will come [to the kingdom] bearing their virtues.” Let us use her life as an example for

us all, that we may come to the kingdom bearing our virtues.

“Our hearts are restless until they find rest in You.” Tunt Samira did not just find rest in Him, she

became a beautiful light in the world for Him. Pray for us in the heavenly Jerusalem, Tunt!