Day Trip to Wadi El Natrun from Alexandria

The most eastern surviving Christian monastery in the Wadi el-Natrun of Egypt is Dier Al Anba Bishoy (Pshoi, Bishoi), which was founded by St. Bishoy (Pshoi). Though similar, the story of Saint Bishoy is sometimes told with varying details. However, in general, we believe that Saint Bishoy was born in the Egyptian Nile Delta in 320 AD. Apparently, his parents were deeply religious, and it is said that in a dream one night, an angel of the Lord asked for the services of one of his mother's children. St. Bishoy's mother gave the angel his selection of her children, and the angel chose Bishoy.A frail child, his mother thought that the angel might do better, but the angel said that, "the Lord's power in frailty is perfect". At the age of twenty, Bishoy joined the Monastery of Seetis. He was particularly fond of the book of Jeremiah from the Old Testament, and was therefore called Abbot Bishoy the Jeremian.

This Monastery is very probably the first monastery established in Wadi El-Natrun . The modern name of the monastery, al-Baramus, is Arabic and is derived from the Coptic christian Pa-Rameos, which means "that of the Romans" in the honor of Maximus and Domidus , two sons of the Roman Emperor Valentinus who died from excessive fasting. Their bodies were buried in a crypt below the Church of the Virgin .

it is the smallest surviving monastery of Wadi Natrun and is the most famous amongst clergymen and scholars around the world. Although the monastery’s foundations date back to the fourth century AD, it is known as the Monastery of the Syrians because of a group of al-Surian monks who settled in Wadi Natrun in 984 AD.