Samira Zaki Doherty, an Egyptian-born Coptic Orthodox woman, lived a life of intense prayer and unimaginable holiness. She possessed a unique and close friendship with Coptic Patriarch, St. Pope Kyrillos VI (Cyril VI), before and after his passing. It was through this friendship that many miracles and spiritual occurrences transpired in her life and in those around her. Lovingly referred to as Taunt Samira (tuh-auhnt Sah-meera), she changed the lives of all who encountered her and received her prayers.
Taunt Samira was born in Egypt on March 16, 1941. Her life was ordinary by the world’s standards but extraordinary to those who witnessed her passionate love for Christ. The youngest of five children, doctors declared she was born dead. Her father insisted that the doctors revive her, and he persisted until they miraculously succeeded. As she grew into an adult, she led a simple and obedient life. Having earned her degree in teaching, she worked as a math teacher in her early twenties, although she wanted to take monastic vows. While living in Egypt, she personally knew the future St. Pope Kyrillos VI, visited him a few times a week, and attended his liturgies at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Clot Bey. When her family decided to immigrate to the United States, she went to Pope Kyrillos for spiritual guidance. He advised her to immigrate with her family and prophesied that she would marry an American convert to the church and start a family.
As a result, in the late 1960s, Taunt Samira and her family came to California. She was in her late 20s. Shortly thereafter, an Irish American convert, William Doherty, approached her mother and asked for Samira’s hand in marriage. He presented three truths to her mother: he grew up as an orphan, he had suffered a severe back injury from a fall at work, and his many surgeries meant he could not work consistently and earned little. Though Samira had opposed marriage for herself, after meeting him, she recognized married life as an act of service. She cared faithfully for him as her husband, and bore two children although she had never expected to become a mother. In the course of her married life, she experienced many hardships, but remained steadfast in her faith and prayer. Her faith produced many unexpected blessings.
William died in 2002. In the last fifteen years of her life, she endured severe illnesses, including bone marrow cancer, as well as excruciating, progressive, and ultimately incurable psoriasis. Her illnesses caused her to be bedridden in her final months.
Despite her years of illness, she was filled with divine grace and the Holy Spirit–and acquired the kinds of highly revered spiritual gifts that only saints of the past possessed. Those who knew her best report that she used to say, “Whatever God does to me, He does. He’s my Lord. He loves me, so if He wants me to be sick, I’ll be sick. He’ll take care of me.”
Those close to her describe that Taunt Samira’s home was laid out like a convent, with her bedroom like a monastic cell. fter long days caring for her family, helping others in her parish, and dealing with her many health issues, her prayer rule never stopped being an integral part of her life. She often spent her nights praying, reading scripture, and prostrating, She loved prostrations (metanoias); although her health often limited how many she could do, she included them in did not exclude them from her nightly vigils.
As her health worsened, it prevented her from doing more than three prostrations in the course of a vigil. One night, after her second prostration, she cried out to the Lord and saw her friend, St. Pope Kyrillos VI, by her feet. His presence gave her strength. He told her to finish her prostrations; although she finally managed the third, she was unable to rise from it. The beloved saint gently lifted her and helped her return to bed and then gave her his blessing. In tearful awe, she reported this extraordinary experience to her priest.
Her encounters with St Pope Kyrillos and other saints were too numerous to recount, and she didn’t talk about many of them, keeping them close to her heart. They testify to her closeness to the Lord and His love for her. People who were with her during such encounters found themselves enveloped by the sweet-smelling scent of incense or saw holy oil appear on her forehead and hands where the saints blessed her.
Even more than most, Taunt Samira regarded the Divine Liturgy as sacred. One Pascha evening, when she lay in bed too ill to attend the Pascha Liturgy, St. Pope Kyrillos appeared to her, and she found herself at her church witnessing the Divine Liturgy from above. She saw angels surrounding the altar, the hand of Archangel Gabriel guiding her priest’s hand as he blessed the Holy Mysteries in the chalice and received an explanation of the mystery of the Divine Liturgy. She never viewed the Divine Liturgy or the Holy Mysteries the same way again and began all the more, emphasizing their magnitude in our lives.
Despite the severity of her illnesses and their severity, she continued to serve her parish congregation with love—attending to their problems, calling them frequently, comforting the lonely, showing endless hospitality, rekindling faith, praying ceaselessly for them, and touching all their lives in ways only they knew they were needed. She lived out Christ’s command to feed the hungry, give to those who thirst, welcome the stranger and the lonely, clothe the naked, and care for the sick and those in need (Matthew 25:35-40). Her clairvoyance and powerful prayers attracted and were felt by many, including her parish priest, who “never met someone who loved the church so much.” Another parish priest reported feeling an overwhelming power of prayer from the congregation every time she attended his liturgies. Those who knew her emphasize her deep prayer life and the importance she stressed on the power of prayer.
Although Samira Doherty lived her life as a layperson, looked much like any other devoted church attendee, she kept many of these spiritual encounters close to her heart. Only a select few knew about them. For taunt Samira, her spiritual life and devotion to God were most important; everything else served as an offshoot of love for God. Through her complete devotion to Christ, she infused the world of monastic Egypt into her small corner of California, changing many lives beyond comprehension with her life of love, devotion, and hospitality.
October 23 marked the 10-year memorial of her repose in the Lord.
Holy mother Samira, pray to God for us!
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For more information, you can consult The Life of Taunt Samira Doherty, Parts One and Two
