Pijimi

Venerable Pijimi is a Coptic saint of the fourth century, a native of Fisha (modern Beheira Governorate), in the diocese of Masil. According to Coptic manuscripts, an angel appeared to him at the age of twelve and asked him to become a monk. He went to the desert of Scetis, where he lived with a number of monks for twenty-⁠four years, until they all departed. Then he went into the inner desert, three days' travel away, and, overcoming the conspiracies of the devils, lived three years in a valley, fasting a week at a time; at the end of each week he ate a handful of dates and drank a little water. According to Coptic sources he once fasted eighty days, until his skin cleaved to his bones.

Another story says that he went looking for Macarius with another hermit; when they found him, he told them to quarry their own cells. After years in the inner desert he returned to the city of Fisha and built a small cell on its outskirts, living alone, devoted to worship and asceticism. People came to him to be nourished by his spiritual teaching. Coptic sources say that Saint Shenoute the Archimandrite once saw an exceedingly shining pillar and heard a voice saying, "This is Abba Pijimi." Shenoute then went to visit him for several days. After a short illness he reposed at the age of seventy, on 11 Koiak.