 Ibrahim Isaac Sidrak was born on 19 August 1955 in Beni-Chokeir, Asyut Governorate. He studied Philosophy and Theology on the St. Leo’s Patriarchal Seminary in Maadi (a suburb of Cairo) and was ordained a priest in 1980. For the following two years he served in the Parish of Archangel Michael in Cairo. Being sent to Rome to study at the Pontifical Gregorian University he received his doctorate in dogmatic theology. Between 1990 and 2001 he was the rector of the Patriarchal Seminary in Maadi. For a short period in 2002 he served as the parish priest of the patriarchal Cathedral of Our Lady of Egypt, in Cairo. In October 2002 he was elected Bishop of Minya, a post in which he served until his canonical election as patriarch.[1]
Ibrahim Isaac Sidrak was elected as Coptic Catholic Patriarch of Alexandria by the synod of the Coptic Catholic Church on 15 January 2013, in succession of Patriarch Antonios I Naguib who had resigned because of poor health, after he had a stroke, suffered partial paralysis and underwent brain surgery. Patriarch Sidrak asked for and received ecclesiastical communion from Pope Benedict XVI three days later, on 18 January 2013.[2]
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