Ghattas was born
Andraos Ghattas in the village of Cheikh Zein-el-Dine in the Girga Governorate (now part of the
Sohag Governorate), Egypt. Feeling called to serve as a priest, as a teenager he entered the
minor seminary of the Coptic Church in
Cairo, then did studies at a
Jesuit secondary school in the city. He then went to
Rome, where he studied at the
Pontifical Urbaniana University, earning doctorates in both theology and philosophy. He was ordained there on 25 March 1944. He then returned to Egypt where he taught at Coptic seminaries in the country, first at
Tahta, then at
Tanta. In 1952 Ghattas entered the
Congregation of the Mission, doing his year of
novitiate in France. He then served in the Lebanon for six years, after which he was sent to Alexandria, where he was the Superior of the Vincentians in Egypt. Ghattas died in Cairo, where he had retired, on 20 January 2009, four days after his 89th birthday, and was buried in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Egypt in Cairo. ==See also==