Saint Sidhom Bishay

Overview

Saint Sidhom Bishay was a Christian native of Damietta and a worker in a rice factory, identified by The Coptic Encyclopedia as a “new martyr” of the early nineteenth century. His feast day is 17 Baramhat in the Coptic Calendar.¹

Two shorter references reinforce this identification: the encyclopedia’s index lists “Sidhom Bishay (new martyr),” while its calendar listing records the “Martyrdom of Sidhom Bishay in Damietta.” Together with the biographical notice, these references establish his association with Damietta and his remembrance as a martyr.¹²⁴

History and martyrdom

Life in Damietta and accusation

The biographical notice identifies Damietta as Sidhom Bishay’s native city and places him at work in a rice factory when the events leading to his death began. A Muslim accused him of blasphemy against Islam and had him taken to court. The source presents blasphemy as an accusation brought against him, rather than reproducing any words he was alleged to have spoken.¹

Judicial punishment and public violence

The judge ordered Sidhom Bishay to be flogged. An angry crowd subsequently tortured him and led him in a procession through the city riding a buffalo. The account thus distinguishes the punishment ordered by the judge from the violence inflicted by the populace.¹

Sidhom Bishay died five days later. The notice places his martyrdom in the early nineteenth century but does not supply an exact year; its chronological detail is the five-day interval between the described mistreatment and his death.¹

Theology and terminology

The designation “new martyr” appears both in the biographical notice and in the encyclopedia’s index. It is therefore an explicit classification in the reference sources, not simply a description inferred from the circumstances of his death.¹²

An article in Coptic Church Review defines a new martyr as someone who died under Islamic persecution. Read alongside that definition, the encyclopedia’s designation situates Sidhom Bishay’s remembrance within this category of Christian martyrdom.³¹

The brief account links his death to a religious accusation, judicial flogging, and violence by a crowd. It supplies neither a speech of confession nor a theological exposition attributed to him; its presentation of him as a martyr rests on its classification and its account of these events.¹

Liturgical commemoration

The biographical entry expressly gives Sidhom Bishay’s feast day as 17 Baramhat. The corresponding calendar listing names his martyrdom in Damietta among the commemorations grouped under day 17, alongside Lazarus, friend of the Lord, and other commemorated figures.¹⁴

The calendar entry preserves both the nature of the commemoration—his martyrdom—and its geographical association with Damietta. It is a concise commemorative notice rather than an account of particular hymns, prayers, or ceremonial observances.⁴