TAMAV IRENE, LLC
SUNNY ISLE BEACH, FLORIDA

Tamav Irene Meanwhile, Genevieve saw a scorpion on the floor and realized what had happened and cried out to St. Shenoute for help. Immediately, she saw the saint flying towards Fawzia, taking her on his arms; he blew on her face and made the sign of the cross on her forehead and addressed Genevieve saying: From the cradle, Genevieve nurtured her daughter with the true orthodox faith and the practices of piety. Fawzia, later Tamav Irene, recollects : I asked her why are you doing so? She said: ‘Do the same as what I am doing’ She helped me stand on a chair next to her and said: One day, my mother asked the priest of the church, why he held masses late at night, but his answer was that he never did. When my mother confirmed that she heard prayers at night, he told her: Tamav Irene relates to us her childhood experiences and how intimate was her mother’s relation with the Virgin. She says: “One day, when I was very young, boiling water was spilled over my legs and they were all covered with blisters. Despite using various ointments, they never healed. My mother prayed and asked for the intercession of the Virgin Mary. Suddenly I felt a light gentle breeze of air passing over my legs and all the burns and blisters disappeared; I was totally healed.” Tamav Irene recalls another miracle of healing. “My mother suffered from frequent pain in her stomach. The physicians of the small town of Gerga were unable to help. She traveled to Cairo and again the physicians failed to cure her. She returned to Gerga still suffering from pain. At that time she had four children, each only one year older than the other. ‘I have to ask my husband for permission first.’ Genevieve lived for many years and gave birth to other children. She lived as long as she has requested; until her eldest daughter, Fawzia, later Tamav Irene, grew up and joined the convent. All of the children saw in their parents a living example of love and prayer and witnessed their strong relationship with saints. Tamav Irene tells us about how her family was strongly attached to St. Michael the Archangel. Genevieve hung his icon in the prayer room beneath which there was an oil lamp that was always lit. She feasted on his commemoration day, every 12th day of each Coptic month, by making bread and pastry. In the evening she used to put the bread before the icon and next day she would find a cross made by St. Michael on one of the loaves. She took this loaf and put it in the flour to become a blessing for the store rooms all the year round. The bread covered all their needs and the needs of the families they helped. Regarding the acts of mercy, a big merchant in Cairo who knew Yassa, Tamav Irene’s father, tells us about how he is greatly indebted to him for his now very successful career. Yassa taught him the tools of the trade and was very generous with him. He supported him until his business flourished and until he became a very well known merchant. He relates to us about Yassa’s Christian attitude towards all his employees and all those who came in contact with him. He says: “Yassa was very well off and was the owner of a very successful business in trade. I was one of his employees. He was accustomed to choose the day on which he made most profit each month and on that day he would ask all his employees, who were many, to pass by his office one by one before leaving. He would put all of the income of the day in a drawer in his desk and whenever an employee came in, he would open the drawer a little bit and grab from it some money without counting and give it to him. Genevieve raised her daughters in an atmosphere of love for helping others. As an example, their neighbour, a paralyzed lady living with her brother and his wife, was often left alone when they traveled, Genevieve made sure that she is taken care of by her daughters. They helped her eat, clean her room and fulfilled all her needs. Moreover, Genevieve also sent with her daughters a lot of food and sweets to the orphanages that were very poor and had no facilities at that time. She encouraged her daughters to help the orphans cleanup their place and she asked them to take their measures to sew dresses for them. Fawzia spent her day praying with them and reading the Bible. Practicing these virtues at an early age was the seed that the heavenly father provided for the young heart opening up to new spiritual depths. Fawzia has committed herself to clean the church regularly because on the first time she did so with her friends, they received a consolation from heaven. This was on the twenty first day of the Coptic month on which the church regularly commemorates the Virgin Mary. The idea of cleaning the church triggered when she saw that the priest was old and was unable to take proper care of the church. Dust covered all the benches and accumulated heavily everywhere; moreover, the church was full of spiders. After a hard day’s work with the help of her friends they managed to clean the church thoroughly and as they were about to leave, the Virgin Mary appeared to them with a smile on her face and said: “I am grateful to you for cleaning the church of my God and Son and which is dedicated to my name” She then blessed them and disappeared. Moreover, she was gifted too with spiritual transparency through which she saw forthcoming events. One day, she said: “Let’s finish what is in our hands quickly because our neighbour will send her granddaughter to ask us to help her. After half an hour exactly our neighbour’s granddaughter was knocking at our door and said: “Please come, my grandmother needs you.” We were astonished and asked how she has known this beforehand; she humbly answered: “ It was the devil who gave me this idea to fill me with pride and thus fall spiritually”. And now back to memories that were recorded by Tamav Irene herself about her mother’s strong faith in St. George: Tamav Irene tells us about another miracle that has been performed through the intercession of St. Ebraam (Anba Ebraam, a saint who was the Bishop of El Fayoum in the late nineteenth century and who is known as the friend of the poor (1829-1914):