Main entrance to the monastery. Bishoy is a Coptic word which means "lofty". The founder of the monastery was born 320 CE. An angel appeared to his mother and announced to her that her son had been chosen to be a servant of God. He came to this area in 340 CE and became a monk under the guidance of St. Pemwa. When St. Pemwa died, he became head of this monastery. In 407 CE he moved to Upper Egypt and established another monastery. On an appointed day God promised to appear to the monks on the top of a mountain. All hurried to the top except St. Bishoy who stopped to help an old man. As he carried the man up the mountain, the man became lighter and lighter and then disappeared. St. Bishoy heard a voice from heaven "Because you carried my body your body will not see corruption." St. Bishoy died in 417 CE. When the monasteries of Wadi al-Natrun were sacked by the Berbers in 407, Saint Bishoy took refuge in Antinopolis, where he later died. His body was returned to the monastery in the eleventh century and is now in the church that bears his name. This is the most famous monastery of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria named after Pishoy. It is the easternmost of the four current monasteries of Wadi el Natrun.