Sorial Ayad Sorial was born 17 January 1955 in Sudan. After university study (including a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering at the University of Khartoum and later study in France), he entered monastic life in Egypt, attempting to join the Monastery of Saint Bishoy on 18 January 1981 and being tonsured a monk on 14 November 1981 with the monastic name Father Karas. He progressed through ordained ministry—priestly ordination (14 February 1984), elevation to Hegumen (23 May 1989)—and was appointed to head the newly established Monastery of St. Antony the Great in Newberry Springs, California (26 September 1989). Pope Shenouda III consecrated him as bishop and abbot on 6 July 1991. He served as a monastic abbot and bishop in the Coptic Orthodox Church in the United States until his death on 17 January 2002.
The available sources do not provide a physical description or iconography. He is described in roles associated with monastic and episcopal office (monk, priest, hegumen/abbot, bishop) but no details of personal appearance or vesture beyond those roles are supplied in the sources.
Bishop Karas's documented capacities are ecclesiastical and pastoral rather than supernatural: monastic profession, priestly ministry, abbatial leadership, celebration of the Divine Liturgy, ascetic practice, pastoral visitation, and administrative leadership of a monastery. He maintained liturgical and ascetic duties even while undergoing chemotherapy after a 1998 lung cancer diagnosis until his final illness in January 2002.
Abadiu of Antinoe
Abadiu of Antinoe was a fourth‑century bishop of Antinoe (Antinoopolis, in Roman Egypt) commemorated as a martyr and saint in the Coptic Orthodox Church, with a feast day on 26 December. Sources record that he was killed during a theological dispute with Arian opponents and reference him in collections of Egyptian martyrs.
Abaskhiron the Soldier
A Coptic Orthodox martyr venerated for refusing imperial idolatry during the Diocletian persecution; reputedly healed by the Archangel Michael, preserved in monastery relics, and commemorated on 14 June (7 Paoni).
Abdel Messih El-Makari
Abdel Messih El-Makari (1892–1963) was a Coptic Orthodox monk and priest venerated as a 20th‑century Coptic saint. Associated with the Monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor and the Monastery of Saint Macarius (Scetes/Wadi El‑Natrun), he is remembered for humility, asceticism, charity, and reported spiritual gifts such as prescience, discerning of spirits, and healing.
Anba George (Saint George of Assiut)
Anba George is a Coptic Orthodox bishop venerated as a saint and martyr in Coptic hagiographical and liturgical tradition. Associated with Assiut in Upper Egypt and the Monastery of St. George, his life is commemorated in Synaxarium-type records; hagiography recounts his leadership of communal fasting and prayer and his subsequent arrest and martyrdom in the 12th century.
Arsenius the Great
Arsenius the Great (c. 350/354–c. 445/450) was a Roman-born imperial tutor who renounced court life to become an anchorite among the Desert Fathers in Egypt. Venerated as a saint in Eastern Orthodox, Coptic, and Roman Catholic traditions, he is remembered for extreme humility, prolonged solitude, silence, copious tears of devotion, and brief monastic writings and sayings preserved in the Apophthegmata Patrum and other collections.
Bashnouna
Bashnouna is a Coptic Christian monk venerated as a saint and martyr in the Coptic Orthodox tradition. According to hagiographical accounts recorded in the Coptic Synaxarion and secondary summaries, he was a monk of the Monastery of Saint Macarius in Scetes, arrested during the Fatimid caliphate of al-'Āḍid, refused to convert to Islam, and was burned alive on 24 Pashons (19 May 1164). His relics are reported buried at the Church of Saint Sergius in Cairo and he is commemorated liturgically on that date.
Bisan
A female Malay/Jakun nature spirit who presides over camphor-bearing trees. She signals the presence of camphor by cicada-like song, is jealous of those seeking the resource, and must be propitiated or confused to allow harvest.
Biscione
The Biscione is a heraldic charge — a stylized large grass-snake (Italian biscione) depicted with a small human figure in its mouth — used as a dynastic and civic emblem associated chiefly with the Visconti and Sforza of Milan and later municipal and corporate identities. In the provided sources it functions as an emblematic device rather than a narrated supernatural being.
Bisclavret
A named nobleman in Marie de France’s lai who periodically transforms into a wolf for three days each week; the tale treats his condition as a distinct, non‑typical form of shape‑change tied to hidden clothing and resolved through royal investigation and recovery of those garments.
Bishops (mammal)
Bishops is an extinct genus of Early Cretaceous mammal from Australia (type species Bishops whitmorei), named in honour of Dr Barry Bishop. Within the supplied corpus there is no documentation of a supernatural or folkloric entity called 'Bishops'; references to "Bishop" otherwise refer to people or ecclesiastical offices.
Bisimbi (Simbi)
Bisimbi (singular Simbi) are water and nature spirits in Bakongo (Kongo) traditional religion. They are associated with waters and natural sites in the Kongo-speaking region and are attested to continue, with transformation, in Atlantic diaspora spiritual systems such as Lowcountry Hoodoo and Cuban Palo.
Bisterne Dragon
A place‑bound legendary dragon from the New Forest (Hampshire, England) said to have laired on Burley Beacon and to have demanded milk from nearby Bisterne; slain in medieval pedigree tradition by a knight of the Berkeley family, its corpse is said to have formed a local hill (Boltons Bench).
Community Record
- [1]Bishop Karas. Wikipedia: Bishop Karas (biographical excerpt)wiki
- [2]Wikidata: Bishop Karas. Wikidata entry for Bishop Karasother
- [3]Coptic Orthodox Church in the United States. Wikipedia: context on Coptic Orthodox presence in the United Stateswiki
- [4]HG Bishop Karas, Newly Appointed General Bishop for Maqar - Tasbeha.org Community. Tasbeha.org community discussion referencing Bishop Karasother