Bishop Karas (Sorial Ayad Sorial)

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.