Fanous was born in Al-Minya and moved to Cairo to gain his degree from The Faculty of Applied arts now part of Helwan University in Egypt in 1941 and got a diploma in teaching in 1943.
He took the opportunity, while in France, to study icon painting under Léonid Ouspensky, under whose patronage he developed a passion both as artist and theologian.
During this period, he was known to have become more keenly aware of his Egyptian heritage and was proud of everything that came from Al-Minya since the time of Akhnaten, who founded his city.
Fanous's contemporary school of iconography came about as part of a general renaissance of Coptic culture, which began during the patriarchate of Pope Cyril VI (1959–1971).
[5] Between 1977 and 1978, he spent six months in the UK to paint icons in St Mark's Coptic Orthodox church in Allen Street, Kensington, London.