[1] He was born as Samir Kheir Sokkar (Arabic: سمير خير سكر), on 17 December 1935 in Shebein el-Kom, Menoufia, Kingdom of Egypt.

In 1949, at the age of thirteen, he began to serve in Sunday School, at the behest of Walim Shenouda, one of the early deputy servants of the movement.

In 1952, he moved to Greater Cairo to attend Ain Shams University; during this time he was one of the founding members of a college meeting, and served in the villages of Giza.

[2][3] He accompanied Pope Shenouda III on many of his pastoral and diplomatic visits, including those to the Vatican (1973), Ethiopia (1974), the United States (1977), and Sudan (1978).

[2][3] Following the death of the Patriarch of Alexandria, the eldest and most senior metropolitan in the Synod of the Church is customarily called to serve as Locum Tenens until the election of a new pope.