Monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor (Arabic: دير الأنبا صموئيل المعترف), Dair al-Anba Ṣamū'īl al-mu'tarif " or Deir el-Qalamun (Arabic: دير القلمون) is an Egyptian monastery in the Western Desert.

The monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor in Qalamun is located on the northern edge of the valley Wadi el-Muweiliḥ south of Wadi El Rayan in the western desert in the province of Beni Suef west of Gebel el- Qalamūn. The approximately 20 kilometer long valley formed part of the caravan route between Minya and Faiyum.

El-Qalamūn (Coptic: Ⲕⲁⲗⲁⲙⲱⲛ, Kalamōn) is probably derived from the Greek word Κάλαμος, Kalamos. Behind it lies reeds, which were present in the marshy environment of the monastery. Slightly cut it can be used as a writing instrument. But it can also be used for the production of wicker.

The beginnings of the monastery date back to the end of the 3rd century or the beginning of the 4th century until the time of the Christian persecution under Emperor Diocletian. According to a Coptic manuscript about the martyrdom of St. Psote, at that time hermits were already living in the caves along the valley of Qalamūn. Later, probably in the 5th century, these hermits as Cenobites formed a monastic community. From the life story of St. Samuel, who was written by his successor Isaak, can be seen that he came upon a deserted church and restored the church and the monk's cells. He built a new church for the saint. First income was obtained with the sale of basket-ware. The monastery experienced a considerable upswing. When Samuel died 695 at the age of 98 years, about 120 monks lived in the monastery.

The monastery was plundered several times by Bedouins during Samuel's lifetime, but also during the following centuries. In spite of difficult times, the monastery continued and at the turn of the 13th century flourished with 130 monks and twelve chapels, as reported by Abu Ṣaliḥ, the Armenian historian Abu el-Makarim. One of the churches was consecrated to the Blessed Virgin. The monastery was surrounded by a large wall with four defensive and residential towers and encompassed a large garden next to the chapels. A monk named Muhna lived in a cave of Gebel el-Qalamūn. Possibly the monastery was already in decline in the 14th century. In 1353 the relic of St. Ischkirun was moved from el-Qalamun to the Monastery of St. Macarius in Wadi Natrun. Pope Gabriel V, the 88th patriarch and pope of Alexandria (1409-1427), came from this monastery. Until the report of the Arab historian al-Maqrizi (1364-1442), there are hardly any other sources. In his time the monastery was still inhabited. Al-Maqrizi mentioned two of the four towers and two sources. A rather unusual note on the monastery can be found in a treasure-digging book from the 15th century, the "Book of buried pearls and valuable secrets for hints of hiding places, finds and treasuries."

One can only guess when the monastery was abandoned. This probably happened in the 17th century. The Italian adventurer Giovanni Battista Belzoni (1778-1823) was the first European in 1819 to visit the now manless monastery and gave a description of the catacombs church, today's crypt. He visited the monastery on his return from Siwa via al-Baḥriya to Faiyum. The representations, such as the twelve apostles above a niche, were still well preserved. The Frenchman Frédéric Cailliaud (1787-1869) mentioned the monastery, but the information came from the Arabs who had traveled there. After more than half a century, the German African scientist Georg Schweinfurth (1836-1925) reported in 1886 again about the monastery. The monastery enclosure measured 55 x 67 meters, and its entrance was on the south side. The monastery walls and the catacombs church were built from stone blocks that Schweinfurth dated to the 17th century. In the church there were still remains of the representation. On both sides of the altar he made an apse. Other traditions also originate from the British John Gardner Wilkinson (1797-1875, recreation 1825), the British cartographers Hugh John Llewellyn Beadnell (1874-1944, recreation 1899), 1895 (other sources also call 1897/1898 and 1880), the monastery was the archpriest Ishaq el-Baramusi (died 1938) with ten of his followers who from the monastery Paromeos Monastery in Wadi El Natrun, resettled. At first they lived in the crypt. The old walls served as a quarry for new monastery walls and buildings. They built new buildings within the new monastery complex el-Qaṣr above the crypt, serving as reception rooms, monks' cells, magazines, kitchen and bakery. In the area of the monastery, another fountain was dug or cleared in 1899, the water of which could not be used as drinking water because of its salty taste. The completion of a new church for the Virgin St. Mary, Ishaq and his pupil and archpriest Ibrahim no longer experienced the death because they had died before. With the partial demolition of old buildings unfortunately also lost knowledge about the old monastery.

An archaeological study of the monastery has not yet been carried out. The Egyptian Egyptologist Ahmed Fakhry (1905-1973) visited the monastery in June 1942 and in October 1944 and gave a description of the crypt, the new buildings of the 19th/20th century. Century or the ornamental and floral-decorated stone fragments. At present, about one hundred monks live in the monastery, which operate in the surrounding countryside of the monastery agriculture.

North side of the Church of the Virgin Mary whose steeple and domes surpass the monastery walls, is a small door to the monastery. When one enters the monastery and the church of the Virgin Mary circling in the counterclockwise direction, one arrives at a 4 small yard. In the north of the courtyard is the entrance to the church of St. Virgo, to the south of the eastern monastery wall a building with some monk cells and in the south of the court of the el-Qaṣr called part of the monastery with the monk's cells, the crypt and the church of St. Misael.