Because the Egyptian people are the essential product of the "harmony in diversity", "otherness" has become an integral component of their awareness, a basic constituent of their national and cultural identity. This characteristic has yielded one important result: Egypt was, and still is, the land of refuge in the widest sense of the word, a place of tolerance and dialogue for peoples, races, cultures and religions.
On this land of Egypt, the first voice proclaiming the Oneness of God rang out in the 14th century BC through Akhenaton's monotheistic creed. Moses and Jesus lived in this same land. Later, Islam entered without conflict.
Before long, the world will be celebrating the birth of Christ, together with the birth of the twenty-first century, the third millennium AD. While sharing with the rest of mankind the celebration of this momentous milestone in the world's history, Egypt will have its splendid occasion to celebrate the dawning of the seventh millennium of the country's recorded history.
Some people in the outside world may not be aware of the special significance all Egyptians attribute to the fact that the Holy Family, when Christ was an infant, found haven in Egypt for nearly four years after their flight out of fear from the persecution of King Herod. Egypt's re-paving of the route the Holy Family followed it part of a comprehensive policy to revive, and give prominence to, all the religious landmarks which constitute the spiritual heritage of the one Egyptian civilization. With an eye on history, and Egypt's role in it, a nation-wide project is under way, under the leadership of President Mubarak, to restore and preserve this heritage. The aim is to generate a renaissance, in a temporal context, connecting the past with the present, providing, thereby, an impetus for the future.
To highlight but a few noteworthy examples of the many initiatives in this regard, I would refer only to the restoration work carried out on the Sphinx and now completed after ten years; the salvaging of Egyptian monuments of Graeco-Roman period off the shores of Alexandria; repairing the Hanging Church in Old Cairo, one of the oldest landmarks in Christendom in the orient, and the work of conservation carried out on the one-thousand year-old Al-Azhar Mosque as well as on all the other awe-inspiring edifices of Islamic Cairo in the heart of the capital.
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, guardian and defender of the national traditions of the Coptic Church, personally approved the text of the present book, mapping the route the Holy Family followed on its flight into Egypt, from Al-Farma in the north east of Sinai to Al-Muharraq Monastery in the southern Nile Valley. When the groundwork of this vast project is completed by the beginning of the third millennium, many of the believers in the One God, we all worship, and lovers of our civilization, will come to us. But the supreme objective of the present book, and of the project when completed, is enshrined in the two-fold message addressed to all Egyptians and the world at large simultaneously: that our country was, and will remain, a safe haven of co-existence and peace; and that the unity of the Egyptian people, both Moslems and Copts, is the backbone of the entity of the Nation-State of Egypt.
Dr. Mamdouh El-Beltagui
The Holy Family In Egypt
*The advent of the Holy Family to Egypt, seeking refuge, is an event of the utmost significance in our dear country's long, long history.
Moved by the spirit of prophecy, Hosea foresaw the flight from Bethlehem where there was no safe place for the Christ Child to lay his head, and the eventual return of the holy refugees from Their sanctuary in Egypt, where Jesus had found a place in the hearts of the Gentiles, when he uttered God's words: "Out of Egypt have I called My Son". (Hosea 11:1)
In the Biblical Book of Isaiah, the prophet provides us with a divinely inspired prediction of the effect the holy Infant was to have on Egypt and the Egyptians: "Behold the Lord rides on a swift cloud, and will come into Egypt and the idols of Egypt will totter at His Presence and the heart of Egypt will melt in the midst of it". (Isaiah 19:1)
(An icon of St. Demiana - The Church of Abu Sefein, Old Cairo)
The authority of Old Testament prophecy, which portended the crumbling of idols wherever Jesus went, further foreshadowed the singular blessing to be bestowed upon Egypt, for its having been chosen as the Holy Family's haven, and upon its people for having been the first to experience the Christ's miraculous influence.
God's message, also delivered through the prophetic utterance of Isaiah, "Blessed by Egypt, My People" (Isaiah 19:25), was an anticipation of the coming of St. Mark to our country, where the Gospel he preached took firm root in the first decades of Christianity. For Isaiah goes on to prophecy: "In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt; and a Pillar to the Lord, at its border. And it will be for a sign and for a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt". (Isaiah 19:19&20)
According to the traditions of the Coptic Church, 'the alter' mentioned is that of the Church of Virgin Mary in Al-Muharraq Monastery, a site where the Holy Family settled for a period of more than six months; and the altar-stone was the 'bed' upon which the Infant Saviour lay. Al Muharraq Monastery is located, literally, "in the midst of the land of Egypt"…standing at its exact geographical centre.
*This text was prepared and revised by a cathedral Committee headed by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the Sea of St-Mark. (1999)
As for the "pillar at its borders… which will be for a sign and for a witness.." surely there can be no more demonstrable, concrete proof of the fulfillment of the prophecy than that the Patriarchal See of the Apostolic Church in Egypt, established by St Mark himself, is situated in Alexandria, on Egypt's northern borders.
( An icon showing the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt - Coptic Museum, Old Cairo)
"…behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word, for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him". (Matthew 2:13)
Joseph complied. A donkey was fetched for the gently Mother, still so young in years, to ride with her new-born Child in Her arms. And so they set out from Bethlehem on their pre-destined journey, the hardened old carpenter, who was Mary's betrothed, striding ahead, leading the donkey by its leash into the untracked paths of a wilderness dark as the desert nights, and unending as the months of never ending horizons.
Such an arduous journey it was, fraught with hazard every step of the way. In those far-off days, there were three routes which could be followed by travelers traversing Sinai from Palestine to Egypt, a crossing which was usually undertaken in groups, for without the protection of well-organized caravans, the ever-present dangers – even along these known and trodden paths – were ominously forbidding.
But, in their escape from the infanticidal fury of King Herod, the Holy Family – understandably – had to avoid the beaten tracks altogether, and to pursue unknown paths, guided by God and His Angel. They picked their way, day after day, through hidden valleys and across uncharted plateaus in the (then) rugged wastelands of Sinai, enduring the scorching heat of the sun by day and the bitter cold of the desert nights, preserved from the threat of wild beasts and savage tribesmen, their daily sustenance miraculously provided, the all-too-human fears of the young Mother for her Infant allayed by the faith that infused her with His birth.
And so they arrived, at last, safely, for God had pre-ordained that Egypt should be the refuge for the One who was to bring the message of peace and love to mankind.
The tortuous trails they followed in their passage across Sinai, and their subsequent travels within Egypt, are chronicled by Pope Theophilus, 23rd Patriarch of Alexandria (384-412 AD). He testifies, in his celebrated annals that on the eve of the 6th of Hathor (the Coptic month corresponding roughly with November), after long prayer, the Holy Virgin revealed herself to him and, after relating the details of the Holy Family's journey to, in, and from Egypt, bade him record what he had seen and heard.
It is a source which no Christian believer would question.
Besides, it is a virtual certainty that, at a time when happenings of a momentous or historical nature were transmitted by word of mouth from one generation to the next, the account of Pope Theophilus' vision confirmed the oral tradition of supernatural occurrences which accompanied the arrival of a wondrous Child in the towns and villages of Egypt some 400 years earlier.
The Traversing By The Holy Family of Sinai Desert on Their Way to Egypt
THE HOLY FAMILY AT EL-ZARANIK AND FARMA
Ruins of Flousseya Church - El-Zaraniq, west of El-Arish
According to the sources of the Coptic Church, chief among which is the vision documented by Pope Theophilus, and recorded in the Coptic Senexarium the Holy Family proceeded from Bethlehem to Gaza, and then to El-Zaraniq (also known as Floussiat), some 37 kms west of El-Arish; then they threaded their way along northern Sinai until they reached Farma (ancient Pelusium) mid-way between El-Alish and present-day Port Said. It was their last stop in Sinai; and with the next leg of their journey they put the perils of the wilderness behind them.
( Ruins of Coptic Monuments - Farma. Below: Ruins of Farma Church - Farma)
Tel Basta – or Basta – which they now enter, is a short distance from Zagazig, the main town in the Sharqiah Governorate about 100 kms north-east of Cairo. Here, Jesus caused a water spring to well up from the ground, and His presence caused the idols to crumble, as foretold by the prophets of old. The townsfolk, in consequence, turned malevolent and aggressive, whereupon the Holy Family turned their backs on the town and headed southwards.
The Holy Family At The Town of Mostorod
Steps of the Crypt - Virgin Mary Church, Mostorod, Kalyoubeia
In due course, they reached Mostorod (which came to be called, in those days, 'Al Mahamma') only about 10 kms away from Cairo. 'Al Mahamma' means 'the Bathing Place', a name given to the town because the Virgin Mary bathed the Christ Child and washed his clothes. It is worthy of note that, eventually, on their way back to Palestine, the Holy Family stopped once more at Mostorod and, this time, caused a spring to gush from the earth which still flows forth to the present day.
Interior of the Crypt
THE HOLY FAMILY AT THE TOWN OF BELBEIS
Veil of the Sanctuary - Virgin Mary Church, Belbeis
Virgin Mary Church - Belbeis, Sharqiah.
Having left their mark on Belbeis, the Holy Family set off in a north-westerly direction and, reaching the small township of Meniet Samannoud (known also as Meniet Genah), they crossed the Nile to the city of Samanoud (or Jemnoty) in the Delta, where the local population received them with a kindness and hospitality that earned them deserved blessing. There is in Samannoud, to this day, a large granite trough which, according to local belief, was used by the Virgin for kneading dough, and a water-well which the Christ Child Himself hallowed.
THE HOLY FAMILY AT SAKHA TOWN
Virgin Mary Church - Sakha, Kafr El Sheikh.
The natural course of the Holy Family's journey from Samannoud to Sakha would have taken them through many of the towns and cities now lying in both the Governorates of Gharbia and Kafr El-Sheikh and, according to some folk traditions, through the Belqas wastelands as well.
Veil of Sanctuary - Virgin Mary Church - Sakha.
El-Sorian Monastery - Wadi El Natroun
Entrance to the Monastery Chapel.
thankes new by
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