The Virgin Mary in Egypt - The Holy Family and the Coptic tradition

"From Egypt I called my Son"

The Gospel of Matthew tells it in just three verses (2,13-15), but what these verses contain is one of the most extraordinary journeys in human history: Joseph receives in the dream the angel's warning - "flee to Egypt, for Herod will seek the child to kill him" - and that same night the Holy Family leaves to the south. A young mother, a just man, a newborn. The darkness, the Sinai desert, the uncertain road.

Matthew sees in this journey the fulfillment of Hosea's prophecy: "From Egypt I called my Son" (You 11: 1). Egypt, which in biblical history had been the country of slavery, now becomes the country of refuge. The same Nile that took the baby Moses in a basket now welcomes the Child Jesus in the arms of his Mother.

The Coptic tradition - the oldest Christian church in Egypt, which dates back to the preaching of the Evangelist Mark in Alexandria in the first century - has kept the memory of that journey for twenty centuries with amazing fidelity and detail. The Copts know what roads the Holy Family walked, under which tree Mary rested, in which cave they took refuge from the heat of noon. This memory is not abstract: it has names of places, it has stones, it has water.

The route of the Holy Family through Egypt

The Coptic tradition reconstructs the itinerary of the Holy Family in great detail. The route, declared in part "Sagrada Familia Route" by the Egyptian government and the Coptic Church, crosses Egypt from north to south over hundreds of miles:

1. Bethlehem → Gaza → The Arish (North Sinai): The family crossed the desert of the Néguev and the northern Sinai following the coastal route known in ancient times as "the way of the land of the Philistines" or Via Maris. It was the most used trade route between Palestine and Egypt, but also the most monitored. However, it was the fastest.

2. Nile Delta - Tanis and Bubastis: Entering Egypt in the north-east, the Sagrada Familia would have crossed the Nile delta, crossing cities such as Tanis (the former Rameside capital) and Bubastis. In this region there were already numerous Jewish communities that would have given shelter to the fugitives.

3. El Matariyya (Heliopolis, now part of the Great Cairo): This is probably the most documented and venerated place of the entire route. The Matariyya, north-east of Cairo, was in ancient times part of Heliopolis, the great city of the sun. Here, according to the Coptic tradition, the Holy Family rested under a sycomore and a fountain miraculously sprout under the feet of the Child Jesus.

4. The old Menhis and its environs: The family continued to the south, passing through the region of the ancient capital of the Old Empire. In Deir Abu Hennis and Gabal al-Tayr there are caves that tradition identifies as places of rest.

5. El Ashmunein (Hermópolis Magna): The Hermopolis of the Greeks, the sacred city of the god Thoth, which the Copts identify with the place where the Child Jesus caused the idols to collapse (episode narrated in the apocryphal Gospel of the Pseudo-Matthew).

6. Qusqam (Dronka, Asyut — Alto Egypt): The southernmost point of the route, about 400 km south of Cairo. Here, in the convent of the Virgin Mary in Dronka, tradition places the place where the Holy Family resided for a longer period before starting the return to Nazareth.

The Virgin's tree in El Matariyya

Of all the places on the route of the Sagrada Familia, none is as venerated - or as old in its devotion - as the Virgin's tree in El Matariyya, a neighborhood in the north-east of Cairo. Tradition says that here, in the shadow of a sycomore, the Virgin Mary rested with the Child Jesus and that from the earth a source of fresh water sprout of her thirst.

This place is documented in sources already in the fourth century of the Christian era, which makes it one of the most ancient Marian places in the world. The monk Theodosio, on his 6th century Palestinian itinerary, mentions "the garden of Matariyya" as a place of Marian veneration. The medieval European pilgrims who traveled to the Holy Land often made a rodeo to visit El Matariyya.

The tree that exists today in El Matariyya is not the original of the time of Christ - the sycomoros live around 200-300 years - but the last of a series of trees that have been happening in the same place, each venerated as a descendant of the original tree. The present tree is relatively young; the previous tree died in the 19th century. In 1868, during the opening of the Suez Canal, the Jedive Ismail gave a branch of the tree to Empress Eugenia of France as a gift of great symbolic significance.

The Matariyya is located today in a densely populated neighborhood of Gran Cairo. The fountain, the tree and a small garden are surrounded by modern buildings. The veneration, however, has not diminished: Coptic Egyptians, Catholics and also Muslims come to pray under the tree, because in Islam also Maryam (the Virgin Mary) is venerated as the most holy of women.

"The tree of Matariyya is the living memory that the Mother of God stepped on this earth. Each sheet is a testimony."
- Old saying of the Cairo Copts.

La Virgen de Dronka (Asyut, 2000)

On August 17, 2000, in the Dronka convent, on the outskirts of the city of Asyut (Upper Egypt), thousands began to report extraordinary light phenomena on the dome of the convent church. The lights, of blue white, appeared in the form of luminous figures that were identified with the Virgin Mary and with birds of light (doves).

The phenomenon was repeated for several months and was witnessed by hundreds of thousands of people of all conditions: Orthodox Copts, Catholics, Muslims, atheists. The Egyptian government did not make official statements. The Coptic Patriarch, Shenouda III, visited the place and stated that the phenomena were of supernatural origin.

The convent of Dronka - known as the "convent of the Virgin Mary" or "Deir al-Adra" - was already before the year 2000 associated with the tradition of the Holy Family: it is the place where, according to the Coptic Church, the Holy Family spent more time during her stay in Egypt. The apparition of lights in 2000 was interpreted in this context as a confirmation and a renewal of Mary's presence there.

Dronka's apparitions are the most important Marian phenomenon in Egypt after the famous Zeitoun apparitions (1968), which already had extensive documentation and recognition. Both share a remarkable feature: they were witnessed by people of all religions, including Muslims, and no one in Egypt questioned the reality of light phenomena.

Copts: custodians of the oldest Marian tradition

The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria is one of the oldest churches in the Christian world. According to his own tradition, he was founded by the evangelist Mark, who preached in Alexandria around 42 AD. This antiquity gives the Coptic Church a unique authority over the memory of the first centuries of Christianity in the East.

Coptic Marian devotion is of exceptional wealth. In Coptic Theology, Mary is Theotokos - Mother of God - before even the Council of Ephesus (431) officially proclaimed this title. Alexandria, in fact, was the city where the theology of the divine motherhood of Mary was developed: the great distant theologian Cyril was the main defender of the title of Theotokos in the Council of Ephesus.

The Copts have a relationship with Mary that goes beyond abstract devotion: it is a historical, territorial, incarnate relationship in physical places that touched their feet. For a coptic, praying before the tree of El Matariyya is not a pious devotion: it is to recognize that the Mother of God was here, on this earth, under this sun, breathing this air. The Coptic faith has roots in the same land on which the Holy Family walked.

• c. 4-2 a.C.The Holy Family comes to Egypt fleeing the persecution of Herod. It runs hundreds of miles from the Nile Delta to Upper Egypt.
• c. 42 d.C.Saint Mark preached in Alexandria and founded the Church of Egypt. The first Egyptian Christians receive the oral tradition about the journey of the Holy Family.
• IV-VI centuriesThe Coptic monks of the desert preserve and document the route of the Holy Family. The first monasteries appear in the sacred places. The El Matariyya tree is documented in written sources.
• 1148The Arab geographer Al-Idrisi describes the fountain and tree of El Matariyya, venerated by Christians and Muslims alike.
• 1868The Jedive Ismail gives a branch of the El Matariyya tree to Empress Eugenia of France during the celebrations of the opening of the Suez Canal.
• 1968Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Zeitoun, Cairo: one of the most documented Marian phenomena of the 20th century, witnessed by Muslims and Copts.
• 2000Light apparitions in the Dronka convent (Asyut): thousands of witnesses of all religions. The Coptic Patriarch Shenouda III recognizes the phenomena.
• 2000The Egyptian government declares the "Route of the Holy Family" official tourist-religious itinerary. Restoration works are started in the main places.

The Coptic tradition and the apocryphal Gospel of the Pseudo-Mateo

In addition to the escuet account of the canon Gospel of Matthew, the Coptic tradition is nourished from the apocryphal Gospels of childhood, especially the Evangelio del Pseudo-Mateo (IV-VI centuries), which narrates the journey to Egypt in much more detail than the canon Gospels. In this apocryphal text, episodes are narrated, such as the adoration of the dragons to the passage of the Child, the lions accompanying the Holy Family, and the moment Jesus causes the idols of the Egyptian temples to fall and break in their passage.

The Church does not consider these apocryphal texts as a doctrinal source, but the Coptic tradition has used them as a narrative element that enriches the memory of the journey. The collapse of the idols in Hermopolis, for example, is interpreted as the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy: "The idols of Egypt will tremble before their presence" (Is 19.1). Mary, who carries in her arms the one who knocks down idols, is also "the destroyer of all idols": a title that the Copts apply to her with devotion.

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