Our Lady of the Monastery of Al-Muharraq

Marian Invocation of Asiut (Upper Egypt) (Egypt)
Recognized by the Church

The monastery of the Virgin of Dair al-Muharraq, in the region of Upper Egypt (governorate of Asiut), is the great centre of Marian memory associated with the tradition of the stay of the Holy Family in Egypt. According to a well-established tradition, Mary, Joseph and the Child Jesus remained there for a long time in their flight to Egypt, making this enclave one of the country's most venerated devotional points. The precise historical identification of the passage of the Sagrada Familia belongs to the field of tradition, not documentary demonstration.

Main data

Origin and history

The monastery of the Virgin of Dair al-Muharraq, in the region of Upper Egypt (governorate of Asiut), is the great centre of Marian memory associated with the tradition of the stay of the Holy Family in Egypt. According to a well-established tradition, Mary, Joseph and the Child Jesus remained there for a long time in their flight to Egypt, making this enclave one of the country's most venerated devotional points. The precise historical identification of the passage of the Sagrada Familia belongs to the field of tradition, not documentary demonstration.

The image and the sanctuary

The enclave is a great coptic monastic center dedicated to the Virgin, linked to the memory of the Holy Family in Upper Egypt. It is part of the network of shrines on the route from the flight to Egypt. The sources do not contain a closed description of a headline image with a specific tradition of miracles.

Sponsorship and coronation

The place enjoys historical and devotional veneration as a memory of the Holy Family. There is no canonical patronage decree or canonical image coronation in available sources; for greater precision, the official ownership of the enclave should be verified.

Party and devotion

It does not contain a holiday date of its own in the sources provided. Devotion is lived as a pilgrimage to the places of the Holy Family in Egypt, with a great influx of Coptic and Catholic faithful who venerate the memory of the Virgin's passage with the Child through Upper Egypt.

Link to the Rosary

The memory of the pilgrim Virgin and mother in the flight to Egypt invites you to contemplate the mysteries of the childhood of Jesus, which are typical of the Rosary. In the mercy of the faithful who come to this sanctuary, Mary is honored as a Mother who protected the Child, the central reason for Marian prayer and the Rosary.