Walk to Bethlehem Week 6 Report. October 26 to November 1, 2020 This week we began following the path, in reverse, that the Holy Family probably took when they fled Israel to evade Herod’s wish to kill the baby Jesus. I say probably because nothing was written down in those days but stories about the Holy Families journey into were handed down for generations until they were finally recorded. We had another good week with 23 participants and 679.5 miles, more than enough to walk the path through Egypt and make a side trip to . Little is known about Jesus’ youth. We all know the story of his birth in a manger and of the Magi’s visit to the babe. We have heard the story of Herod soliciting the Magi to report back their findings about the birth of Jesus so that he could go and “worship” the baby. The Magi dreamt of Herod’s wrath about Jesus being the King of the Jews and chose to avoid Herod when they left Bethlehem. The Holy Family went to Jerusalem to present their son at the Temple (Luke 2:22-34). but Luke never mentions the flight into Egypt. Neither Mark nor John have anything to say on this matter. Only the Gospel of Mathew mentions it. When Herod realizes the Magi weren’t coming back, he assumes they never found the baby, Then Herod heard about Jesus being presented in the Temple and the prophecy from Simeon about Jesus’ being the Redeemer of Israel, Herod is furious and orders a slaughter of all infant males under the age of two in the Bethlehem area. The gospel of Mathew (2:13-18) reports that Joseph was warned in a dream about Herod’s intent to kill the infant Jesus and that Joseph packed up the family and escaped by night to escape Herod’s wrath. It also mentions the return of the holy Family to Nazareth in about 4 B.C., after Kind Herod’s death in 4 B.C. Now some of you are probably wondering how Jesus could have been born in the B.C. era rather than having his birthday set at 1, A.D or C.E., as is now the current non-religious designation for A.D. Your Tour Director checked this out. Apparently, the designation for B.C. and A.D. was not set until the third century and the person determining when Jesus was born was off by several years. Therefore, Jesus’ birth occurred 4-5 years before the date set for the A.D. designation. Also, there was no zero year in that system of indicating time. So, if Herod died in 4 B.C., and the Holy Family’s trip into Egypt took 3 years, Jesus must have been born around 7 B.C., not 1.A.D. The Coptic Church which was originally part of the believes strongly in the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt. So, while we are here in Egypt, we are going to walk the path the Coptic Church believes the Holy Family took to evade Herod, but we will be walking it backwards into Israel. The Coptic Church has long been a strong supporter of Mathew’s version of the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt. It has collected the stories about the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt since it’s early years and has many places on the route of the Holy Family where churches have been built and where annual celebrations occur. It is important to understand a bit about the history of the Coptic Church. Coptic began in Egypt about 55 A.D., making it one of the five oldest Christian churches in the world. The others are the Roman Catholic Church, the , Church of Jerusalem, and Church of Antioch. say their founder was John Mark, one of the 72 apostles sent forth by Jesus Christ and author of the Gospel of Mark. Peter met Mark, who joined him in his preaching and wrote down Peter’s sermons. Mark later went to Egypt and founded the Coptic Church. Copts count him as the first of their chain of 118 patriarchs, (popes). Mark bears the title of the first Coptic Pope. The persecuted the Coptic Church during the third and fourth centuries. At the , in 451 A.D., Coptic Christians split from the Roman Catholic Church. Rome and Constantinople accused the Coptic Church of being monophysite or teaching only one nature of Christ. The Coptic Church said it was miaphysite, meaning it recognized both Christ’s human and divine natures "being joined inseparably in the 'One Nature of God the Logos Incarnate. Politics also played a major role in the Chalcedon schism, as factions from Constantinople and Rome vied for supremacy, accusing the Coptic leader of heresy. The Coptic pope was exiled, and a series of Byzantine emperors were installed in Alexandria. Among the consequences was that an estimated 30,000 Copts were killed in this persecution. Arabs began their conquest of Egypt in 645 A.D., but Muhammad had told his followers to be kind to the Copts, so they were permitted to practice their religion provided they paid a "jizya" tax for protection. Copts enjoyed relative peace until the Second Millennium, when further restrictions hindered their worship. Because of these strict laws, Copts began converting to Islam, until by the 12th century, Egypt was primarily a Muslim country, but the Coptic Church has grown around the world. Copts number about 12 million in Egypt today, with over one million in other countries, including Australia, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Great Britain, Kenya, Zambia, Zaire, Zimbabwe, Namibia, and South Africa. There are more than 80 Coptic Orthodox churches in the United States and 21 in Canada. The Coptic Orthodox Church continues to hold talks with the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church on matters of theology and church unity. The Coptic Church is in communion with the Holy See. Although Matthew's account is the only reference to this flight into Egypt in the four Gospels, there are many traditions and manuscripts which supposedly discuss this flight. These traditions and manuscripts have a number of miraculous stories occurring on the voyage, with, for example, palm trees bowing before the infant Jesus, the beasts of the desert paying him homage, and an encounter with the two thieves that would later be crucified alongside Jesus. These stories of the time in Egypt have been especially important to the Coptic Church, which is based in Egypt. Throughout Egypt there are many churches and shrines that claim to mark an area where the family stayed during their three-year journey in Egypt. On the next page is a map of the path the Holy Family traveled. We will have to do a little back tracking to walk the entire route which we will have accomplished by the end of our walk to Bethlehem, but it seemed too confusing to attempt to integrate sightseeing of the very ancient pyramids and other ancient sights with the flight of the Holy Family. While the Holy Family took about three years to make this trip, they stayed in many places along the way, presumedly so Joseph could use his carpentry skills to earn money to take care of his family. Also, there were many Jews already living in Egypt and there may have been some family connections for the Holy Family to visit. (For those of you who would prefer an audio-visual account of the Holy Family’s flight and the various events of that trip, there is a YouTube video available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aqmc8WbCQtc Note that it covers the trip in the order in which it occurred, not the reverse path we took. Also, it covers some of the trip which we haven’t yet completed. The video last about 13 ½ minutes.) We took another felucca ride up the to visit Mount Durunkah, which was the end of the flight path for the Holy Family. Mount Durunkah, left the Holy Virgin Mary Coptic Orthodox Monastery at Mount Durunkah in Assiut governorate Upstream at Mount Durunkah, 5 miles south of Asyut, the family are said to have sheltered in a large cave, around which has been built the Deir al- Adrah (‘Convent of the Virgin'), visited by over a million Coptic Christians each August for the annual Festival of the Virgin. Dayr Durunkah is worth the visit for its beauty alone. The monastery has been completely renovated since 1955. Today it consists of many churches. The Monastery of Dayr Durunkah is better equipped than many of the other places on the route of the Holy Family to receive large numbers of pilgrims and visitors. For this purpose, several hundred houses have been built against the slopes of the mountain– about one hundred meters above the agricultural land. From there one has a splendid view of the Nile Valley.

In the convent we visited a large cave where according to tradition, the Holy Family has stayed before taking a boat northward to return to the Holy Land. The cave, probably once a pharaonic quarry, attracts hundreds of thousands of pilgrims yearly, especially during the festival of the Holy Virgin in August. Many come after the recurrent apparitions of the Holy Virgin in the past decades.

Pictures of Dayr Durunkah above and below Muharraq Monastery at Mount Koskam, the Holy Virgin Mary Coptic Orthodox Monastery at Mount Durunka

The oldest altar-stone in history - Monastery of Al-Muharraq, Assuit, right Now it was time for the Holy Family to set out for what is, arguably, the most meaningful destination of all in the land of Egypt, the place where there would be "an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt". Gabal (Mount) Qussqam, which takes its name from the town nearby that was laid waste and stand in the Governorate of Assiut. The Monastery of Al-Muharraq nestles against the western foothills of the Mountain. It was built around the area where the Holy Family remained just over six months. Their time was spent mainly in a cave which became, in the Coptic era, the altar of the Church of Virgin Mary, built at the western end of the Monastery compound. The altar stone was the resting place of the Child Jesus during the months He dwelt there. The Monastery of Al-Muharraq - Gabal (Mount) Qussqam, Assuit. The whole area the Monastery and its surroundings is redolent of the Coptic Christian ethos. So hallowed are its intimations, that the Copts of Egypt named it the Second Bethlehem. It was here, at the very spot where Al-Muharraq Monastery stands, that the Angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, and said "Arise, and take the young Child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel; for they are dead which sought the young Child's life" (Matthew 2:20&21). The Monastery of Virgin Mary in Koskam or Deir el- Muharraq is also known as the Muharraq Monastery, Burned Monastery, Virgin Mary monastery and Mount Koskam Monastery, is a monastic complex of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria in Egypt. It is one of the oldest still operational monasteries in the world. The monastery complex has three churches: • 12th century Virgin Mary's Ancient Church (with 16th and 19th century domes additions), • 19th century Neoclassical style St. George Church (1878-1880), • Mid-20th century Holy Virgin Mary's Recent Church (1940-1964).] After exploring this site, we headed for Malawy, just downstream. Virgin Mary Monastery - Dirout Al Sharif, near Malawy We crossed the Nile’ west bank, following the Holy Family’s path. traveled southwards, stopping briefly at Malawy where the Virgin Mary Monastery was built. We then continued along the river, heading north to Gabal El-Tair.

The Crypt of the Virgin Mary Church - Gabal El-Tair, Samalout.

Again, we crossed the to the spot on the east bank of the River where the Monastery of the Virgin now stands upon Gabal El-Tair ('Bird Mountain'). It is known as Gabal El-Tair because thousands of birds gather there. The Holy Family rested in the cave which is now located inside the ancient church there. Gabal El-Tair is also called Gabal El-Kaf ('Palm Mountain'). Coptic tradition maintains, while passing by this place in a small boat headed up river, the Holy Virgin noticed an enormous rock coming loose from the mountain which was about to fall on the boat and its occupants. By extending his hand, the child Jesus promptly intervened and stopped the rock from falling on the boat. The shape of the hand remained miraculously imprinted on the rock. Virgin Mary Church at Minia The Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Minya, Considered one of the most beautiful in Egypt, the Church of the Holy Virgin at Gabal al-Tayr is also sometimes known as the Monastery (or Convent) of the Pulley, because originally one entered the monastery from the base of the cliff up a crevice in the rock by means of a pulley. When they resumed their travels, the Holy Family passed a laurel tree a stone's throw south of Gabal El-Tair, along the pathway flanking the Nile and leading from the Mountain to Nazlet Ebeid and the New Minia Bridge of today. It is claimed that this tree bowed for worship the Lord Christ - glory be to Him as he was passing. The configuration of the Tree is, indeed, unique: all its branches incline downwards, trailing on the ground, then turn upwards again, covered in a cloak of green leaves. They call the tree Al Abed-"The Worshipper". From of Gabal El-Tair, we continued our pilgrimage along the Nile to Ma'adi, about 8 miles south of central . In the Cairo suburb of Ma'adi, the domed church of the Church of the Ferry Crossing which is built upon the traditional spot where it is believed the holy family embarked on a felucca to sail up the Nile to Gabal El-Tair, which we had just left.

Virgin Mary Church of the Ferry – Ma’adi right and left. Furthermore, this position has its unique significance because the Holy Family had passed through it and settled there before moving further south. An of St. Demiana - Virgin Mary Church – Ma’adi.

The ancient stone steps - Virgin Mary Church, Ma’adi An event of miraculous importance occurred on Friday the 3rd of the Coptic month of Baramhat the 12th of March 1976 AD. A Holy Bible of unknown provenance was carried by the lapping ripples of the Nile to the bank below the Church. It was open to the page of Isaiah 19:25 the page declaring, "Blessed be Egypt My People". The Bible is now behind glass in the Sanctuary of the Virgin in the Church for all to see.

The Holy Bible - Virgin Mary Church, Ma’adi, above left. From Ma’adi we continued north back into . The section of Old Cairo, which lies west of the Mosque of Amr Ibn'l Aas, includes the church of Abu Serghis, which we visited in week 5. Al-Muallaqa (), dedicated to the Virgin Mary, Patriarchal See of the Coptic Church in the early centuries. Saint Virgin Mary's Coptic Orthodox Church also known as the Hanging Church is one of the oldest churches in Egypt and the history of a church on this site dates to the third century. It belongs to the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. The Hanging Church is named for its location above a gatehouse of Fortress, the Roman fortress in (Old Cairo); its nave is suspended over a passage. The church is approached by twenty-nine steps; early travelers to Cairo dubbed it "the Staircase Church". The land surface has risen by almost 20 feet since the Roman period, so the Roman tower is mostly buried below ground, reducing the visual impact of the church's elevated position. The entrance from the street is through iron gates under a pointed stone arch. The nineteenth-century facade with twin bell towers is then seen beyond a narrow courtyard decorated with modern art biblical designs. Up the steps and through the entrance is a further small courtyard leading to the eleventh-century outer porch. The Hanging Church was probably built during the patriarchate of Isaac (690–692), though an earlier church building may have elsewhere existed dating as early as the 3rd or 4th century. The church was largely rebuilt by the Pope Abraham (975–978) and has seen many other restorations including an extensive repair and restoration of the church and its surroundings completed in 2011. Objects of historical interest that were no longer of service went to the . The church is the site of several reported Marian apparitions. She is said to have appeared in a dream to Pope Abraham in the 970s in the story of how the was moved by the faith of . We continued heading north and entered the central part of Cairo, often called central Cairo. Entrance of the Cathedral of St. Mark - Ezbekieh, Central Cairo, left As I mentioned, St. Mark is the founder of the Coptic Church in Egypt and we briefly visited this church dedicated to him. Entrance of the Virgin Mary Church - Zuwaila Alley - Central Cairo, Right The Church of the Virgin Mary in Haret Zuweila is the oldest church in the district , near the Fatamid section of Cairo. It was probably built around the AD 10th century, though it is first mentioned in writing in the early 12th century on the occasion of the consecration of the new bishop of Cairo under Macarius' Papacy. The Church of the Virgin Mary in Haret Zuweila was the Seat of the Coptic Orthodox Pope of Alexandria from c. 1400 AD to 1520 AD. The floor before the southern sanctuary has a well where, according to tradition, the water was blessed by Christ during the flight of the holy family in Egypt. Its waters are believed to have healing qualities. From central Cairo we continued to trek north to Zeitoun, still part of current day Cairo. Zeitoun is noted for its Marian apparitions. The Coptic Orthodox Church of Virgin Mary sits on the place that the Holy Family once stopped. St. Mary's Tree Eventually, they left the desert behind them and made their way southwards, crossing the Nile to its eastern bank, An icon at Virgin Mary Church – Zeitoun, right At the time of the Holy Family's arrival there, the area was home to a large Jewish community, which had erected a temple the Synagogue of Unias, for their worship. A tree still stands to this day, still regularly visited, called "Mary's Tree", for the Holy Family is believed to have rested in its shade. Here, too, the Infant Jesus caused water to flow from a spring, from which He drank and blessed, and the Virgin washed His clothes. She poured the washing water on to the ground, and from that spot, the fragrant balsam plant blossomed: besides the healing and pain-soothing properties of this balm, its essence is used in the preparation of the scents and perfumes of which the holy Chrism is composed. Virgin Mary Church – Zeitoun, left Leaving Cairo, we headed northwest to our next stop on the path of the Holy Family. Wadi Natrun, (sometimes spelled Natroun)..Wadi El Natrun is a depression in northern Egypt that is located 75 ft below sea level and 125 ft below the Nile River level. The valley contains several alkaline lakes, natron-rich salt deposits, salt marshes and freshwater marshes. It is one of the three early Christian monastic centers located in the Nitrian Desert of the northwestern . Wadi El Natrun is best known today because its ancient monasteries remain in use.

In the earliest decades of Christianity, the desert expanses of Wadi el-Natroun became the site of anchoretic settlement and, later, of many monasteries, in spritiual commemoration of the Holy Family's passage through the Valley.

El-Sorian Monastery - Wadi El Natrun, right

Entrance to the Monastery Chapel, below.

After passing through Wadi Natrun, we headed for Sakha, Egypt.

Virgin Mary Church - Sakha.Outside view left, interior decoration, right. The Coptic name of the town, 'Pekha- Issous', (vernacularized to Lysous) means, 'the foot of Jesus'; for the Holy Child's foot-print was marked, here, in bas-relief on a rock. The rock was preserved, but hidden for centuries for fear of robbery, and only unearthed again 13 years ago. From here, we headed on a side trip to Alexandria, which we will explore next week before heading east across the Nile Delta and the Siani Peninsula to Israel.