Featured Photo: Shangyun Shen, Coptic monks walking on the boulevard in the Monastery of Dayr al-Muharrq.
Before the massive city of Cairo awoke from its slumber, we hopped on the minibus that would eventually take us all the way to the hinterland of Upper Egypt and back. We were embarking on a journey to visit the sites believed to be trodden by the Holy Family some 2000 years ago.
Continue reading A Re-examination of the Holy Family Tradition in Upper Egypt
Approximately 50 kilometers south of Dayr al-Muharraq and 9 kilometers south of the ancient city of Lycopolis, nowadays Asyut, lies the massive monastic complex of Dayr Durunka. It is a “neophyte” to the itinerary of the Holy Family tradition, because no ancient text suggests that this place was a stopover for the Holy Family. However, one of the charismatic features of the tradition is its dynamic development., thus when one reads from the 6th century manuscript The Armenian Gospel of the Infancy that the Holy Family travelled further south in fear of Herod ( despite the angel’s notification of all-clear to them). then it is beyond reproach to say that the Holy Family might have been to this spot after their departure from Dayr al-Muharraq.
Continue reading Durunka
Featured photo: Norbert Schiller, a priest blessed a child and two women at Kom Maria just outside the village of Dayr Abu Hinnis.
The text below is an Egypt Today article from the year 2000, when H.H. Pope Shenouda and President Mubarak were still in power.
Egypt’s oldest churches and monasteries have always attracted many hundreds of thousands of pilgrims every year.” The Coptic Orthodox Church, to which 90 percent of Egypt’s Christians belong, has convinced authorities and the public of the flight’s importance, and the Ministry of Tourism has since actively supported religious tourism, publishing a photo book and distributing it worldwide. In the past year dozens of articles have appeared in the Egyptian press about the project, and Nile TV broadcast an awareness-raising documentary during Pope John Paul’s recent visit. The American University in Cairo Press is also publishing a book about the Holy Family.
Continue reading Searching the Route: On the History and Present of the Holy Family Tradition
Featured photo: Popko van Meekeren, Coptic deacons in procession.
The text below this introduction was sent to Christianity Today, in the USA and edited for publication in the December issue of Christianity Today , copyright Christianity Today.
Christianity Today had already asked me to write an article on the Holy Family in April 2000. That was postponed for various reasons, not least because I was seriously ill in June 2000 and needed a few months to recover.
Continue reading The Refugee Savior: How Egyptian Christians Still Make Room for the Holy Family
Holy Family in Egypt 