Peter Costello
The Virgin with the infant Jeus, among the boats on the banks of the Nile The Holy Family in Egypt
narrative by Nazmy Morcus, illustrated by Nazmy El-Kommos, with a preface by the late Dr Mamdouh El-Beltaguie, Minister of Tourism
(Cairo: Ministry of Tourism, no price stated.).
In the West Christians of all kinds are often unaware of the feasts and festivals of their Orthodox and Eastern brethren in faith. Hence many will be quite unaware of what an important day this coming Sunday, June 1, is in the calendar of Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Christians.
It marks the great feast day of “The Advent of the Holy Family to Egypt”, when that harried trio crossed over the ancient boundary between Palestine and Egypt at Rafah – a sort of Exodus in reverse.
The day was given a renewed sense of status on its acceptance by UNESCO, the UN cultural organisation, as one of the two traditional festivals which Egypt succeeded in placing on the “Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity”.
Summer
The other festival is the community celebrations later in the summer of “The Birth of Virgin Mary”, which takes places differently within different tradition: on September 8 in the West, but on May 9 in the Coptic Church.
Egypt’s Minister of Culture at the time, Nevine el-Kilani, in an official government statement, said that: “Recording the celebrations associated with the Holy Family’s Journey on the representative list of intangible cultural heritage is considered a message of peace, love and security from the land that embraced the Holy Family, revived its course and preserved for many years the celebration of its journey to Egypt.”
Those relating to the Holy Family in Egypt are, however, considered largely authentic by the Coptic Church, and are also accepted by some Western scholars”
Indeed for more than 1600 years these events have been continuously celebrated in Egypt, which is indeed a long and continuous tradition.
The traditions about the Holy Family in Egypt, now recognised universally, were first collected and organised by Pope Theophilus, the 23rd Patriarch (385-412 AD). He presented them as an authentic historical tradition.
The Holy Family’s journey is recounted in this brochure, the concept of which was approved before his death by the late Pope Shenouda III, who had been the leader of the Coptic faith as 117th Pope of Alexandria, and Patriarch of the See of St Mark, an influential figure whose reign lasted 44 years.
Apocryphal
Some scholars suggest that such legends are apocryphal, and arose in the course of the first two or three centuries to fill out what many early Christians found as the meagre historical basis of their faith.
Those relating to the Holy Family in Egypt are, however, considered largely authentic by the Coptic Church, and are also accepted by some Western scholars. To those who totally accept Jesus as an historical figure they would seem to be quite consistent with what we are told in Gospels.
They seem, however, to have been arranged from an early date so as to provide an itinerary passing the length of the courtly from El Arish and Farma in the north through Old Cairo in the middle, diverting to the Western Desert before continuing south to Gabal Dronka, yet still within the limits of Upper Egypt.
So in themselves they provide the spine for a lengthy tour of Egypt medieval and modern. No such full tour is yet on offer, but doubtless as the tourist industry in Egypt picks up they will be.
King Herod had chosen, in the light of what the Magi had told him, that he would have to destroy all the boys born in Bethlehem in a certain period, seeing them as in some way a threat to his rule. Christians later liked to imagine this meant hordes of innocent babies – which would have been so memorable a crime as not to have escaped the notice of historians.
Reflection
But a little reflection on the matter suggests that in fact the number would have been very small, perhaps no more than a dozen. Those skeptical historians mentioned above, however, think it is a fable, as no Jewish leader would massacre children for such a reason.
Others, however, would say if people believe in Jesus as a figure in history, there is no reason to doubt the story, or the tale of the Flight into Egypt.
There are some twenty eight places marked on the route map in this brochure on the map linked in some way with the Holy Family in Egypt”
The passage of the Holy Family into Egypt was only the beginning of what is for the Copts a significant connection. They too would pose in a different form that question Blake asked: “and did those feet in ancient times” walk upon Egypt’s green and fertile soil.
There are some twenty eight places marked on the route map in this brochure on the map linked in some way with the Holy Family in Egypt. It would take a small monograph to deal with all these in detail, but for a short article like this three places stand out.
The first of these would have to be the visit of the Holy Family to Wadi el- Nitrous, out in the western desert, about whose supposed Irish connection I wrote about in these pages a little while ago.
Next in popularity is the shrine located in the northern Cairo district of Matariya, one of the Egyptian capital’s poorer neighbourhoods, in the walled garden of which a sycamore tree flourishes, which is the direct descendant of the original tree that died centuries ago, but from which sprigs were replanted.
Tradition
This is perhaps the most popular site of all, for this is the ‘Virgin’s Tree’, under which tradition says the Virgin Mary sat and rested during the flight. There is some doubt about its age and history, but on the occasion of the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 it was given to the Empress Eugenie by Ismail, the then ruler of Egypt.
Here too were the famous balsam trees, extinct since 1615, with their own traditions. From the sap of these was prepared a balm which was said to be highly curative. According to the scholar E. A. Budge, writing in 1895, “the oil was much sought after by the Christians of Abyssinia who thought it absolutely necessary that one drop of the oil should be poured into the water with which they were baptised”.
The most southern places on the route, where the Holy Family turned back along the route they had come, stands the large rambling monastery of Al Muharraq.
Their legend says the Holy Family lived here for six month in a cave, which in Coptic times became the chapel of the Church of the Virgin Mary, which stands at the western end of the present monastery. The altar stone is said to have been the resting place of the child Jesus during those months.
For all Christians the Flight into Egypt remains, along with the Nativity, the Shepherds and the Magi, a natural part of the Christmas story”
It was here (according to Matthew 2:20-21) that the Angel of Lord again appeared to Joseph, and told him: “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.”
And so they returned home to allow the child to grow in time into a man.
This illustrated brochure, which came to me from the government department which is now the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, provides a brief well illustrated account of the legendary travels of the Holy Family through Egypt, north to south, the subject of devotion as well as art over the centuries.
For all Christians the Flight into Egypt remains, along with the Nativity, the Shepherds and the Magi, a natural part of the Christmas story, something that lingers in their adult memories whatever else they come to believe, a memory still cherished as a part of their own childhoods.