Egypt Independent Recalls "Our Lady of Zeitoun"

The Egypt Independent reminds us that this week marked the 45th anniversary of the appearances known as "Our Lady of Zeitoun" in the Cairo suburb of that name, when significant numbers of witnesses (Muslims as well as Christians) claimed to see an apparition of the Virgin Mary over a Coptic Church in the Cairo suburb of Zeitoun. Though some have sought to explain it as St. Elmo's fire, electrical arcing or other natural phenomena, it convinced many Copts and Muslims that Mary (who is also venerated in Islam and, of course, had made the Flight into Egypt with Joseph and Jesus) was showing favor to the country in the wake of its defeat in the 1967 war.

I've previously posted on claimed Marian apparitions in Egypt  in 2009 and again in 2011, periods of deepening sectarian tensions between Copts and Muslims, with inconclusive YouTube videos.

Virgin Mary Said to Appear in Cairo and Alexandria on Friday: A Symptom of Sectarian Tensions?

Al-Masry Al-Youm

On Friday evening, thousands of Copts and perhaps others in Egypt gathered to watch some sort of lights in the sky, in both Cairo and Alexandria, and word spread that it was an apparition of the Virgin Mary. Another story here, this one in Arabic.

The Alexandria videos do show something, perhaps a searchlight; the Cairene sightings may also show something, but exactly what is debatable.

This may remind my longstanding readers of the wave of Marian appearances back in 2009, which I blogged on, complete with YouTube videos. As I commented then, if it's actually the Virgin Mary, it's above my pay grade, but if it's a sociological phenomenon produced by growing sectarian tension in the country, it's fair game for commentary. Coming just after the Maspero killings, and at a time of deepening societal tension in Egypt, one need not accept that this is miraculous to understand the popular reaction.

The Virgin Mary plays a special role in Coptic tradition, since the story of the Flight Into Egypt in the Gospel of Matthew tells us that the Holy Family visited Egypt while Jesus was an infant. Coptic tradition has inflated the few verses in Matthew into a detailed itinerary, complete with miraculous stories and visits to practically every Church along the Nile (and quite a few mosques). Because of the Holy Family stories,  many Muslims also venerate these sites, since Mary plays a major role in Islamic tradition as well.

When the first major Marian appearances took place in Matariyya in 1968, near a site venerated as holy to Mary, there were as many Muslim witnesses as Christians. (See my link from 2009 above.) That 1968 was the year following the humiliating defeat in the Six-Day War of 1967 and the loss of Sinai may not be entirely coincidental. There were Marian apparitions reported in 2000, 2007, and a wave at Christmastime 2009, the first of the real YouTube era, but also an era of sectarian tension and growing political dissent. Those videos (at the link) looked like some sort of electrical arcing of electric lights in one case, and Saint Elmo's Fire in another, but perhaps I'm too skeptical.

Friday night's sightings occurred 12 days after the killing of Coptic demonstrators at Maspero, the worst sectarian violence in years. Tensions are high; signs in the sky will be interpreted accordingly.

Some of the varied readings of the phenomenon on Twitter, in English, Friday night:

Of the following video clips, in those where I can see much of anything at all, it looks clearly like a searchlight on the clouds, so the first comment above, from Alexandria by the place names mentioned, would seem somewhat credible.

"Very very urgent: Appearance of the Virgin in the skies of Shubra [populous, heavily Christian part of Cairo] yesterday." I can't see much here, to tell the truth.



"Appearance of the Virgin Mary above the Church of St. Maximus and Bishop Musa al-Aswad in Alexandria": This, I think, is consistent with a searchlight on the clouds.



And this time, "Appearance of the Virgin Mary and the Archangel Michael Above the Clouds." I admire the specificity, though I only see one light, and I think it's a searchlight.

Just in Time for Christmas: Marian Apparitions in Egypt

I was going to post (still am in fact) some time over the coming three Christmases about the rich Coptic traditions of the "Flight into Egypt" and the many Egyptian towns and villages, churches, monasteries (and mosques) associated with the presence of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Until I get around to that I thought I should note that, as Christmas approaches, there has been a new wave of appearances said to be of the Virgin Mary in the Cairo area.

I have to tread carefully here because one does not wish to express skepticism or cynicism on the eve of Christmas, and because I have no desire to tread on anyone's toes. Since 1968, Cairo has had several waves of reported apparations of the Blessed Virgin Mary (or to use the more eastern term, the Theotokos). The latest round has been building recently. And these apparitions always draw not just Copts but Muslims too. The first round back in 1968 was marked by the fact that a great many of the witnesses were Muslim. (Remember that Islam considers Jesus Son of Mary — ‘Isa bin Maryam — a Prophet in both the nabi and rasul sense of the term, who brought the revelation known as the injil, the Gospel or evangel, and even calls him Al-Masih, the Messiah; Mary is so venerated that one of the 114 Suras of the Qur'an, the 19th, is named Maryam.)

The earliest wave, in 1968, got a lot of attention because of the number of Muslim witnesses. The church at which the supposed apparition took place, Al-Sayyida al-‘Udhra' Maryam (The Lady Virgin Mary) in the Cairo suburb of Zaytoun, has a website with photos of the apparitions, and several languages available (including Russian; link is to the English site).

In 2000 there were claims of an apparition of Mary at Asyut in Upper Egypt. There's a video of it, which doesn't allow embedding, and this one I think is Saint Elmo's Fire, unless it's fake. Unlike the newer ones, it acts like Saint Elmo's fire on the church cross. You'd need to know the weather conditions to be sure.

That brings us to the latest outbreak of Marian sightings, at Warraq on the Nile in Giza Governorate. Here's the LA Times. Here's an American religious account. Here's a video, and while I must admit I see nothing I can't explain by light reflection or lens flare, and bad cell phone video (and some others have suggested Saint Elmo's Fire here, though unlike the Asyut video linked above, it doesn't seem to act like it): at best there's a slightly human looking shape in light. It could be anything from lens flare, to a fake, to some electrical discharge. But I wasn't there, though, so judge for yourself:



Some other YouTube videos of the Warraq apparition:



That one is stranger than the first, but it's still, essentially, light. And clearly, the crosses are lit electrically. Some kind of arcing effect?

But it's Christmas. Perhaps I shouldn't be so skeptical: it's making Egyptian Christians appreciate the season. And people are seeing something, since they're photographing it. How they interpret what they see is a subjective matter. Like UFOs, lights in the night sky are hard to interpret. There is, of course, already a Facebook group following the story.

And if it really is a miracle, the matter is above my pay grade.