Flight Into Egypt - Part 1
The Visitation of Christ
Christ’s Visitation! The entry of our Lord Jesus Christ into Egypt is an opportunity for rejoicing and delighting for the many blessings that His entry has imparted upon Egypt. The Coptic Catholic Church is aware of how important this event has been, and this is the reason it is one of the Lord’s feasts. He fled Israel in the face of Herod, becoming our gift and benefit!
There are several symbols and spiritual meanings from the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ into Egypt. God’s Plan for Christ’s entering Egypt contains four spiritual meanings of the benefit for us from this divine plan.
The first spiritual meaning is that the Lord was willing to remove His anger from this land. God wanted to show how His forgiveness works and how He would replace the old by the new and the curse by the blessing. God is willing to abolish the curses of the plagues that he had once inflicted upon the Egyptians, when He punished them severely with the 10 plagues in the old times, pouring His wrath upon them and upon the whole land of Egypt.
Now, by sending His Son to Egypt, He is restoring His favor instead of His wrath, His blessing instead of His curse; purifying everything, renewing everything: the people, the land, the water, and the air. This is the first reason for which our Lord came to bless the land of Egypt that He had once cursed. The lesson for us here is that God is teaching us about Conversion and the Holy Spirit.
A life spent away from God needs Repentance. Otherwise this life will be condemned to perish in a hell of fire. Thus, a person who converts, repents, turns back from the wicked ways to God, will deserve the renewal of life in our Lord Christ Jesus, instead of deserving the condemnation to hell aflame. Conversion is by excellence the figure of the Transformation from the curses to the blessings, from the sinful nature to the renewed and purified being.
As the convert receives a new life in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the same way, after centuries Egypt received the Lord – a blessing compensating Her old curses caused by deep sin. One common trait unifies their destiny: Holiness shines out instead of darkness. The Holy Spirit descends upon Egypt as He is ever present in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The 2nd spiritual meaning for the coming of Christ into Egypt is their escape from evil. By His coming to Egypt, our Lord gave us the key of the practical application of His command to escape evil, not to resist it, as in Matthew. Our Lord fled from the face of the King Herod. Nevertheless, His escape is not based on cowardice, or out of weakness! His escape is based on Divine Plan; He made this arduous journey to Egypt to fulfill the divine purpose of Redemption, aiming toward redeeming all of mankind.
We Coptics have a special remembrance for the slain children of Bethlehem on the 3rd day of the Coptic month of Touba, when we celebrate their memory as we consider them, being for us, among ‘the cloud of witnesses.’
Therefore, the Lord’s Plan for us – is that we follow His example, walk in His steps, escape from evil, flee from sin. This escape is a program that we should always remember, consider, trust, and follow.
The 3rd spiritual meaning for the Lord Jesus Christ’s entering into Egypt is to establish a Temple for the Lord, in the midst of the land, to abolish and destroy the idolatrous temples spread out perverting the whole nation.
We consider the journey of the Holy Family to Egypt a journey with a building purpose, a foundational-minded journey – aiming to install within biblical Egypt the establishment of the Spiritual Temple of God.
In the Old Testament, the only temple of God was in Jerusalem. The Lord has been willing to geographically add Egypt to come into His knowledge. The Lord is willing to announce to the people of Egypt His love for them. He is calling them to acknowledge Him and to worship Him, to love Him and to adore Him; He is destining them to help build His Church on earth.
Isaiah the Prophet prophesied about this, saying: “So the Lord will make Himself known to the Egyptians, and in that day they will acknowledge the Lord. They will worship with sacrifices and grain offerings; they will make vows to the Lord and keep them.”
Thus, the Lord is not only making Himself known in Egypt in a way of traditional knowledge. Rather, a deep and profound Knowledge is involved, giving the Egyptians the privilege to also become the flock of God. They are, from then on, making vows to God and keeping them. After they were Israel’s enemies. The Holy Book of Isaiah eloquently tells us the story of the journey of the Holy Family to Egypt. It is a journey that causes “the idols of Egypt to tremble and the hearts of the Egyptians to melt.”
Our Lord does not want us to love anything more than we love Him! If a person loves something more than the Lord, then He wants that idolatrous item to tremble. Idols could be things such as the Ego, or the ‘ancient self ’ prior to conversion. By the melting of the hearts of the Egyptians, the Lord wants to teach us that conversion gives humility to the heart and repentance, two elements that are vital to the Adoration of God.
The fourth spiritual meaning of the Lord’s journey to Egypt is the fulfillment of the prophecy of Hosea: “When Israel was a child I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my Son.”
The Lord wants to teach us an important lesson about traveling and continual moving without rest. He journeyed through Egypt without a home or a place of His own, just as a stranger has no support or place to lean his head upon. Thus He wants us to know the feeling of being strangers to both our heavenly homeland (someday!) and earthly homeland. We want to be like our Lord Jesus Christ, as if strangers, having nowhere to rest. It is a precious lesson for us to learn that the earthly home is only a temporary one and our heavenly home is the perpetual one.
The journey of the Lord Jesus Christ with the Holy Family to Egypt was a hard and difficult one, where He was seeking souls longing for Him, souls hungry and thirsty for Him.
All the places where the Holy Family passed by in Egypt were blessed. In Mallawe there are traces of the faith built by the passage of the Lord Jesus Christ in Egypt, monasteries in which we keep an active record with their names and bearing the names of accepting towns. To our God be the eternal Glory for ever, Amen!
-His Grace, Coptic Catholic AB Dimetrius.
Flight Into Egypt - PART II
Purposeful Tribulation
Purposeful Tribulation – The Flight – Part II — On the 24th of the blessed Coptic Catholic month of Pashons (June 1st), we commemorate the Lord Jesus Christ’s flight to the land of Egypt at approximately the age of two, taking refuge there along with His mother and St. Joseph. This feast is among the Seven Minor Feasts of the Lord. As the Holy Family entered the land of Egypt, St. Mary, the Virgin Mother, carried the child Jesus in her arms, with Joseph the Carpenter at her side and Salome, who accompanied them.
In humility and obedience, the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Family departed from Bethlehem, His birthplace, to escape the ruthless, vindictive King Herod the Great who was reigning over Judea and the city of Bethlehem at that time. King Herod had learned from the Maji of the existence of the prophesied Newborn Messiah; and felt, therefore, immensely threatened that a newborn king might usurp his authority and kingship. He sought out the Messiah’s whereabouts in order to destroy Him. (It was not his first murder to maintain his crown.)
The journey began after St. Joseph had been divinely warned in a dream to depart to Egypt with the young Child for His safety as King Herod had plotted to kill the young Child Jesus. St. Joseph was obedient; and without delay did as he had been instructed. Following the divine dream: “He [St. Joseph] arose, took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the Prophet saying, ‘Out of Egypt I called My Son’”
A Child taking His first steps and uttering His first few sentences, the Lord Jesus Christ took His first trip as a refugee, into the pagan lands of Egypt and thus blessed the country.
At that time, Egypt was a nation of established civilization, one which began approximately 3,000 years before the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. It can be surmised that Egypt was widely populated, advanced in organized society, culture and economy. St. Clement of Alexandria (c.195AD) wrote, “The Egyptians were the first to introduce astrology [astronomy] among men. The Egyptians first invented the burning of lamps. They were the first to divide the year into 12 months. They were the inventors of geometry.”
We also know that at the time of the Holy Family’s flight to Egypt, religiosity, one of a superstitious nature and in the predominant form of idol worship was highly valued there.
“The Egyptians were guilty of error. For they, indeed, had solemn enclosures around the buildings they considered as temples. However, within them, there was nothing except apes, crocodiles, goats, serpents, or some other animal” said Origen (c. 248AD).
While abiding in Egypt, the Lord Jesus Christ did not take refuge in a desert or on an island isolating Himself from people. On the other hand, the Lord Jesus Christ neither settled in one particular location, nor was it recorded that He had stayed with relatives or friends of the Holy Family during the period of the exile.
Coptic history records the Holy Family’s journeys in Egypt to include: Bubastis Hill, Mataryah, Old Cairo and Upper Egypt. Therefore, this exiled visit to the land of Egypt can rightly be called His first evangelistic journey, even though it was for refuge to escape tribulation.
St. Clement of Alexandria wrote, “The word of our Teacher did not remain in Judea alone as Philosophy did in Greece. Rather, it was diffused over the whole world.”
The Flight into Egypt could be easily labeled as “Escaping Danger to Evangelize.” Thus, it can be assumed that the tribulation was extremely Purposeful in its mission.
Isaiah the Prophet wrote, “Behold the Lord rides on a swift cloud, and will come into Egypt; the idols of Egypt will totter in His presence, and the heart of Egypt will melt in its midst.”
Tradition has it, that as soon as the Lord Jesus Christ had stepped into the land of Egypt, idols from the pagan temples collapsed and fell on their faces. St. Cyril I, the Great, (c444AD) interpreted Isaiah’s prophecy saying, “The glittering cloud which carried the child Jesus to Egypt was His mother, St. Mary, who surpassed the cloud in purity.
The altar which was established in the midst of the land of Egypt is the Christian Church which had replaced the temples of paganism as their idols collapsed and the temples left deserted in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Tertullian (c.197AD) writes, “In that Prophet (Isaiah), Egypt is sometimes understood to mean the whole world.” Besides becoming the land for prophecy fulfillment, and the usher for evangelism, Egypt has often been said to be representative of the Gentiles – to whom the Lord Jesus Christ has come first to seek, evangelize, establish and include in His body, the Church.
The Holy Family’s taking refuge in the land of Egypt certainly helped to spread the new faith in Egypt. Concerning the Gentiles, later in the time sequence of the New Testament, we read about St. Paul; and how Ananias was told by the Lord to “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My Name before Gentiles, kings, and the Children of Israel.”
The Gentiles were of utmost importance in the evangelistic era during the time of the Lord Jesus Christ. From infancy, He had vision and quest for the salvation of souls, “And other sheep I have – which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.”
This Purposeful Tribulation and resultant evangelism was born of humility. It took humility for the Son of God to become incarnate; it took humility to be born in a poor place. It took humility to escape into Egypt as if He were weak. The Lord Jesus Christ went to Egypt as a humble child, exemplifying the nature of someone who is to lead others to God.
In the Doxology of the Arrival into Egypt, Holy Psalmody, we chant: ”God who is glorified, in the council of saints, who sits upon the Cherubim, was seen in the land of Egypt. He who created Heaven and earth, we saw Him as a Good One, in the bosom of Mary, the New Heaven, and the righteous Joseph the Elder. The Ancient of the days, whom the Angels praise, today has come into Egypt, to save us, His people.”
The Holy Family stayed in the land of Egypt until the death of King Herod the Great (4AD).
The length of the Holy Family’s sojourn in Egypt has not been documented in the Holy Bible, but Coptic Tradition holds it to be 3 ½ years or more.
After the King had died, the Angel of the Lord again appeared to the obedient St. Joseph in a dream. Obeying the angel, the Holy Family returned to the land of Palestine (Israel), but turned aside from Jerusalem to dwell in the city of Nazareth.
May we learn from the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt – that PURPOSE can be discovered during Times of Tribulation, if we are humble and obedient to the Word of God.
—His Grace, Youssef, Bishop of Coptic Diocese of the Southern US.
Flight Into Egypt - Part III
Flight into Egypt — Part 3
The Way to Egypt and Back
There were 3 Routes available to travelers traversing Sinai, from Palestine to Egypt, a crossing which was usually undertaken in groups for mutual protection and security. However, in their escape from the infanticide fury of King Herod, the Holy Family had to avoid those tracks and pursue lesser known paths.
The tortuous trails in their passage across Sinai, and their subsequent travels within Egypt, are chronicled by Theophilus, 23rd Patriarch of Alexandria (d. 412 AD). He testifies that on the eve of the 6th of Hator (Coptic November), after long prayer, the Holy Virgin revealed Herself to him, related the details of the Holy Family’s journey through Egypt, asked him to record what he had seen and heard.
According to the Infancy Gospel of James, the Holy Family fled together with Salome, Mary’s young midwife.
They made their way through the Judean Desert. Sources of the Coptic Church tell us the Holy Family proceeded from Bethlehem south toward Hebron, through Floussiat, near the Oasis of Ain Hagla. Orthodox monks in Hebron have named their church in honor of the Holy Family. It marks the place where the Holy Family had their first rest. Ain Hagla was surnamed Kalamonia, which means ‘good abode.’
SEE MAP P. 3
They continued south to the ancient city of Hebron, one of the oldest cities of the world, and a holy site for Jews, Christians and Muslims since here, in the Cave of Machpelah, Abraham and Sara, Isaac and Rebecca, as well as Jacob and Lea found their last resting place.
The Armenian Infancy Narrative reports the Holy Family continued west to Ashkelon – where Samson had killed 30 Philistines. They then trekked past Gaza and Rafah, threaded their way along North Sinai until they reached Farma (ancient Pelusium) midway between al-Arish and modern Port Said.
The Greek monk Epiphanius Hagiopolites (8th C.) and the Western monk Bernard the Wise (870 AD) mention that the Holy Family stopped in this border town. The local church dedicated to Mary commemorates the Angel’s cry to Joseph to flee to Egypt.
On the 24th day of the Coptic month of Bashans, (June), the Coptic Church celebrates the entry of the Lord Jesus Christ into the Land of Egypt.
On that day, the churches throughout the land pray in the words of the Doxology: “All ye Children of Egypt, who live within its borders, rejoice and lift up your hearts, for the Lover of all mankind, He Who has been before the beginning of ages, has come to you!“
Various traditions relate that the Holy Family discovered many springs and wells in the area of the Nile Delta and its valley. Moreover, in many villages we find mention of a revered palm tree, which not only offered shade to the Holy Family, but nourished them with its fruit as well.
In 7-4 BC, when Gaius Tyrannius was governor of Egypt, the Holy Family crossed the same narrow Isthmus of al Qantara (between Medit. + Red seas) on which Abraham, Jacob and sons traveled into the Land of Goshen via the town of Qantara.
The Coptic Synaxar (saints calendar) records (Tal-)Basta (72 miles NE of Cairo) as the first Egyptian town visited by the Holy Family.
Home of cat goddess Bastet’s cult, highly regarded, due to cats’ use in clearing farmland of vermin. It was the Capital of Lower Egypt once.
In the vision of Coptic Patriarch Theophilus, the Holy Family was attacked here by two robbers. Disturbed by this experience, they quickly continued southwards towards Belbeis.
Tradition relates that in Bubastis/Tal-Basta, Jesus caused a spring to well up from the ground, and His presence triggered the idols to crumble, as foretold by the prophets of old. The townsfolk, turned malevolent and aggressive, whereupon the Holy Family turned their backs on the town and headed southwards.
In due course they reached Mostorod (7 miles NW of Cairo) which ‘means ‘the Bathing place’ a name given to the town because the Virgin Mary bathed the Christ Child and washed His clothes there. On their way back to Palestine, the Holy Family stopped once more at Mostorod, and this time, caused a spring to gush from the earth, which still flows today.
Their flight returned north to Belbeis. Here we have the ‘Mary Tree’ around which the local citizens have arranged their cemetery. This tree was removed in 1850. In Belbeis, Muslims fete the visit of the Holy Family – at their Mosque!
The journey continued North to (Meniet) Samanoud, where the local population received them with such kindness and hospitality that earned them a deserved blessing. A large granite trough that, according to Tradition, was used by the Virgin for kneading dough, and a water well, which the Christ Child, Himself, blessed, can still be seen today.
In a homily of Bishop Zacharias of Sakhâ (7th C.), the Holy Family traveled from Samanoud to (Lk.) Burullus to Sakha, where Tradition holds Jesus left his footprint on a rock.
Thus, this place is called Bikha Isus (‘Footprint of Jesus’). The rock was preserved, but hidden for centuries for fear of robbery, and unearthed in 1984. Their trail from Sakha is recorded in Pope Theophilus’ vision, and attested to by Coptic liturgies in the Christian era.
They arrived at Wadi El-Natron (in Natroun Valley) after crossing the Rosetta Branch of the Nile to the West Delta, and heading south into Western Egypt, the area of Scetis and the Nitrian Desert, the dwelling places of the Desert Fathers.
In the early decades of Christianity, Wadi El-Natron became the site of anchoretic (hermit) hamlets and, later, of many monasteries. Jesus blessed the desert in view of these future settlements.
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In 1986 about 320 monks occupied 4 Wadi ‘n-Natrun monasteries.
Eventually, they left the desert behind them and made their way Southwards crossing the Nile to its Eastern bank, and heading for Matareyah and Ain Shams, (ancient Heliopolis), site of the oldest ‘university’ in history, since earliest pharaonic times. Both these adjacent districts are outlying suburbs of present-day Cairo, only 7 miles from the city center.
The Holy Family would have wanted to avoid pagan areas and look for places of Jewish settlements. Historical sources reveal the Holy Family’s stay at Matareyah. The apocryphal Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, the Coptic and Egyptian Synaxar, as well as stories of Holy Land visitors during the Middle Ages relate details of the Holy Family at this place.
In Matareyah, a tree stands to this day, still regularly visited, also called a ‘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. He blessed it, drank from it, and Mary washed His clothes in it. She poured the washing water onto the ground, and from that spot, a 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 Holy Chrism.
Continuing their way southwards, the Holy Family passed by the Fortress of Babylon in Old Cairo and saw the Pyramids of Giza. According to tradition there used to be a palm tree at Giza under which the Blessed Virgin Mary nursed Baby Jesus. This palm tree was reputed as the only tree in the region bearing fruit.
Next, the Holy Family moved south, reaching the Cairo suburb of Ma’adi, which, in earliest pharaonic times, was an outlying district of Memphis, the Capital of Egypt at that time.
St. Joseph became acquainted with the sailors on the Nile boats and the Holy Family was invited to be taken south to Upper Egypt. The monks of the Dair al-Muharraq (The Monastery of the BVM) assume today that the Holy Family could afford these travels because of the gold received from the 3 Wise Men of the East, not just travel in abject poverty.
The historic church – built upon the spot from which they embarked, also dedicated to the Blessed Mother, is further identified by the denominative, ‘Al-Adaweya:’ the Virgin’s Church of the Ferry. (The name of that now modern suburb, Ma’adi, derives from the Arabic word, which means ‘the crossing point’).
The stone steps leading down to the River’s bank, and piously believed to have been used by the Holy Family are accessible to pilgrims through the Church courtyard.
An event of miraculous import occurred on Friday the 3rd of the Coptic month of Baramhat – our 12th of March – 1976 A.D. A Holy Bible of unknown origin 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 declaring: “Blessed be Egypt, My People!” The Bible is now behind glass in the Sanctuary of the Church for all to see.
The sailboat docked at the village of Deir El-Garnous (the later site of the Monastery of Arganos) 4 miles west of Ashnein El Nassara. Outside the western wall of the Church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, a deep well is believed to have provided the Holy Family with the water they needed.
In commemoration of blessings the village received through the visit of the Holy Family, the people celebrate an annual fair, called Mulid, on August 21-22. During the fair it is said that no one has ever been bitten by vermin. Around 5,000 people attend this fair and enjoy water from the well.
On they went to ‘Abai Issous,’ “The Home of Jesus,” at Sandafa, the site of present-day Bani Mazar, a village East of Al Bahnassa. On towards the South they went to Samalout and crossed the Nile again from there to the East bank of the River (Gebel-El Tair) where the Monastery of the Virgin now stands upon ‘Bird / Palm Mtn.’ east of town. The Holy Family rested in the cave which is now located inside the ancient Church there. Coptic Tradition maintains that, as the Holy Family rested in the shade of the mountain, Jesus stretched His little hand to hold back a rock which was about to detach itself from the mountainside and fall upon them. Today the imprint of His Palm is still visible.
When they resumed their travels, the Holy Family passed a laurel tree, south of Palm Mtn., along the pathway flanking the Nile and leading to Nazlet-Ebeid and the New Minia Bridge of today. Legend claims that this laurel tree bowed to worship the Lord Christ as He was passing. The configuration of the tree is, indeed, unique. All its branches incline downwards, trailing on the ground, and then turn upwards again, covered in a cloak of green leaves, all calling it Al-Abed, “The Worshipper.”
Once more crossing the Nile, back to its West bank, the Holy Family traveled southwards to the town Harmopolis Magna, but it seems that they did not tarry long there. Leaving behind them the rubble of fallen idols, they continued to Dairout Al-Sharif (Greek Philes), and thence to Qussqam / Quisyyah.
Here, too, the recorded events testify that the townsfolk were infuriated when the stone statue of their local deity cracked and fell, and evicted the Holy Family from the town. A historically recorded incident dating to that period refers to the devastation of Qussqam, and Coptic Tradition asserts that the ruin that befell the town was the consequence of its violent rejection of the gentle visitors.
There exists an entirely different story in the warm welcome with which the holy refugees were met at their next stop at Mir/Meir(a) only 7 miles west of Qoussia. Here, they found hospitality wherever they went, for which the town and its people were abundantly blessed.
And again another story relates that the two robbers who earlier had attacked the Holy Family and since then had followed them closely, assaulted them again here with sword and covered faces. They demanded the garments of Jesus, Mary and Joseph and even tore the veil off Mary’s head.
One of the thieves who saw that Mary wept, felt remorse, and intended to return the clothes to them.
After Jesus had put his clothes on again, He told his Mother: “I will be crucified in Jerusalem and these two thieves will be crucified with Me. The thief who just returned our clothes will realize Who I am, and believe in Me. He will be the first one to be in Paradise, even before Adam and his descendants!”
[Divine Mercy shown in earliest days of Jesus’ life.]
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,” Mt. Qussqam. Here the Monastery of Al-Moharraq was built around the area where the Holy Family remained 6 months, spent mainly in a cave, which became, in the Coptic era, the Altar of the Church of the Virgin Mary and the altar stone was the resting place of the Child Jesus during the months He dwelt there.
This place is referred to as The Second Bethlehem. At the very spot where Al-Moharraq Monastery stands, the Angel of the Lord appeared to St. Joseph in a dream, telling him to return home.
Jesus also came here after the Resurrection to consecrate it!
Tradition relates that the church dedicated to the BVM in Dair al-Moharraq was the first church built in Egypt, after St. Mark’s arrival in Egypt, C. 60 AD.
The return route deviated slightly from the one by which they had come. It took them south to the city of Assiut (ancient Lycopolis), and their blessing was shown in the Christian era by the building of the huge mountaintop Convent of the Virgin Mary.
By boat, they arrived back at Old Cairo, then Matareyah, and on to Mahamma, where their temple was destroyed as they approached it. They were retracing their steps on their outward journey across Sinai to Palestine. The way led via Belbeis, past Farma, Arish, Rafah, Gaza, Ashkelon, the same route they came to Egypt.
Biblical history says it all: in the end, they arrived home, to Joseph’s old house, in the small town of Nazareth, in Galilee. The journey lasted well over 3 years and covered 1,242 miles!
Their means of transport was a weak beast of burden, the donkey. For much of the way, they trudged on foot, enduring fierce heat and biting cold, a journey of extreme deprivation.
— Sr. M. Danielle Peters, STD – U. Dayton Intl. Marian Institute
