zeitoun 1

April 2, 1968. 

Zeitoun, Egypt, a suburb outside Cairo. 

The country was in the midst of the Arab-Israeli conflict, on the heels of the Six-Day War [5-10 juni 1967]. Tensions ran high in the predominantly Muslim country, home to a minority of Christians. 

At the center of it all, on Tumanbay Street, sat St. Mary’s Coptic Orthodox Church. 

It was built in 1923 because of a vision... 

One night, landowner Tawfik Khalil Ibrahim had a dream. 

The Virgin Mary told him to build her a church in Zeitoun, the very place the Holy Family was said to have passed on their flight to Egypt. If Tawfik did as she asked, Mary promised to appear at the church in 40 years’ time. 

Forty years passed. Nothing happened. 

Until the evening of April 2...

[bron]