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Hillsborough, New Jersey
A church is rising on Route 206 to remember the night the Virgin appeared over Zeitoun.
Beginning on 2 April 1968, the Virgin Mary appeared in light above St. Mary's Church in Zeitoun, Cairo — seen by hundreds of thousands, of every faith, over three years. The Zeitoun Memorial Foundation is building a full-scale replica of that church in Hillsborough, New Jersey: a memorial and museum of the event, and of the ancient people who witnessed it. Open to all.
Raised and held
$991,000 of $10 million
Including the Hillsborough land. Assets at the close of FY2025.
Where we are
Land purchased
A property on US Route 206, next door to St. Mary & St. Athanasius Coptic Orthodox Church, since January 2019.
Next milestone
Plans to New Jersey code
The as-built drawings from Egypt are being redrawn to American standards by a firm here. The plan →
What we are building
Three things, on one site on US Route 206 in Hillsborough, New Jersey. A memorial church — a replica, to every detail, of St. Mary's Church of Zeitoun. A Cultural Center Building beside it, holding the museum: nine galleries on the apparition and on the people who witnessed it. And the land itself, bought in 2019 and paid for, waiting.
The project →Where
On US Route 206 in Hillsborough, New Jersey, on a property the foundation purchased in 2019, next door to St. Mary & St. Athanasius Coptic Orthodox Church — so the memorial stands beside a living parish, not apart from one.
Visit the site →Why
Zeitoun is among the most witnessed and most photographed events of its kind in history, and there is no place in North America that keeps its record — or the story of the people who saw it and then carried an ancient civilization to a new country. The foundation, a cultural organization, exists to build that place.
The heritage →The story
It began with workers on a night shift, who thought a woman was about to jump.
On the night of 2 April 1968, mechanics at the bus depot across the street from St. Mary's saw a figure in white standing on the central dome. They called out to her. Within minutes a crowd had gathered, and what they saw — a luminous figure of the Virgin, sometimes bowing toward the crowd, sometimes with doves of light around her — would return, night after night, for the next three years.
The apparitions were seen by Christians, Muslims and Jews, by Egyptian officials, and by foreign visitors. They were photographed and filmed. And within a month, after its own investigation, the Coptic Orthodox Church under Pope Kyrillos VI declared them genuine.
Read the full account →Progress
Twelve years in, with the land in hand.
The foundation has been building toward this since 2014. Here is where things stand, and what comes next.
- 2014Foundation established
Zeitoun Memorial Foundation Inc incorporated in New Jersey and recognized by the IRS as a 501(c)(3).
- 26 December 2014Blessing of His Holiness Pope Tawadros II
Fr. Antonious presented the concept to the Pope of Alexandria in Egypt and received his letter of blessing. Pope Shenouda III had welcomed the idea before him. The blessings →
- 24 January 2019Land purchased
A property on US Route 206 in Hillsborough, next door to St. Mary & St. Athanasius Coptic Orthodox Church.
- Since 2019The original church, measured and photographed
An architectural firm in Egypt produced as-built drawings of St. Mary's of Zeitoun, and a photographer recorded every wall, column, icon and arch, so the replica can be exact.
- NowPlans redrawn to New Jersey codes
A firm in the United States is redrawing the plans to American standards. Then: site plan, approvals, and ground. The plan →
Heritage
The descendants of the pharaohs came to America, and brought a civilization with them.
The Copts are the native people of Egypt. The word itself means Egyptian — "Copt" and "Egypt" descend from the same Greek word — and the Coptic language is the last form of the language of the pharaohs, still chanted in church every week, including in this township.
When Champollion read the hieroglyphs in 1822, he did it with the Rosetta Stone in one hand and his knowledge of Coptic in the other. The Church had kept the key to the pharaohs' writing for fourteen centuries without knowing it was a key.
In 1970 there were two Coptic churches in the United States. By 2020 there were 292, and New Jersey has more Copts per resident than any other state. The museum will tell how that happened, and what these people gave the world on the way.
The heritage of the Copts →AD 284
The Coptic Church still counts its years from the accession of Diocletian, the emperor who tried to destroy it. This year is 1743.
292
Coptic parishes in the United States in 2020, up from two in 1970. Forty-three percent of them were founded in the previous ten years.
2 April 1968
The night the Virgin appeared over Zeitoun. The first people to see her were Muslim garage workers finishing a shift across the street.
Ways to give
Every dome was built by many hands.
The original church was paid for by one family. This memorial will be paid for by a whole community, in gifts of every size.
Most needed
Give monthly
$25 a month from two hundred families is $60,000 a year — a predictable foundation the campaign can plan on. It is the single most useful gift.
Start a monthly giftGive once
A one-time gift of any amount, online in a minute. Checks and stock are welcome too.
Give nowPut a name on it
A dome, a window, a bell, a pew, a course of brick, a place on the founders' wall — in memory of someone, or in thanksgiving.
Named opportunitiesUpdates
Latest from the foundation
The annual filing is public
Contributions of about $74,000 and assets of $991,000 at year end. Every year's return is linked from the Foundation page. The numbers →