The apparition of the Virgin Mary at Zeitoun

The church

St. Mary's Coptic Orthodox Church stands on Tumanbay Street in Zeitoun, a district of northern Cairo. It was built in the 1920s by the Khalil family. According to the family's account, the Virgin had appeared to Tawfik Khalil Ibrahim in a dream and asked that a church be built on his land in her name, promising that she would one day bless it with her presence. The church was consecrated in 1925.

The first night

It was Tuesday night, 2 April 1968, at half past eight. Workers at the garage across the street from the church were at the gate for the changing of shifts, and some women were crossing the street, when there appeared an unusual movement up at the cross on the domes. In the darkness it seemed to be a young lady in white, kneeling by the cross at the top of the dome. One of the workers cried out to warn her not to jump — he could not see her face, and thought she was a girl about to take her own life. Whispers became warning shouts. Then the lady stood up, dressed as if in a bright gown of light, and they saw who she was.

She returned a week later, and then again and again — sometimes for a few minutes, sometimes for hours; sometimes several times in a night. The appearances continued, with decreasing frequency, into 1971.

What people saw

Witnesses described a luminous figure of a woman, sometimes full-length and sometimes from the waist up, moving above and between the domes; sometimes bowing toward the crowd, sometimes holding an olive branch, sometimes with what appeared to be a child. Bright, dove-shaped forms of light were often seen flying around the church before and during an appearance. Many witnesses reported a fragrance of incense. Healings were reported and, in some cases, medically examined.

The crowds grew until, on the largest nights, tens of thousands filled the streets around the church. Contemporary estimates of the total number of witnesses over the three years run into the hundreds of thousands, and some sources put it higher. Among them were Egyptian government officials, senior clergy of several churches, and foreign journalists. President Gamal Abdel Nasser is widely reported to have been among those who saw it.

The investigation

Within days, His Holiness Pope Kyrillos VI appointed a committee of bishops and priests to investigate. Its members went to Zeitoun, watched, and interviewed witnesses. On 4 May 1968 the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate issued an official statement declaring that the apparitions of the Virgin at Zeitoun were genuine — an unusually swift and unequivocal finding.

The Egyptian authorities investigated separately. Police searched the surrounding area for any projection equipment and found none; the General Information and Complaints Department published its own report affirming that the apparitions were real. The Catholic Church sent observers, and Cardinal Stephanos I, Patriarch of the Coptic Catholic Church, reported to Pope Paul VI that he had seen the apparition himself.

The record

Zeitoun was documented as few apparitions have been. It was reported in the Egyptian daily press throughout, photographed many times — the best-known images are those of Wagih Rizk Matta — and filmed by Egyptian television. The written record includes the Patriarchate's statement, the government report, the testimony gathered by the Church's committee, and accounts by clergy and lay witnesses in Arabic, English, French and Italian.

Gathering that record in one place, and presenting it faithfully, is the purpose of the museum the foundation is building. About the project →