Zeitoun

Photograph of the appearance of Mother Mary over the Coptic Church in Zeitoun, Cairo

From April 1968 to early 1971 throngs of thousands gathered nightly outside the Coptic church in Zeitoun (a suburb of Cairo, Egypt, near where the Holy Family is said to have stayed after their flight to Egypt during Herod’s persecution) to witness the appearances of the Blessed Mother. Unlike Mary’s other apparitions, at Fátima or Lourdes for instance, everyone in the crowds, of any race and religion, was able to see her.

Eyewitnesses said her appearances over the church, which lasted anywhere from a few minutes to several hours, were heralded by flashing lights and the coming of large dovelike birds. On occasion, Jesus and Joseph accompanied the Blessed Mother. Published photographs taken during the apparitions show the figure of the Mother of Christ next to the dome of the church with a luminous bird hovering over her head.

During the Zeitoun apparitions, hundreds said they were spontaneously healed, and reports of cures and miracles continued even after the apparitions had ceased.

For more information

Thomas F. Brady, “Visions of Virgin Reported in Cairo,” New York Times, 5 May 1968, p. 71.

Fatima Prophecy: Days of Darkness, Promise of Light (Austin, Tex.: Association for the Understanding of Man, 1974), pp. 43–50.

Jerome Palmer, “The Virgin Mary Appears in Egypt,” Fate, August 1971, pp. 60–70.

Sources

Mark L. Prophet and Elizabeth Clare Prophet, Lost Teachings of Jesus: Missing Texts • Karma and Reincarnation, chapter 4, endnotes.