had reported seeing
"spiritual features" on several occasions and at different times since
Aug. 17. The statement did not say whether religious leaders had
confirmed any sightings personally.
"I haven't seen any light," Father Baki Sedka, head of the first
biblical church (protestant), a neighboring church to Saint Mark, told
The Associated Press on Monday night. "I stayed up all night and I
didn't see anything except a few pigeons."
"The appearance of a few pigeons doesn't justify a miracle," Sedka said.
"This case needs a lot of consideration before we can authoritatively
assert these sightings."
Since word of the apparition spread, the synod said thousands of
Egyptians and some foreigners have come to Assiut, 180 miles (290
kilometers) south of Cairo, the capital, where they've been singing
hymns and reciting prayers while waiting for the next vision to appear.
Copts make up less than 10 percent of the population in Egypt, where
Islam is the state religion. Assiut has a substantial Coptic Christian
population, but also has been a hotbed for Islamic fundamentalism and
sight of violent attacks targeting Christians and tourists.
* Comment from Zeitun-eg.org:
Ordinary pigeons do not fly by night!
ABC News :
Light from Heaven
Pilgrims, Residents in Southern Egypt Report Seeing Virgin Mary
An apparition of the Virgin Mary has been spotted in the small Egyptian
town of Assiut.
By Hoda Abdel-Hamid
C A I R O, Egypt, Sept.
11 Every night Marcelle Maurice comes to Saint Mark’s church in the
little town of Assiut, Egypt, to stand outside and watch the sky. She
says she sees an apparition of the Virgin Mary every night. "I saw the
Virgin Mary, flashing lights and big white doves," says Marcelle,
clutching her 5-year-old daughter.
Like her, thousands of Egyptians have been flocking to this southern
Egyptian town more than 300 miles south of Cairo, once known as a hotbed
of Islamic fundamentalism.
Outside the church, hopeful pilgrims each night chant "Come Mary, Come,"
or "Your Light is on the Cross," hoping to beseech the Virgin Mary to
appear between the two towers of the church, as she has done the
previous nights, they say.
Muslims also revere the Virgin Mary as the mother of Jesus
Christ--considered a prophet in the Islamic faith--but their religion
prohibits them from worshipping images.
Witnesses say the apparitions occur in the wee hours of the morning. "I
saw Mary, she was beautiful, wearing a blue veil," says Sarwat Hani
Marzouk.
"Light was emanating from her hands, then doves start flying, they were
as big as ducks." Others say they simply saw strobe-like lights and big
doves flying around the minarets of the church.
‘A Blessing for Egypt’
People living around
Saint Mark’s church began reporting the appearances last month.
"The first time we heard of the Virgin’s apparition was on Aug.17," says
one local resident. "We did not give it too much importance as we
thought it was an isolated case."
But the day after, he said, "more people reported the same and then
hundreds and thousands."
Father Labib, from the nearby Orthodox Copt Dronka Monastery, is excited
by the sighting. "If you look for the source of the light , you can’t
find it. This is light from heaven" he says.
Father Mina Hanna, secretary of the Assiut Council of Coptic churches,
says the Virgin chose to appear in the town of Assiut because she had
journeyed there during the Holy Family’s exile from Herod’s Palestine.
Coptic Christians, who form the bulk of Egypt’s 6 million Christians,
believe the Holy Family stopped in Assiut on their way back to
Palestine.
The Priest would not say whether he has seen any appearances of Mary at
the church, but, he said, "This is a blessing for Muslims and Christians
alike. It is a blessing for Egypt."
Christians make up about a quarter of the population of Assiut.
Fortunate Turn of Events
Skeptics, however, say
the apparitions are rather timely. Since the massacre of 58 foreigners
in 1997 at the popular tourist site of Luxor, Egypt has struggled with
external perceptions of its religious tolerance.
Assiut , among other towns along the Nile, was closed to the outside
world for security reasons.The government has began an ambitious 3-year
plan to revamp the sites where Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus are said
to have stayed during their exile, hoping to promote religious tourism.
Egypt’s main weekly magazine, Rosa el Yousef, dismissed the apparitions
as a "legend."
But British and Egyptian journalists who have been to Assiut said
suddenly there were flashing lights in the sky and they could not find
the source.
More
reports about the apparition of virgin Mary in Egypt 2000 - 2001 :
- BBC News
- Dawn
News
[Video]
Assiut- Light from Heaven
