2nd June 2018
The Coptic Museum in Cairo
His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St Mark, celebrated yesterday the feast of the entry of the Holy Family into Egypt, at the Coptic Museum in Cairo. The celebration was attended by Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, several government ministers and governors, Arab ambassadors, and influential Egyptian writer Waseem El Sisi.
The Holy Family fled to Egypt to escape the massacre ordered by King Herod of all children aged 2 and under in Bethlehem. Egypt acted as a land of refuge for Christ, and there are many sites throughout all of Egypt that were visited by the Holy Family and have been preserved until this day, such as the Burned Monastery of the Virgin Mary, commonly known as Deir El Moharraq, and the Virgin Mary Tree, as well as many others too.
His Holiness Pope Tawadros has been known to regularly refer to the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt as a reason for the blessed nature of Egypt, often saying “The whole world is in God’s hands, but Egypt is in God’s heart”.
The Egyptian Government has recently been paying great attention to the Holy Family routes in Egypt, hoping to transform them into a source of religious pilgrimage from Christians all over the world.
As a result of this, the Holy Family Journey through Egypt was recently approved by His Holiness Pope Francis and the Vatican as an official pilgrimage site for Roman Catholics across the world. Furthermore, after an application to UNESCO, it is expected that the Holy Family Journey will soon be declared a World Heritage Site.