Flight into Egypt ( cont'd )
Now it was time for the Holy Family to set out for what is arguably the most meaningful destination of all in the land of Egypt, the place where there would be "an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt", Gabal (Mount) Qussqam. The Monastery of Al-Moharraq was built around the area where the Holy Family remained just over six months. Their time was spent mainly in a cave, which became, in the Coptic era, the altar of the Church of Virgin Mary and the altar stone supposedly was the resting place of the Child Jesus during the months He dwelt there.
Sometimes this place is referred to as the Second Bethlehem. It is believed that at the very spot where Al-Moharraq Monastery stands, the Angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, and said
"Arise, and take the young Child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel; for they are dead which sought the young Child’s life." (Mt.2:20)
Tradition relates that the church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary in Dair al-Moharraq was the first church built in Egypt. It is believed that it was built immediately after St. Mark’s arrival in Egypt around 60 AD.
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THE RETURN TO PALESTINE
The return route they took deviated slightly from the one by which they had come. It took them to the city of Assiut, and their blessing of this location was commemorated in the Christian era by the building of the mountaintop convent of the Virgin Mary.
CONCLUSION
Eventually, they arrived at Old Cairo, then Matareyah, and on to Mahamma, retracing more or less their steps on their outward journey across Sinai to Palestine. Matareyah has made international headlines in recent times when on April 2, 1968 an apparition of Mary above the cupola of St. Mary Church in Zeitoun (12) was witnessed by thousands of Christians and Muslims, Egyptians and Europeans alike. From Matareyah the Holy Family traveled to Mahammah where the temple was destroyed as they approached it. A well at Mahammah still commemorates the bath Mary and Joseph took there. From there the way led via Belbeis (6) through Wadi Tumilatto the same route on which they came to Egypt.
Subsequent Biblical history says it all: at the end, they arrived home, Joseph’s old house, in the small town of Nazareth, in Galilee, in the land of Palestine, from where the message of Christ would in the fullness of time, be heard. It is estimated that the whole journey from Bethlehem to the return to Nazareth lasted over three years.
They had covered approximately 1242.80 miles. Their means of transport was a weak beast of burden and the occasional sailboat on the Nile. But for much of the way, they must have trudged on foot, enduring the fierce summer heat and the biting winter’s cold, suffering the pangs of hunger and the parching affliction of thirst. It was a journey of much deprivation, which the Child Jesus, His Virgin Mother and Saint Joseph endured in view of their divine mission.