Apparitions of Our Lady of Light, Zeitoun, Egypt 1968
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Born:
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Our
Lady appeared in Zeitoun hovering above Saint Mark's Coptic Church, a shrine
dedicated to the Holy family, which according to tradition rested in that place
during their stay in Egypt. The apparitions, (hundreds in number) took place at
night, and Our Lady was always dressed in White and surrounded by brilliant
light. Indeed the Coptic Church celebrates 32 feast days in honour of the
Blessed Virgin Mary. The last day falls on 2 April, and auspiciously
commemorates Our Lady under her title, “Our Lady of Light”.
At
8:30 p.m. on Tuesday 2 April 1968, The Blessed Virgin first appeared as a
beautiful girl in a bright luminous gown holding an olive branch and kneeling
by the cross at the top of the dome of the Virgin’s Church at El-Zeitoun. The first man who saw her, Muslim, Farouk
Mohammed Atwa, was undergoing operations for a case of gangrene. The following
day when he went to hospital for his scheduled operation, he was certified
completely healed. 1 At first the crowd that had assembled thought
that the woman was about to jump and cried out. Other devoted women soon saw her however and recognised her as
Our Lady. Struck by the miracle voices
started crying out “She is the virgin…She is the Mother of Light.” The news
spread and the town was practically brought to a standstill, traffic redirected
as a huge crowd of thousands of witnessed gathered to watch the spectacle. 2
For the next three years the Virgin Mary appeared around two to three times a week over the Eastern dome for as little as a few minutes up to several hours, attracting crowds of up to 250,0000 pilgrims, of all races and creeds. The apparitions would typically occur at night, preceded by meteorological changes and lights in the sky as if beautiful diamonds made of light were dropping from heaven or by doves encircling the Church. Sometimes the virgin would be surrounded by bright stars, or a shawl around her head, her hands extended forward and at other times she would be accompanied by a babe in her arms or be encircled by the dove-shaped luminous bodies that would fly around her at high speeds. Often she was seen clearly enough to be smiling, bowing, and waving an olive branch, blessing people, praying deeply, or kneeling before the cross on the dome. She would walk over the Church, especially its middle dome, and bow before the cross at its apex which then shone with a brilliant light. Sometimes a lightning like discharge of light appeared which shone for a while and then disappeared while on other occasions a luminous mist spread everywhere and it gave off the strong pleasant scent which pervaded the whole area.
Although
no messages were given in these apparitions, Our Lady appeared many times in a position
of prayer as if inviting us to pray. The doves would fly and form the sign of
the cross, so that Christianity implicitly was glorified to the millions of
witnesses of different religious backgrounds exposed to it. The vision was
photographed, televised, written about in the international press, and seen by
both religious and political dignitaries such as Abdul Nasser, president of
Egypt. The apparitions finally ended in 1971 leaving an atmosphere of unity and
peace and many people received miraculous healings there. Their approval came
firstly by the Patriarch of the Coptic Church in Egypt on May 4, 1968, and
later on they received approval by the Roman Catholic Church. Roman Catholic
Cardinal Stephanos did all the investigations and submitted them to Pope Paul
VI in May 1968, who approved them as a visitation of the Mother of God.
References
1.
Reported by Watani, an Egyptian newspaper, 21 April 1968
2. Living Miracles Apparitions
(http://www.livingmiracles.net/Apparitions.html)