In this article, Father Vincent Bélanger shares the fruit of his research on the Holy Family’s passage through Egypt to deepen your biblical study and better understand the Copts and the history of Christians in Egypt.
For the Christians of Egypt, the Copts, their country is another “Holy Land” because the Child Jesus and his family resided there when they had to flee Palestine because of Herod’s murderous rage. Gradually, geographical locations were established, situating the stages of their Egyptian stay, which are still today places of pilgrimage and devotion.
The Holy Family's Flight into Egypt according to the Bible
It is in the Gospel of Matthew and in no other that the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt is recounted. Let’s look at Matthew (2:13-23):
After the visit of the Magi in Bethlehem, the Angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph and said to him: “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you. For Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son” [cf. Hos 11:1].
Then Herod, seeing that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under […].
But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel […] And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth. (Mt 2:13-23)
A Historical Investigation of this Biblical Account of the Holy Family in Egypt
This episode escapes a historical investigation as we do it today. At the same time, there is a whole relevant theological and spiritual reflection to be made! The Christians of Egypt have this account as historical; they appropriated it with fervor by specifying the duration of Joseph and his family’s Egyptian exile and locating its stages. These became so many places of pilgrimage.
Tradition most often estimates that the Holy Family moved in the Nile Valley for three and a half years. An interesting fact, this data is already present in the commentary on Matthew by Hippolytus of Rome. This comes from the beginning of the 3rd century. Who probably held it from his contacts with the great Egyptian theologian Origen, who lived from 185 – 253.
Today, how many sites are associated with the Holy Family in Egypt? There are currently about forty places of pilgrimage and devotion that are associated with the Holy Family’s stay.
In the year 2000, on the occasion of the second Christian millennium, the Coptic Church and the Egyptian authorities undertook to establish an “official” map and initiatives were taken to highlight some of them, with the aim of promoting specifically Christian tourism. A new impetus was given to this project in 2014 by the Ministries of Tourism and Culture, with the support of the Patriarchate of Alexandria and the Vatican.
The History of the Egyptian Church – the Copts
Another interesting aspect for Christians who go to this second “Holy Land” is to see that the Church that was born there is an apostolic Church. The Christians of Egypt present themselves as the sons of the Apostle Mark! He is said to be the founding evangelist of the Church of Egypt.
Mark, from a Jewish family from Libya recently established in Jerusalem, is said to have arrived in Alexandria after being Saint Peter’s collaborator in Rome. He is said to have been martyred around the year 68.
Certainly, Christians were present in Egypt as early as the 1st century! A manuscript of the text of the Gospel of John was found in Egypt. Egyptian Christianity must have been traversed by various currents. It is in the second century with the Bishop of Alexandria, Demetrius, that the history of the Egyptian Church truly emerges.
There is so much to say about Christian Egypt. I would like to address one last point that seems important to our tradition and our history. The intervention of monasticism. Born at the turn of the 4th century, Egyptian monasticism took very varied forms, inspired by great ascetic models, that is to say, a form of austere, solitary, and monastic life. Even today, monasticism is one of the pillars of the Coptic Church.
We speak of the Desert Fathers. It is in Egypt that the home of a new Christian spiritual movement is found, which advocates a life of solitude and prayer. This was born at the turn of the 4th century and gradually spread throughout the Roman East, then reached Italy, and the rest of the West.
The origin of the hermit life movement is associated with the name of Anthony the Great, Saint Anthony. He decided to distribute all his wealth inherited from the death of his parents and lead a hermit’s life devoted to work and prayer.
The Monastery of Saint Anthony still exists today, established in an oasis in the desert near the Red Sea. This movement transformed life in Egypt and later in the West, starting with Saint Benedict and his rule, which built Christian Europe.
These are some points that have taught me a lot about Egypt. I did not know when I started my research on the Holy Family that I would find so many elements on the history of the New Testament and the beginnings of the Church.
My research was done in the magazine: Le monde de la Bible, December 2019 / January-February 2020 edition, which was entitled *The Copts, History of the Christians of Egypt*.
By Father Vincent Bélanger
N.B.: From October 15 to 27, 2023, Father Vincent Bélanger will accompany the pilgrimage to Egypt “In the Footsteps of the Holy Family” (GUARANTEED DEPARTURE)!
