Crowds gather in the Cairo district of Zeitoun to mark the 40th anniversary of the appearance of the Virgin Mary, reports Sherine Nasr Thousands of Copts from across Egypt flocked to the Cairo district of Zeitoun to mark the 40th anniversary of the appearance of an apparition of the Virgin Mary on the dome of the church dedicated to her and built originally in 1924. Though the crowds were large -- it took Pope Shenouda's procession three hours to pass through them on the way to the church -- they were nothing compared to the numbers, Christians and Muslims alike, who poured into the district when news of the appearance of the Holy Virgin began to spread in April 1968. The figure was first sighted by drivers and guards working at night at a Greater Cairo Transport Authority garage which stood opposite the church. Shocked by the sight of a young woman climbing the 17m high eastern dome of the church, they assumed the figure was someone attempting to commit suicide and called the emergency services. Initially, news of the sighting was restricted to a small circle of mostly Christians. The then pope, Kirolos VI, formed a committee of three bishops to report on the event. When a papal decree was finally issued on 5 May verifying that the apparition was the Virgin Mary Zeitoun was suddenly inundated with pilgrims. The decree made front page headlines and the church became the focus of visits from the faithful from as far away as Europe, the US and Latin America. The area hosted up to 100,000 people a day who stayed up at night chanting praises to the Virgin. And "on the Eve of the Virgin's feast on 21 August that year," Pope Shenouda told Monday's congregation gathered to celebrate the 40th anniversary, "at least 250,000 people were present". To contain the increasing numbers of visitors the old garage was evacuated and later became the site of the Cathedral of the Virgin Mary, Cairo's largest after St Mark's. Although the Virgin Mary is reported to have appeared in other churches in Egypt the Zeitoun apparition is the most famous. "This is because it was the longest, continuing up until 1970 when it gradually came to an end," said the pope, who added that the appearance of the Virgin had been accompanied by miracles documented by a committee of bishops and of doctors commissioned to register incidents of healing and verify their authenticity. "Egypt is the land that hosted Her and her Holy Child on their flight from Jerusalem. It is here where the Holy Family stayed for three and a half years before they went back home," said Pope Shenouda. Asked why the celebrations should have been planned to mark the 40th anniversary of the sightings, and not the golden jubilee as might be expected, Victor Salama, deputy editor-in-chief of Watani newspaper, the mouthpiece of the Coptic Church, said it presented an important opportunity to listen to the testimony of eyewitnesses while they were still alive. "These testimonies, in addition to news reports on the event, excerpts from books written in different languages, as well as other material have now been gathered in five documentaries that will be on sale for the public soon," he said. The four days of celebrations ended with a midnight mass due to be completed at dawn today.
