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But Copts believe the Vision of Pope Theofilus, Coptic patriarch from A.D. 385 to 412, is their most important description of the Holy Family's time in Egypt. In that vision, the mother of Jesus describes in detail the many miracles that occurred during the family's travels from Bethlehem to al-Ashmunayn and then the southern Egyptian mountains of Qusqam. According to the vision, the infant Jesus performed many miracles, including creating springs of water.

About 450, the Coptic historian Sozomon also wrote in his History of the Church about an oral tradition of the visit of the Holy Family in al-Ashmunayn. Yet Sozomon does not mention the Vision of Theofilus, or any of the other locations mentioned in that vision.

The Homily of Zacharias, an eighth-century bishop, added Holy Family visitation sites in the Nile Delta. Also, the villages of al-Bahnassa, Dayr al-Garnus, and Ishnin al-Nasara are other sites mentioned in a manuscript attributed to medieval Bishop Cyriacus. He wrote that Father Antonius witnessed a miraculous light on a hill and was told in a vision that this area, which includes those three villages 120 miles south of Cairo, was the place the Son of God had visited.

Father Shenouda of Dayr al-Garnus says Bishop Cyriacus also referred to a now-lost manuscript of Joseph the Carpenter, who wrote about a Holy Family visit at that same hillside location.

Western scholars believe these traditions were almost certainly attributed to church leaders to lend credibility to the tradition. But most Coptic clergy and believers do not accept such assumptions. Many Copts attach great significance to the statements and revelations of church leaders. They believe their leaders would never fabricate stories. They are not skeptical, as are Westerners, of ancient traditions that have not been corroborated by archaeology and reliable manuscripts.

For Copts, God continues to speak through dreams, visions, and revelations. Father Matta from Tammua says that Pope Cyril VI (1959-70) had a dream revealing the visit of the Holy Family to his church in Giza, just west of Cairo, in the vicinity of the pyramids.

People in the church of Zaytun in Cairo believe the Holy Family must have visited that location because the mother of Jesus appeared there in 1968. Why would she appear at a site that had not been blessed before?

Metropolitan Bishoi argues that the Holy Family, according to an oral tradition only revealed in modern times, visited Dimyana. Medieval manuscripts mention that the Holy Family visited al-Burullus, near the Mediterranean Sea. Thus, they also must have visited nearby Dimyana. The official itinerary of the church today accepts Dimyana, but not Tammua or Zaytun.

Tradition also developed through new findings. In 1984, a stone was found in front of the church of Sakha (84 miles north of Cairo) during work on the sewage system. On one side of the stone was a small dark spot; on the other side was the word Allah in Arabic. Christian workers immediately believed this dark spot had to be the footprint of Jesus. The stone was mentioned in medieval documents but had disappeared in the 13th century. The newly discovered stone was brought to Pope Shenouda, head of the Coptic Orthodox Church. He prayed over it, and decided this was indeed the lost stone with the footprint of Jesus. But Coptic scholar Otto Meinardus, a former professor at the American University in Cairo, does not believe this stone is the one detailed in medieval texts.

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December 3 2001, Vol. 45, No. 15