Zeitoun
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Zeitoun, also El-Zeitoun or Zeitun, is a district of Cairo, Egypt. It is noted for its Marian apparitions.
According to purported witnesses, the Virgin Mary appeared in different forms over the Coptic Orthodox Virgin Mary Church at Zeitoun for a period of 2–3 years beginning on April 2, 1968 . The apparitions lasted from a few minutes up to several hours and were sometimes accompanied by dove-shaped luminous bodies. They were seen by millions of Egyptians and foreigners, including Copts, Orthodox and Roman Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Jews and people of no particular faith. The sick and blind are said to have been cured, and many people converted to Christianity as a result.
The Coptic Pope Kirellos VI appointed a committee of high ranking priests and bishops to investigate, headed by Anba Gregorios, bishop of postgraduate studies, Coptic culture and scientific research. On May 4 the Coptic Orthodox Papal Residence in Cairo issued an official statement confirming the apparitions. They were also confirmed by Father Dr. Henry Ayrout, S.J., and Rev. Dr. Ibrahim Said of the Protestant Evangelical Ministries. Nuns of the Society of the Sacred Heart witnessed the apparitions and sent a detailed report to the Vatican, resulting in the arrival of an envoy on April 28 who also saw the apparitions and sent a report to Pope Paul VI.
It was witnessed by Christians, Muslims and President Gamal Abdel Nasser, as well as captured by newspaper photographers and Egyptian television. Investigations by among others the Coptic Church and the police could find no explanation for the phenomenon. No device was found within a radius of fifteen miles capable of projecting the image, while the sheer number of photographs from independent sources suggests that no photographic manipulation was involved.
Marian apparitions are events in which the Virgin Mary is purported to have supernaturally appeared to one or more persons, typically but not always Christians, often Catholics. They are often given names based on the town in which they were reported, or on the soubriquet which was given to Mary on the occasion of the apparition, or on her reported clothing and hairstyle. They have been interpreted as psychological (pareidolia), and as religious phenomena, occasionally as theophanies. Apparitions sometimes recur at the same site over an extended period of time. Marian apparitions sometimes involve statues or images of Mary; of particular note are weeping statues, witnessed as producing tears.
[edit] Trivia
Initially, Farouk Mohammed Atwa, a bus mechanic who worked across the street from the church, thought that the apparition was a woman attempting suicide by jumping from the structure.
A New York Times article dated from May 1968 by Thomas Brady notes that some Arabs believed that the apparition of St. Mary was a sign that God had witnessed the Israeli occupation of the Holy Land.
