Giorgina S. Paiella, Ph.D.

Introduction: The Holy Family in Egypt

This digital, interactive mapping project traces the journey of the Holy Family in Egypt.

Egypt is essential to Christ’s early life, serving as geographical and spiritual refuge for the Holy Family. The Holy Family is said to have spent between three and four years in Egypt, departing to escape Herod’s massacre of the innocents. The journey is recounted in the Gospel of Matthew and in Coptic tradition through a number of texts, historical papyri, and the Synaxarium, the official liturgical text of the Coptic Orthodox Church.

According to Coptic tradition, the Holy Family’s journey from Bethlehem to Egypt and return from Egypt to Nazareth spanned a distance of approximately 3500 kilometers and a duration of about three years, six months, and ten days.¹ The journey began in Bethlehem, where the Holy Family sought refuge in a cave grotto known as Magharat-El-Sayyidah, “The Cave of Our Lady,” located southeast of the Basilica of the Nativity. The Holy Family then followed the caravan route by way of the sea, crossing into Egypt. The southernmost point in Egypt that the Holy Family is considered to have traveled is Istabl Antar, the mountain range located west of Asyut, today home to the Deir al-Adhra, or the Monastery of the Virgin Mary at Durunka. The knowledge of particular stops and holy sites has been passed down throughout the centuries through a combination of oral tradition, historical texts, apocrypha, and geographical history.

The Holy Family’s journey in Egypt is of particular importance to the Coptic Orthodox Church and gave rise to many sacred sites, holy artifacts, and traditions. The Coptic Church commemorates the Holy Family’s journey with the Feast of the Entry of the Lord Jesus Christ into Egypt each year on 24 Pashons, celebrated each year on June 1st of the Gregorian calendar.

Fuge in Aegyptum: Mapping Guide

The Holy Family’s journey consisted of two elements: departure and return. The journey began in Bethlehem, from where the Holy Family traveled along what is known as the caravan route into Egypt. This caravan route was an ancient trade route known as Via Maris, “the way of the sea,” with a long history dating back to the Old Kingdom of Ancient Egyptian civilization, when it was first known as “the Way of Horus.” Once the Holy Family crossed into Egypt, they traveled along the Nile Delta, continued through present-day Cairo, crossed into upper Egypt by way of sailing vessel, and traveled southward within Upper Egypt. The return journey route traveled back up through upper Egypt, passed again through modern-day Cairo, and then followed the same caravan route back to Nazareth.

The journey can be considered in terms of both geographical distance and temporal duration. The farthest south that the Holy Family is said to have traveled in Egypt is Istabl Antar, and that point also geographically distinguishes the beginning of the return journey. Not all stops were visited in equal duration—some locales were only visited en route or for a few days, and others much longer. Deir el-Muharraq, also known as the Monastery of the Virgin Mary, is said to have been the Holy Family’s longest resting place, providing refuge for over six months before Joseph was said to have received a dream signaling that it was safe to return.

The number of stops or stations of the Holy Family’s journey varies, but is generally considered to be around twenty-five, in addition to many other sites of early Christian significance. This mapping project includes not only the stops critical to the Holy Family’s journey, but the sequential order of through-points of their progress along the journey. Indispensable to this project and approach is Father Philopos Anba-Bishoy’s The Flight of the Holy Family to Egypt,² which provides the essential distances, locations, place names, narrative histories, and aspects of tradition that makes this visualization work possible, and which serves as the source material informing these sequential stops, with gratitude to such a comprehensive account.

The challenge of fidelity to places through images is inherent to tracing sites that are centuries old. This project approaches this issue with a mix of historical maps, present-day locales, ancient artifacts, and existing structures, but none, of course, can capture the golden ages of these sites at the time in which they were created, or at the time in which they were visited by the Holy Family. Essence and approximation are approaches to these limitations of modernity. Whenever possible, the present-day Coptic churches, monasteries, and other holy sites that preserve these histories are highlighted, in tandem with Ancient Egyptian heritage sites. In cases where neither is possible (due to since-destroyed locales, for example), maps, artifacts, and surrounding areas are utilized.³ Each mapping tour point includes the ancient names of these cities and sites when relevant alongside their present-day counterparts, to trace the history and evolution of these locales over time.⁴

This project aims to highlight the importance of these Holy Family sites to Coptic history, while also linking these important early Christian sites to Ancient Egyptian history. Many of the places that the Holy Family traveled through, and found refuge at, are Ancient Egyptian historical sites. As the living descendants of Ancient Egyptians, Copts have a unique and solitary cultural custodianship over these holy sites. These communities, sacred places, artifacts, and archives—both historically and up to the present day—have not been untouched by harm, and serve as sites of memory and resilience amidst the constant presence of persecution. To link these histories and view them as inseparable honors longstanding Ancient Egyptian and Coptic civilization, ancestry, and cultural heritage.☥☩

1. Coptic tradition most commonly holds that the journey lasted three years, six months, and ten days. Some accounts generalize this as lasting about three years and six months, and others as three years, six months, and “some days” (generally between five and ten days). Others still place the journey as having a longer duration of three years and eleven months. ↩︎
2. Anba-Bishoy, Fr. Philopos. The Flight of the Holy Family to Egypt. Nubar Printing House, 1997. ↩︎
3. The former settlement of Ostrakine is non-extant, for example, but historical Ostrakine exists within the nature reserve of the present-day Zaranik Protected Area. ↩︎
4. As a general note, there are multiple valid variations of place name spelling because there are many ways to transliterate these names into English. (For example, Al-Matariyah/El-Matareya; Musturud/Mostorod.) ↩︎