By John Fourtounas
When King Herod learned from the Magi that Christ had been born, he asked them, once they found Him, to inform him so that he might supposedly go and worship Him. In reality, however, he wished to destroy Him.
For this reason, an angel warned Joseph to take the Child and His Mother and depart for Egypt, so that the Scripture might be fulfilled which says, “Out of Egypt I have called My Son” (Matthew 2:15).
Indeed, when Herod saw that he had been mocked by the Magi, he ordered that all the male children two years old and under be put to death in the city of Bethlehem and in all the surrounding regions (Gospel of Matthew 2:13–18).
Meanwhile, the betrothed Joseph, together with the Divine Child and His Mother, was already journeying toward the land of Egypt by way of Gaza. He passed through the region of Mount Pelusium, east of today’s city of Port Said, and entered the land of the Nile.
After various stopping places along the route — according to local tradition — while traveling toward the interior of the country, they found hospitality in the ancient city of Babylon, where to this day there exists the cave in which they dwelt in the land of the Nile.
The city of Babylon was built by Assyrian captives — hence its name, Babylon — who had been taken captive by King Sesostris (12th Dynasty). It was surrounded by high walls and stood on the site of what is now Old Cairo, in the capital of Egypt.
In the time of Augustus, the city with its fortress served as the seat of the Roman army, which ensured control of the region and the commercial route between Lower and Upper Egypt, while the Romans erected towers for its protection.
In ancient times, the Nile flowed through that area, encircled the city, and rendered its walls inaccessible. Even today, in the underground chambers of the imposing rotunda of Saint George, one can see the dock where the ships navigating the Nile would moor.
Of the two towers that rose on either side of the imposing gate, one lies half in ruins and is now the site of the Coptic Museum, while the other, restored in the early 20th century, is the rotunda of the Monastery of Saint George.
Between these two towers lies to this day the Cave of the Hospitality of the Theotokos and the Divine Child, located in the Greek cemetery of the Holy Patriarchal and God-trodden Monastery of Saint George in Old Cairo.
As the Theotokos ascended the Nile River to that point, she found the hospitable cave, where she dwelt with the Divine Child for two years, until the persecution of King Herod ceased and Joseph received the command to return to Nazareth.
In ancient times, the cave stood beside the banks of the Nile — long before the river changed its course, which now flows between Giza of the Pyramids and the Monastery of Saint George — and within the city walls, where their stay was safe.
The dwelling place of the Theotokos and the Divine Child receives many thousands of visitors and pilgrims each year. It is a sacred site of great significance for Christians, and visiting it constitutes a unique spiritual experience.
To visit it, one must arrive in the capital of Egypt, go to Old Cairo, to the Greek Monastery of Saint George, and proceed to the Greek cemetery and to the Church of the Theotokos located there.
The renovator of the monastery, Father Agathangelos Zarifis, during the interwar period beautified the entire cemetery, which is filled with remarkable sculptures on the graves, and beside the Church of the Theotokos he restored the cave externally, as attested by the inscription found there:
“This holy and God-trodden shrine was restored on the basis of sacred historical traditions preserved through the ages and following excavations, during the patriarchate of Christopher II, by the abbot Archimandrite Agathangelos, in the year 1941.”
Inside the Church of the Theotokos, behind the sanctuary, there is a narrow passage that leads to the cave, into a space where, at the center, there is a well from which visitors and devout pilgrims today draw holy water.
The site has been preserved by Abbot Agathangelos and enriched with small chapels and icons related to the flight of the Divine Child, while inscriptions with excerpts from Holy Scripture introduce the pilgrim to the historical context of that time, such as the following:
“Here the Theotokos came into Egypt with her blessed Son and with Joseph, so that the word of the Prophet might be fulfilled: ‘Out of Egypt I have called My Son.’ And outside Cairo is also the spring where the Theotokos washed the swaddling clothes of her Son.”
In the cave, in former times, there was also the miraculous icon of the ‘Theotokos of the Nile,’ since our Lady protected the villagers from the floods of the Nile. For this reason, the church built above the cave is dedicated to her.
Moreover, the renovator of the monastery, Father Agathangelos Zarifis, having heard from the elders about the icon of the Nile, gave the order during the interwar period for this icon of the Theotokos of the Nile to be repainted.
Indeed, the Flight into Egypt is a popular subject in local iconography, because the story of the arrival of the Divine Child touches every soul — both the hardships of the journey and the difficulties of their life there.
Inside the cave there is a small, narrow staircase that descends a few steps into a very small lower chamber of the cave, where it is said that the Theotokos dwelt with the Divine Child — a sacred space where pilgrims pray from the depths of their hearts.
Egypt, which in ancient times pursued and fought against the Jews, now receives Jesus and offers Him hospitality, and in place of former persecution offers the cave and saving refuge to Jesus and His Mother.
And Jesus comes to the land of the Nile — the Nile of righteousness, the Nile of divine love and the salvation of all people — which dissolved the ancient curse of the ten plagues of the pharaonic age and now, in its place, spreads joy and blessing.
The Nile watered and continues to water the land of Egypt, offering life, nourishment, and health to its inhabitants. But the new Nile does not water parched land and its fields; rather, it waters the souls of people and grants them spiritual salvation.
Indeed, from that time forth, God-trodden Egypt becomes Christian; Alexandria shines in the firmament of theology; here monasticism is born; the land is flooded with multitudes of great saints and thousands of monks, with the wondrous ascetic figures of the Egyptian desert.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
