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Our Lady of Zeitoun

Our Lady of Zeitoun, Also known simply as El-Zeitoun, Zeitun or rarely Our Lady of Light, was a mass Marian apparition that occurred in the Zeitoun district of Cairo, Egypt, over a period of 2?3 years beginning on April 2, 1968.

Apparition
Critical evaluation of the events

The tectonic strain hypothesis

See also
Further reading
References
External links

Apparition

The first apparition at Zeitoun was recorded on the evening April 2, 1968 when two men noticed a white figure on the top of the local Coptic Church of the Holy Virgin ^[1] . The sighting was reported to the police^[2]. Crowd begun to gather on the event site and the police attempted to disperse it. According to the police, the sighting was just a reflection of the light from the street lamps^[2]. However, the crowds viewed the sighting as a clear apparition of Saint Mary, and so the attempts by the police to disperse the crowd were unsuccessful^[2]. The event itself ended in few minutes.

A week later on April 9 the phenomenon reoccurred for a few minutes and since then apparitions became quite frequent, sometimes repeating two-three times a week ^[2]. The appearance of the lights continued up to 1971. Many healings and miracles were reported during the time of the apparitions.

The Pope of Alexandria Kyrillos VI appointed a committee of high-ranking priests and bishops to investigate the matter, headed by Bishop Gregorios, bishop of postgraduate studies, Coptic culture and scientific research. On May 4 the Coptic Orthodox Pope of Alexandria in Cairo issued an official statement confirming the apparitions. They were also confirmed by the Jesuit Father Dr. Henry Habib Ayrout, and by Rev. Dr. Ibrahim Said of the Protestant Evangelical Ministries. Nuns of the Society of the Sacred Heart also 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.

The Egyptian government also investigated the matter, and, after being unable to produce an alternative explanation for the luminous sightings, accepted the apparitions as true.

Critical evaluation of the events

Estimates of the number of observers of the event vary greatly. Thousands were said to have flocked to the Church after the first announced occurrences of the phenomenon. Some claim the apparitions were seen by millions. Other sources estimate the figure at around 100,000 in total. Cynthia Nelson ^[3] was a professor of anthropology at AUC (American University in Cairo) and the founding director of the Institute of Gender and Women's Studies. She visited the church site on several occasions including April 15, 1968, another week later near the end of April and on June 1, 1968. Despite the accounts of ongoing, if irregular, visitations by the Marian apparition, Cynthia Nelson documents seeing nothing other than a few 'intermittent flashes of light' ^[4].

Cynthia Nelson and others ^[5] have put the Mary apparition in its context. The appearances came at a period of crisis in Egyptian history.

Sociologists Robert Bartholomew and Erich Goode offer the Zeitoun apparitions as a prominent case of mass delusion:

?It appears that the Marian observers were predisposed by religious background and social expectation to interpreting the light displays as related to the Virgin Mary.?^[6]

The tectonic strain hypothesis

Canadian neuro-psychologist Michael Persinger of Laurentian University and American geologist Dr. John Derr raised the hypothesis linking luminous phenomena and the seismic activity ^[7]. According to Persinger and Derr analysis of the seismic activity in the region from 1958 to 1979, reveals its correlation to the occurrence of luminous phenomena. They state that:

?Temporal analyses were completed between the occurrence of intense displays of exotic luminous phenomena over a church in Zeitoun (Egypt) during the years 1968 through 1969 and regional seismicity. These phenomena, viewed by thousands of onlookers, began one year before an unprecedented increase (factor of 10) in seismic activity about 400 km to the southeast. Monthly analyses also demonstrated a moderate (0.56) correlation between increases in seismicity and the occurrence of luminous phenomena during the same or previous month. These results were interpreted as further support for the hypothesis that most anomalous (terrain-related) luminous phenomena are generated by factors associated with tectonic strain.?