ACI MENA, Aug 26, 2025 /
08:00 am
The Monastery of the Virgin Mary in Assiut, in southern Egypt, holds special significance. It is considered to be the final stop of the Holy Family’s journey in Egypt and includes an ancient cave where Jesus, Mary, and Joseph are believed to have lived before beginning their return to the Holy Land.
In Upper Egypt, monastic life has flourished since the fourth century under St. John of Egypt — also known as John of Assiut in the Middle East and northern Africa. The monastery there continues its mission today, with daily Masses, baptisms, and pilgrim visits.
The well-known religious site also now hosts one of the largest annual religious celebrations in Egypt. Every year, from Aug. 7–22, during the feast of the Virgin Mary, the Holy Family’s visit to Assiut is celebrated.
The celebrations draw massive crowds of pilgrims, particularly on the feast day of the Virgin, with attendance exceeding 750,000 people, according to ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner.
The monastery complex includes several churches, but the historic Cave Church is surrounded by particular reverence.
Oral tradition recounts that Joseph the Patriarch once used the cave to store grain and that the Holy Family later lived there. In subsequent centuries, the cave served as a refuge for Egypt’s Christians fleeing persecution, many of whom turned these shelters into churches.
It is unusual to find statues of Christ, the Virgin, or the saints in Coptic Orthodox churches, which traditionally venerate them through icons. Yet in 2023, the Assiut monastery witnessed the raising of Egypt’s largest statue of Mary, cast in bronze and modeled after the famous Our Lady of Lebanon statue, to coincide with the celebration of her birthday.
The Egyptian Mint also issued a commemorative series of 12 coins representing major sites along the Holy Family’s journey through Egypt, including the Assiut site, known as Durunka.
This story was first published by ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, and has been translated for and adapted by CNA.
Georgena Habbaba is an Iraqi journalist and writer for ACI MENA as well as former Arabic-language supervisor at St. Peter Seminary for the Chaldean Patriarchate in Erbil, Iraq.
