In April 1968 strange apparitions appeared over a church in Zeitoun Egypt , often several times a week for three years, beings of light, birds , clouds, stars, taking strange shapes

UNUSUAL PHENOMENA TAKING PLACE AT THE TIME OF THE APPARITION

l. The Doves: They differ from the normal pigeons in that they are able to fly at night; they are also bigger in size and different in shape.

2. The Stars: They are bigger than the usual stars. They used to descend quickly on the church. Sometimes they were spherical in shape or like lanterns.

3. The Light: It used to appear over the domes. Its colour was orange or light blue. It used to encircle the church like a sacred halo.

4. The Cross: Though opaque, the cross used to glow over the big dome with a phosphorescent light. Sometimes, a very white cross appeared over one of the domes or over the Virgin Herself when She made Her apparitions.

5. The Incense: It used to permeate the place with its strong pleasing smell and white colour.

6. The Clouds: Used to appear over the domes, sometimes taking the form of the Virgin.

7. Beings in the shape of pigeons would fly over the church. They appear from nowhere, do not flap their wings as they fly and disappear as they came. they would fly in a formation of a cross.

The New York Times, August 21, 1968. Page 4.

Arabs Throng Christian Church At Cairo After Report of Vision

By Eric Pace Special to The New York Times

ZEITOUN, United Arab Republic, Aug. 7--Hundreds of ailing Arabs have been making pilgrimages to this bleak Cairo suburb to have what they regard as devils chased out of their bodies.

Moslems and Christians alike, they have shuffled through the sandy yard of Zeitoun's Church of Saint Mary for three months, since the Virgin was first said to have appeared miraculously floating over the church's dome.

Since then, countless Egyptians have reported seeing her above the church, sometimes as a glowing light and sometimes as an articulated figure, occasionally bearing an olive branch.

As a result, Zeitoun has quickly become a major center of worship and of the ancient art of faith-healing.

Many of the ailing say that they feel better after having come here.

"With the help of the Virgin it is easy to draw the devils out," said a muscular young Coptic priest, Father Youhanna Boulos, smiling in the light of the pilgrims' candles one recent evening.

With silver cross in his hand he bent over a burly epileptic who was sprawled on a sheet in the churchyard.

"What is your name? What is your name? Speak or I will burn you with fire." Father Boulos shouted in Arabic. He was not addressing the sick man, a Moslem tannery foreman named Mohammed Ahmed Abbassy, but the devil thought to be lurking withing him.

Soon, Mar. Abbassy began to moan. When Father Boulos placed the cross to his lips he sputtered, "No, no--you hurt me!"

Onlookers, praying and chanting around the sheet accepted this as the voice of the devil.

"Who are you? Are you from land or water?" the priest cried, gripping one of Mr. Abbassy's fingers in accordance with the custom of the Copts, adherents of Egypt's ancient Christian sect.

"Sergious . . . Sergious," the answer came weakly.

"How long have you been there?" Father Boulos asked harshly.

"Twenty years. I want to go now."

"You are not a liar?" the priest asked.

"No. I speak the truth and I will depart."

"Now give me a sign where you will go out," Father Boulos ordered.

"From the foot, the left one," was the reply. A moment later, Mr. Abbassy's left foot rose from the sheet and trembled in the air as though something was trying to escape from it. Then it fell back limply.

"Now go and peace be with you," the priest cried exultantly.

Beyond the candlelight, a woman began with the shrill trilling cry that Arab women use in moments of great joy.

The apparition of the Blessed Virgin St Mary Church occured in her church in the Cairo suburb of Zeitoun. The apparitions began on April 2, 1968, and according to some reports continued every night for months. Her longest single appearance was on April 30, 1968, when the vision remained from 2:45 a.m. until 5 a.m.