“The recurrence of the Apparition of the Virgin indicates to us that the miracle will continue until Jerusalem is restored to the Arabs and liberated from Zionist terrorism…”

Those who followed the commentaries of Mohammed Hassanein Heikal about the state of the Arabs after their defeat in June 1967 remember that the famous pundit said more than once that completely eradicating the traces of aggression without recourse to warfare or military power would require a miracle. But, he added, our age was not the age of miracles, for the time of miracles had passed and expired. However, circumstances wished to make a liar of Heikal since in May, 1968 Al-Ahram informed us of an announcement from His Holiness Pope Kyrillos [A 98] the Sixth in which he proclaimed and affirmed the veracity of the Apparition of the Virgin in the Coptic Orthodox Church in the suburb of Zeitoun, and it carried on its front page a picture that it called a photograph of the Virgin or Her Apparition.

The Pope broadcast this news during a well-attended press conference swarming with all the Egyptian newspapers and media. In accordance with the customs of this type of familiar press conference (which are always busy with the distribution of photographs of the matter it wishes to announce and publicize), Bishop Samuel, one of the bishops participating in the press conference, announced the following: “One of the photography studios in the suburb of Zeitoun had been able to take a photograph of the Virgin Mary during one of the nights that she had appeared,” exhibiting the photograph to both the press reporters and the television cameras (Al-Ahram, May 5, 1968, 2). He also stated, “The Apparition of the Virgin is at its fullest against a snow-white cloud or as a form of light preceded by the release of spiritual forms like doves (Al-Ahram, 1). On the following day, Al-Anwar newspaper in Beirut appeared with a giant headline in red ink: “The lens records the miracle of the Apparition of the Virgin in Cairo.”