Our Lady of Zeitoun

Zeitoun is a district of Cairo. On Tomanbay Street stands St. Mary's Coptic Orthodox Church, consecrated on 29 June 1925 and described as a "miniature of the Hagia Sophia". Church tradition holds that its builder, Tawfik Khalil Ibrahim, dreamed the Virgin would appear there "after forty years".

2 April 1968. Across the street, at the public-transport garage, Muslim workers noticed something on the church roof. By one account, two mechanics saw "a woman dressed in white". One thought she was a nun about to jump. He shouted "don't jump!" and called the police, and a crowd gathered.

Other accounts name the first witness as Farouk Mohammed Atwa, a Muslim garage worker. The watchman Abdul Aziz Ali saw "a luminous body of a young lady kneeling next to the cross located on the largest dome." He shouted: "A light over the dome!"

After 9 April, she returned on average about weekly, more often around feast days. Witnesses described a young woman in white robes and a veil, with a bright nimbus. She bowed and knelt before the cross, sometimes holding an olive branch. Doves of silvery light flew around her at "Wonderful speed". Moamen Afify, a driver trainer, said "her body appeared as a flame of light."

Not everyone saw the same thing. Some saw her clearly. Others saw only light. A few saw nothing at all.

Appearances lasted from a few minutes to six or seven hours. The largest crowd on a single night is usually given as about 250,000. The photographer Wagih Rizk said the light "was so bright that I was blinded." About a dozen of his photographs exist. Most show blobs of light.

Pope Cyril VI appointed a committee of bishops and priests led by Bishop Gregorios. On 4 May 1968 the Coptic Patriarchate declared the apparitions authentic, citing witnesses "of different religions and sects". The police had first blamed reflected street lamps. Later they reported: "No device was found within a radius of fifteen miles capable of projecting the image." Egypt's Ministry of Tourism endorsed the sightings.

Cynthia Nelson, an anthropologist at the American University in Cairo, went to look for herself. She saw no clear figure. Only flashes and a glow. Still, she wrote: "The source of the light was a mystery… for the streetlights had been disconnected all around the church for several days."

In 1989 Derr and Persinger proposed tectonic strain, linking the lights to a rise in earthquakes about 400 km to the south-east. Critics say the theory has no mechanism. Joe Nickell pointed to anticipation spreading through the crowd. Sadiq Jalal al-Azm argued that the Nasser state amplified the story after the 1967 defeat. On the other side, Travis Dumsday calls it "powerful evidence" for the supernatural.

The last public sighting came on 29 May 1971. The Coptic Church made 2 April a feast day. Many sources say the apparitions eased tension between Muslims and Christians. Zeitoun is often compared with Fatima.