St. Shenouda Monastery

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“In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD at its border. And it will be for a sign and for a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to the LORD because of the oppressors, and He will send them a Savior and a Mighty One, and He will deliver them. Then the LORD will be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day, and will make sacrifice and offering; yes, they will make a vow to the LORD and perform it… Blessed be Egypt My people” (Isaiah 19:19-25).
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As the Holy Bible, history, and tradition testify, Egypt was the home of our Lord Jesus Christ for three and a half years during his infancy with His mother, the Theotokos (Bearer of God), the Virgin, Saint Mary, and Saint Joseph the Righteous fulfilling the prophecies of Hosea and Isaiah in the Old Testament that the Lord would dwell in Egypt and that there would be an altar in the midst of the land of Egypt. Some interpret this as the physical altar that our Lord Jesus Christ Himself consecrated in the Monastery of the Virgin Mary (el-Moharraq) located in the exact geographical center between the Northern and Southern borders of Egypt. However, this prophecy is also fulfilled in the presence of the Coptic Orthodox Church which since her inception by St. Mark the Evangelist in the first century has offered the rational sacrifice of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ on her altars, more than one million martyrs who shed their blood witnessing to Christ in the face of multiple severe waves of persecution, many Egyptian Church Fathers who defended the faith against numerous heresies, missionaries who spread Christianity to all continents, desert fathers who established the rules of monastic life that have been adopted throughout the world, an uninterrupted succession of Patriarchs since St. Mark, and an unblemished faith and tradition since her foundation that has mirrored the life of the First Church.