Our Lady of Warraq: the Marian apparition over a Giza church

Warraq al-Hadar is a working-class district on the neglected peripheries of Giza. On Nile Street, the main thoroughfare, stands the Coptic Orthodox Church of the Virgin Mary and the Archangel Michael.

The first witness was not a Christian. He was a Muslim neighbour, named only as Mr. Hassan, sitting at a nearby coffee shop. He saw a strong light coming from the church. It seemed to condense into a female form. According to the parish priest, he took a video and pictures and distributed them.

Then came the early hours of Friday, 11 December 2009. From 1:00 am to 4:00 am, a crowd of about 3,000 watched. The Giza Bishopric described the Virgin "in her full height in luminous robes, above the middle dome of the church, in pure white dress and a royal blue belt." She wore a crown. "She moved between the domes and on to the top of the church gate between its two twin towers."

Other witnesses added their own details. Bright lights from the crosses. A green headscarf. A "dove of light flying irregularly." Some said she appeared inside a bright light with her arms opened toward the crowd, and that the smell of incense flooded the area.

On later nights came "luminous white pigeons soaring above the church". There was also a star that emerged suddenly, travelled some 200 metres across, then disappeared. Not everyone saw a figure. Some early witnesses reported only lights and flashes.

The footage spread by Bluetooth and YouTube. AFP reported crowds of up to 10,000 waiting each night for the mysterious light over the church tower, and each appearance set off cries and ululations. By 22 December, Miracle Hunter counted more than 200,000 Christians and Muslims. Kawkab Munir Shehata, 39, said the Virgin restored the sight in her left eye. Around Christmas, crowds also gathered at Zeitoun and Masarra after reports of lights there.

Pope Shenouda III set up a committee to investigate, and he later confirmed the apparitions at al-Warraq, Shubra and al-Zaytun. "If you don't believe in the Virgin Mary or in her divine intercession, you won't be able to see her," he said. Bishop Theodosius of Giza issued the approving statement, calling the event "a great blessing for the Church and for all the people of Egypt." Interior Minister Habib al-Adly said the apparitions proved "there is no place in Egypt for religious tensions." Dr. Ashraf Latif Tadross called Warraq "something spiritual" rather than a scientific phenomenon.

Not everyone was convinced. Rev. Rifat Fikry said the claims were "misleading the poor and naive." Some Egyptians called it a hoax meant to strengthen faith during a period of sectarian tension. Local Muslims suggested lasers. "It is a trick, a big laser show in the sky," one cab driver said, in a remark quoted by researcher Angie Heo.

A skeptic writing in 2012 argued that the figure was the illuminated tower behind the church's domes, seen from different angles. The Coptic scriptwriter Atef Beshay linked the fervour to "people's massive feeling of corruption, social injustice and the financial gap." The analyst Rafiq Habib tied apparition waves to periods of tension between Christians and Muslims.

Father Fishay, the parish priest, had his own reading. "Maybe her appearance is to bring people closer together." A young mother Heo quoted had already answered the doubters. "Why [forbid oneself] the joy that the Virgin brings?"