The Madonna, Muslims, and Marxists: The Religious Response to Student Protest in Egypt 1968

On April 30, 1968 an apparition of the Virgin Mary appeared in the sky just above the church of the Holy Virgin in Zeitun, Egypt.  She appeared to over 40,000 people, Muslims and Christians, bathed in light. She held a cross in one hand and an olive branch in the other.  The historic event was accompanied by miraculous cures of the sick.  Between 1968 and 1971, over a million people claimed to have witnessed the reoccurring apparition of “Our Lady of Zeitun.”  The Virgin Mary’s appeared in Egypt in the midst of great political turmoil, social dissatisfaction with the government, widespread student protests and a national sadness.  Egypt’s recent loss to Israel in 1967 signaled an end to Egypt’s rising status as the dominant regional power in the Middle East.  This paper will look at how the Muslim and Coptic clergy articulated the meaning of the Virgin Mary’s appearance in Egypt and argue that she symbolically signaled the end of the Arab Socialist era and the beginning of rising conservative attitudes that privileged religion over the dominant ideology of Nasserism.