Deir Al-Maghti

Al-Maghti was originally a monastery where collective Marian apparitions occurred every year, and where a five-day pilgrimage took place.

After the destruction of this shrine, the faithful believed that the Virgin was now appearing at the Coptic Orthodox monastery of Saint Demiana.

An annual apparition in May

According to the writings of the Muslim geographer and chronicler Al-Maqrîzî (1364-1442), the Virgin Mary appeared every year in the church of the monastery of Al-Maghti, also known by the Ethiopians as Dabra Metmâq, located near Lake Burullus and north of Belqas (in the Eastern Delta), on the 21st of the Coptic month of Bachnas (May 29).

According to a cycle of Marian traditions preserved in Ethiopia, it was at the request of the Child Jesus that the Virgin appeared in Al-Maghti, surrounded by the archangels Michael and Gabriel, as well as holy martyrs, to every faithful pilgrim who ardently desired it in his heart. One year after the foundation of the monastery, the monks gathered in the church started seeing a column of light slightly touching the altar, turning into a small boat carrying the Virgin, angels, saints (including the apostles and the holy horsemen Theodore, George, and Mercurius), and the Holy Innocents exterminated by orders of Herod. The Virgin enjoined the monks to associate the people to this miracle, so a pilgrimage was organized.

Monks and faithful witnessed the miracle

The pilgrimage lasted five days and brought together Egyptian, Ethiopian, Maronite, Greek, Nestorian, Latin and even Muslim pilgrims who would set up large encampments. The faithful adopted the custom of throwing their turbans and scarves toward the dome of the church at the apparition, and sometimes the Virgin would touch one of them. The people could also ask the Virgin to see their deceased relatives and have this prayer granted. The apparitions of the Al-Maghti monastery were well known in Ethiopia, thanks to the Book of Miracles of Mary, and are even mentioned in the Ethiopian Synaxarium, on the 21st of Genbot / Bachnas (May 29).

The apparitions stopped after the destruction of the monastery

According to this Book of Miracles, confirmed by the geographer Al-Maqrîzî (d. 1441), the monastery was destroyed in 1438 during Ramadan, by order of the Mamluk Sultan Barsbay al-Malik al-Ashraf Sayf ad-Dan.

When the miraculous site was destroyed, the faithful turned their attention to the nearby monastery of Saint Demiena in Deir Dimyanah, where the people believed the Virgin was now appearing, but those “apparitions” are more likely to have a natural explanation.

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 Excerpts from Christian CANNUYER, "DEIR AL-MAGHTI", in: René LAURENTIN and Patrick SBALCHIERO, Dictionnaire encyclopédique des apparitions de la Vierge. Inventaire des origines à nos jours. Méthodologie, prosopopée, approche interdisciplinaire, Fayard, Paris 2007.