The Current Belbeis Church (Saint George Church)
There is now one church in the city of Belbeis, named after the great martyr, St. George, located in the northeastern part of the city, about one kilometer away from the main road.
The people of the area confirm that it was built in the place of an old church dating back to the fourth century (it is located on the edge of the ancient Church Hill, as it appears on the cadastral maps).
The new church was founded in 1932 AD by Mr. Mikhail Ibrahim, and he was working at that time as a guard clerk for Belbeis Center (He is the deceased Father Michael Ibrahim).
During the time of construction, a Muslim guard was entrusted to guard the land and the building materials. One of these nights, while he was guarding the land, the guard said that a senior officer riding a white horse passed by him and told him: “Tell them to build the church here and he drew on the site of the church.” In the morning, the guard went to Mikhail Effendi and told him what had happened, and Mikhail Effendi understood. So then he took out a picture of Saint George from his pocket and showed it to the guard, who as soon as he saw it, the guard shouted: “This is the one I saw Mikhail Effendi.”
When they dug to put the foundations, a large iron cross was found with the statue of Christ on it, which indicates that in this place an old church was built, and this cross was placed under the foundations as a blessing for the place forever.
In 1987, a republican decree was issued to rebuild the church after it had deteriorated. It was built on two floors during the pontificate of the late Anba Angelos, Bishop of Al-Sharkeya Center, and it was inaugurated by him in 1994 AD.
In June 2021, the venerable pontiff, Anba Makar, Bishop of Al-Sharkeya Center, inaugurated the restoration work of the Church of the Virgin Mary (of ancient character) on the ground floor, as a memorial to the passage of the Holy Family in this place, and to be an extension of the old church that Abu al-Makarem mentioned in the twelfth century. The later mentioned that there was a full church in the city of Belbeis, but it was destroyed. There is also a church on the western side of the city of Belbeis, named after the Immaculate Virgin, and it has three altars: the middle one is in the name of the Virgin; the northern one is in the name of angel Michael; and the third one is in the name of Saint George. In the church there is a picture of the venerable martyr Tadros.
It is worth noting that Belbeis was the seat of the episcopate until the twelfth century AD. Luquin supported that, and said that Belbeis was the center of a Coptic bishopric.
