The Egyptian Holy Family church is at the eastern gate of Egypt in the Egyptian city of Rafah, and the church is an important religious and tourist point to which tourist groups flock from Egypt and abroad. The church was built in the shape of Noah’s Ark.
Just as the righteous Noah and his sons resorted to the ark in order to escape from the flood, so the Lord Christ, his virgin mother, Saint Joseph the Carpenter and Salome resorted to Egypt to escape from the face of evil, as the angel said to Joseph in a dream: “Arise and take the boy and his mother and flee to Egypt and be there until I tell you because Herod is about to seek the boy to kill him, and indeed Joseph, the righteous one, carried out the command of the angel, and took the boy and his mother by night, and departed to Egypt, that the scripture might be fulfilled: From Egypt, I called my son” (Matthew 2:13, 14).
It is known that the Holy Family walked nearly 100 km since its departure from Bethlehem in Palestine until its arrival to the Sinai desert. It was natural that the Holy Family did not resort to a common path during their thorny journey, but rather they had to be far from being visible in order to avoid the eyes of followers and stalkers.
Among the inherited stories about the Holy Family’s journey to the land of Egypt, they walked a distance of 18 kilometers until they reached the town of Fares, and there they heard the news of the massacre of the children of Bethlehem. So the Holy Family insisted on leaving, but the city gates were closed and the guards were standing. As Saint Joseph sought permission to leave the city, the guards refused his request because they had no keys, and they asked him to wait until morning until their boss would come. In the middle of the night, it got very cold, so the guards entered their rooms to keep warm, and the Holy Family remained by the doors. The Lady of all, the Virgin Mary, put the child’s hands on the locks, and the doors opened at once and they left the city. After, the doors returned as they were, and the guards became aware of what had happened and tried to open the locks, but they did not succeed. They became convinced then that Jesus is not an ordinary child.
The Holy Family hurried to walk to the town of Beersheba, after which the Holy Family wanted to rest a little, so they resorted to a cave. While they were about to enter it, a lion and a lioness rushed from inside, wanting to kill them. Then, Child Jesus looked at the two beasts, so they moved away a little from the entrance, showing signs of their submission, and they stood guard at the door of the cave.
God has ejected a spring of water for the Holy Family, so they drank from it and filled their water bottles for the road. Towards the evening, they left the place, and the beasts bid them farewell with bowed heads. Then, the Holy Family walked another 83 km until they reached the town of Awga al-Khafir, and after leaving it, they headed to the Rafah area.
There is also a popular tradition, that the Holy Family was exposed there to two bandits who took away their simple possessions, but they were stopped by the luminous face of the child, like the sun, the beauty and dignity of the Blessed Lady with a splendid appearance, as well as the meekness of Joseph, the carpenter, and his lack of resistance to them. The bandits were ashamed and they had compassion towards the Holy Family. So they returned what they had taken from them, and apologized for what they had done. Then, one of them volunteered and took a handkerchief to wipe the sweat of the child Jesus. He found that its smell was pure, so he was very surprised and he packed it after squeezing the tissue into a vial. It was said that this thief was very much affected by the Holy Family and he asked to accompany them in order to protect them on their way. Finally, at the Egyptian border near Al-Farma, the thief asked to be excused from the Holy Family to return to where he was.
The people of Rafah treated this blessed family well, and its people hosted Jesus and his mother, the Virgin Mary. While the family was at a tree there, a spring of sweet water erupted, from which water is still available for visitors to drink. However, it is difficult to reach this water spring now due to the large number of operations carried out by the army to hunt down terrorists in Sinai.
