When the Holy Family fled to Egypt to escape the wrath of King Herod Antipas, they journeyed for three years throughout Egypt, mainly along the Nile, to keep Herod's agents at bay. Using an ancient 4th century text written by Patriarch Theophilus of Alexandria as his guide, Cowan takes the reader on a fascinating journey through modern-day Egypt in the footsteps of the Holy Family, about the Delta region and up the Nile to a place called Mount Qussqam, where Mary, Joseph, and the infant Jesus resided for six months. The itinerary, according to Coptic tradition, was revealed to Theophilus in a dream.
Documenting his journey, Cowan finds himself in the midst of a spiritual revolution going on in Egypt itself. He meets with monks and health workers, desert mystics and visionaries, all of whom have a stake in the story of the Holy Family's journey, as they know it. Through their eyes the reader is drawn into a dramatic story of escape and miraculous interventions.
- ISBN10 1612613047
- ISBN13 9781612613048
- Publish Date 28 March 2013
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 29 July 2021
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Paraclete Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 260
- Language English