Searching for John the Baptist in Egypt
Wadi Natrun — the monastery of St Macarius and the relic of John the Baptist — a desert pilgrimage with an unexpected outcome. (5 min read)
My last day in Egypt has been the best. Our itinerary was revised at the last minute to enable me to visit the Coptic Monastery of St Macarius in Wadi Natrun, about 90km from Cairo on the western side of the desert road to Alexandria.
The monastery is the biggest and most important in Egypt. It was founded in 360 AD by St Macarius who was spiritual father to more than four thousand monks of different nationalities. Since the fourth century the monastery has been continuously inhabited by monks.
The monastery has been rebuilt and restored several times. In 1969 the monastery entered the most recent era of restoration. At the direction of the patriach, 12 monks who had been living together for a decade in caves in the desert, entirely isolated from the world, were tasked with this work.
Now the site has been beautifully restored under the direction of the Egyptian Department of Antiquities and UNESCO and there are 130 monks living in the monastery. There is very good background to the lives of the monks on the monastery’s website: www.stmacariusmonastery.org
The site is a beautiful sanctuary and the monks are gentle and kind and very generous in guiding people around the site. However, the main reason for my visit was to pay my respects to St John the Baptist and energise my rosaries on his relics.
The relics, which are kept in the sanctuary of St John the Baptist in the church of St Macarius, were discovered in a crypt during restoration work in 1976. The monks have published a book on the provenance of the relics which is very persuasive. In the 10th century, the Saint’s remains were transferred from Alexandria to the Monastery, where they were hidden for many centuries.
Of course, there are several other churches that claim to possess relics of St John the Baptist. One of them is the St Lawrence Cathedral in Genoa, where the remains were moved in 1098 from Myra, Lycia, and where a lot of miracles were performed since then. Others include Damascus and Armenia.
It is also known that parts of the head of John the Baptist are kept in the Church of St John the Baptist in Jerusalem, in the Munich Residenz Museum, in the Athos monasteries Hilandar, Dochiariou, Stavronikita and in many other Holy places, including Rome.
In 2012 the media reported on a discovery of relics of John the Baptist in Bulgaria.
I believe that the holy relics of the Baptist are scattered over several locations. Nevertheless, I loved the high vibration of the Monastery of St Macarius and the fact that is has been a major pilgrimage spot for so long. It is very valuable to visit the monastery and invoke the Baptist.
To me John the Baptist was the most powerful medium of his time. He was able to invoke the spirtis which activated Jesus’ healing gifts.
Namaste
© Paul McCarthy & Iluminar.au
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