SAINT SERGIUS CHURCH
Today, this church below street level is a place of pilgrimage for many Copts and Christians from all over the world.
This church is of major importance to Christians and Copts alike. The Church of St. Sergius (Abu Serga) is said to have been built on the site where the Holy Family took refuge during their flight from Egypt. Jesus, Mary and Joseph are said to have lived in the crypt of this church for three months during the three years they spent in Egypt, when Jesus was still a baby. According to St. Mark, the Egyptians who converted to Christianity used this crypt as a chapel. Today, it is a place of pilgrimage for many Copts and Christians from all over the world, as pilgrimages along the path of the Holy Family in Egypt have recently developed. The Abu Serga church was built in the 4th or5th century and is one of the oldest Coptic churches in Egypt. It was burnt down in the Fustat fire, around 750 A.D. It was restored in the 8th c., and has been rebuilt and restored many times since medieval times. The oldest parts of the building you will visit date back to the 11th century. Inside, and particularly on the south wall, are magnificent inlaid iconostases and some very old wooden icons. Each of the 12 pillars represents an apostle. The church is dedicated to Sergius and Bacchus, saints martyred in the 4th century by Emperor Maximian. The church lies below street level, has been flooded several times and was restored around 2010, bringing out the full beauty of the black and white stone building.
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