AN historic church in the Nile Delta where the Holy Family is said to have stopped during their flight to Egypt, leaving Christ's footprint, has been damaged by fire, a security official said today.
The fire yesterday at the Sanctuary of the Church of the Virgin Mary in Sakha, just outside the Delta city of Kafr el-Sheikh, north of Cairo, destroyed the altar and an historic icon and caused some structural damage.
The local governor blamed the fire on an electrical fault, the official said, with a security cordon placed around the church amid Christian-Muslim tensions following recent unrest between the two communities.
A land dispute involving an historic monastery in central Egypt turned violent on May 31, leading to the death of a Muslim man and injuring four Copts, including two monks.
The Coptic name for Sakha, Pekha-Issous, means "Jesus's foot" because it is home to a rock which purportedly bears Christ's footprint, left during the Biblical flight to Egypt to escape King Herod's massacre of the innocents.
Found in 1984, the stone was put on display in the church, which was
itself built on the site of a medieval monastery. The stone was reportedly not damaged in the fire.
The local governor blamed the fire on an electrical fault, the official said, with a security cordon placed around the church amid Christian-Muslim tensions following recent unrest between the two communities.
A land dispute involving an historic monastery in central Egypt turned violent on May 31, leading to the death of a Muslim man and injuring four Copts, including two monks.
The Coptic name for Sakha, Pekha-Issous, means "Jesus's foot" because it is home to a rock which purportedly bears Christ's footprint, left during the Biblical flight to Egypt to escape King Herod's massacre of the innocents.
Found in 1984, the stone was put on display in the church, which was
