By Watani –
On the evening of Monday, 30 December 2024, the Coptic Church of the Two Saints (St Mark the Apostle and St Peter) in Alexandria received the relics of 20 martyrs who had lost their lives in a terror bombing on New Year Eve in 2011.
Back then, the bombing had targeted Coptic worshippers as they left the church following midnight service on New Year Eve 2011, and had left 24 dead, their bodies blown to pieces, and some 100 injured. Two weeks after the bombing, the then Interior Minister Habib al-Adly announced that investigations revealed that the bombing was the work of the Palestinian Gaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) in collaboration with local Islamist elements. By the end of January the so-called Arab Spring uprising erupted; President Mubarak stepped down in February 2011, and the case was not pursued by the post-Arab Spring governments. To this day, no culprit has been brought to justice.
Twenty of the bodies of the martyrs were buried in a collective grave at the monastery of Mar-Mina in Maryout, 53km southwest Alexandria. On 30 December 2024, the monastery gave the 20 relics of the martyrs back to the church of the saints in Alexandria.
The relics were received in a grand spiritual celebration led by Anba Pavli, Bishop-General of Montazah churches in Alexandria. He was joined by the church priests.
The relics of each of the 20 martyrs were placed inside a silver tube which was in turn placed inside a wooden cylinder, as is customary with relics of the saints and martyrs. The cylinders were slipped into a red satin bag that was then placed in a red velvet sheath embroidered in golden thread.
The church explained that it received an official document from the Monastery of the Mar-Mina in Maryout officially confirming that the relics belong to the New Year 2011 Martyrs. The document testified that the relics were extracted with all due reverence and respect from beneath the altar of the Martyrs’ Church in the monastery, and handed to the Alexandria church at which they had been martyred.
Special spiritual evening celebrations were held at the church of the Saints in Alexandria for three successive evenings in honour of the martyrs. The last of these events was held on New Year Eve. The evening events included prayers, hymns, and Kiahk Praise which is traditionally sung during the four weeks preceding Coptic Christmas which is celebrated on 29 Kiahk, 7 January. On New Year Eve, this was followed by Midnight Prayer and Liturgy held in the early hours of 1 January 2025.
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