Cairo, October 16, 2013
The press service of the Coptic Church has stated that "Mary's tree" remains intact, reports Linga.
Denying the rumors spread in various media that the relic had been deliberately destroyed, a representative of the Coptic Church Priest Paul Halim has made a statement, in which he has stressed the inviolability of his country’s cultural monument. "We have contacted our minister for the antiquity affairs of Egypt who has confirmed that the Mary's tree is absolutely intact,” explained the Priest. “As for the photograph (that has been spread everywhere in the press), it depicts a fallen tree adjacent to the fence around of Mary's tree, but the relic itself is not damaged."
The Tree of the Virgin Mary, much-venerated by pilgrims, is according to tradition on a site where the Holy Family found shade and water during their flight into Egypt.
