Thursday, June 06, 2002 1:37 PM
Pilgrimage in Egypt
This is the final reminder, for those hoping to join the TLIG pilgrimage in Egypt in October, that full payment becomes due on June 14.
Only places which have been paid for IN FULL will be secured (unless an exception has been agreed). After June 14, the final numbers and size of the pilgrimage will be decided, based on the number of places fully paid for. Anyone who has not paid in full will have the opportunity to join the pilgrimage only if places become available through cancellations.
Lucien Lombard sends the following contribution:
Egypt and the Coptic Church have an important role in True Life in God. ‘Copt’ means ‘Egypt’, since both names have the same radical Gypt=Copt.
Amongst the very first public meetings given by Vassula in the world, the most frequent meeting location was the small town of Saint Maurice, in Switzerland, which is the very location of St Maurice’s martyrdom, in year 302.
St Maurice (=Mauritius=Moorish) was a Roman legionary, head of the Theban Legion (coming from the city of Thebes (=Karnak/Luxor), Upper Egypt), under the rule of the Roman emperor Maximin.
Sent by the Roman authority to Switzerland (to the other end of the Roman world), and stationed in Agaune (the today’s town of Saint-Maurice), the Theban Legion were given the order to reduce the local insubordination to worship Roman gods. The local resistants were Christians.
Then Maurice replied that he and his Theban legionaries were Christians also, thus they could not persecute other Christians.
This conscientious objection was understood by the Roman authority as a mutiny and was immediately treated as such. There were no joking with Romans over matters of authority. The emperor Maximin rushed other troops to Agaune. Maurice and all six hundred and sixty Theban soldiers of his troop were massacred.
St Maurice and his companions, first Swiss martyrs, were Egyptians, i.e. Copts ! All statues of St Maurice show him as a black-faced African, wearing a Roman legionary battle dress.
So, it is through the martyrdom of the Egyptian St Maurice and his companions that the Christian faith was strengthen in Switzerland. This sacrifice reinforced Christianity, which spread in Switzerland, in the heart of Europe, on the beginning of 4th century.
Indeed, St Maurice is venerated by the Coptic Church. We can see a proof in the heading of the invitation letter from the Coptic-Orthodox Patriarchate to Vassula’s recent meeting in Borgentreich, Germany, which bears the address of the Coptic- Orthodox Monastery of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Maurice (see letter on page http://www.vassula.org/D_0205.htm ).
In fact, St Maurice is firstly a martyr of Christian solidarity, i.e. a martyr of the Unity of the Universal Church, and he should be universally venerated as such !
And it is through Vassula, also came from Egypt, and sent to Switzerland on the very location of St Maurice’s martyrdom, that the Lord wanted to start spreading in the world His Message of True Life in God, message of Unity of Church.
In Vassula, like in St Maurice, the Lord seems to have intended to emphasize both the symbol of the uprooting from Egypt, and the vigorous affirmation of Unity of Church, showing that, as St Maurice’s martyrdom, the Message of True Life in God is really a founder element in the history of Church, particularly regarding promotion of the Unity of Church.
St Maurice, pray for us ! Pray for our Unity !
