Standard abbreviation: Hom. Flight
Other titles: On the Flight of the Holy Family to Egypt; Homily on the Miracles Wrought by the Holy Family at Pi-Jesus (and the derivative work noted below: Homily on the Coming of the Holy Family to Al-Qusiyyah)
Clavis numbers: ECCA 834
Category: Infancy Gospels, Pseudo-Apostolic Memoirs
Related literature: Vision of Theophilus, Homily of Zachariah
Compiled by: Tony Burke, York University
Citing this resource (using Chicago Manual of Style): Burke, Tony. “Homily on the Flight to Egypt, by Pseudo-Cyriacus of Behnesa.” e-Clavis: Christian Apocrypha. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR. https://www.nasscal.com/e-clavis-christian-apocrypha/homily-on-the-flight-to-egypt-by-pseudo-cyriacus-of-behnesa/.
Created April 2020. Current as of January 2024.
1. SUMMARY
Hom. Flight comes in two forms: one placing the events at the monastery of Paisus (Dayr al-Garnus, located 10 km northeast of al-Bahnasa), the other at Dayr al-Muharraq in al-Qūṣiyyah. The name Paisus is derived from “house of Jesus,” which Cyriacus claims is based on a visit to the location of the monastery by the Holy Family during their sojourn in Egypt. The homily begins with Cyriacus expounding upon Psalm 135:2 (“you that stand in the house of the Lord”) and Isaiah 19:1 (“See, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud and comes to Egypt”) and remarking that the Virgin Mary is to be understood as the cloud. From here Cyriacus discusses two relics on the site: a well used by Mary that is said to provide an abundance of water during mass when the Gospel is read, and a tree with three interlocking trunks planted by Jesus that is now a healing shrine.
Cyriacus then turns to revealing the origins of the two relics. He tells of his audience with a priest named Antony of Behnesa, who revealed to Cyriacus a series of visions he received on 25 Bashans (May 20 in the Julian calendar) from Mary and Jesus. He was told that some ruins on his land were once a church and that he should rebuild it. Cyriacus received his own vision of Mary, confirming her message to Antony, and revealing that beneath the altar in the ruins he would find a book about the family’s time in Egypt. In the course of building the church, a chest was found bearing an inscription with the name of Thomas, a priest from the time of the reign of Diocletian. The chest indeed contained a book, written by Joseph of Nazareth. After conducting a mass, they read the book.
Joseph’s account begins with a combination of material from Prot. Jas. and the canonical infancy narratives: Joseph’s selection as caregiver of Mary, the trip to Bethlehem, the visit of the Magi, and the arrival of Salome, the midwife. When the family depart for Egypt, they first come to the border town of Phares, but its ruler intends to follow Herod’s example and kill all the children of the town. The family escape in the middle of the night when Jesus, raised on the shoulder of Salome, opens the locks on the town gates by placing his hand upon them. From there, the family go from village to village until they arrive at Behnesa. The idols of the town fall at their arrival, just as in Ps.-Mt. and other flight traditions. The family are then taken in by an aged shepherd named Joseph. Jesus takes the staffs of the shepherd and his two sons, plants them in the ground, and immediately they grow into a tree, under which Jesus and his family rest. Jesus blesses the shepherd’s flock and they bow to him. Time passes, and the family move on to another town. To commemorate the family’s visit, the shepherd builds a church on the site of his home and instructs his children to continue to take care of it after his death. The book of Joseph concluded, Cyriacus resumes his homily, telling of Antony’s work rebuilding the church, which is dedicated on 25 Bashans.
The second version of Cyriacus’s homily makes a number of adjustments to the first: the inscription on the ark bears the name of Mouyassas (named as one of the church officials in version 1) instead of Thomas, the well is replaced by a church of the Virgin, the book of Joseph is found but its contents are not revealed, and the liturgical date for the reading of the text is given as 7 Baramūdah not 25 Bashans.
Named historical figures and characters: Antony (priest of Abah), Daniel (of Abah), Diocletian, Herod the Great, Jesus Christ, Joseph, Joseph (of Abah), Manasseh (of Abah), Mary (Virgin), Mouyassas (of Behnesa), Salome, Theophilus of Alexandria.
Geographical locations: Abah, Behnesa, Bethlehem, Egypt, Judea, Phares.
2. RESOURCES
2.1 Web Sites
Dunn, Jimmy. “The Sources of Egypt’s Traditions Related to the Flight of the Holy Family.” Tour Egypt.
“The Holy Family in Egypt.” Tour Egypt (online version of booklet on the journey in Egypt with locations from Vis. Theo.).
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY
3.1 Manuscripts and Editions
3.1.1 Arabic
Version 1 (at Paisus)
Aleppo, Fondation Georges et Mathilde Salem, Sbath Fihris 443
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, arabe 155, fols. 80v–89r (1486)
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, arabe 263, fols. 139r–165r (16th cent.) ~ Lachantin misidentifies as 213
Vatican, Bibloteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. ar. 170, fols. 257r–275r (1719)
Unconfirmed sources for Version 1:
Cairo, Abû Sargah, 106, fols. 101v–118r (18th cent.) ~ here attributed to Theophilus of Alexandria
Cairo, Abû Sargah, 112, fols. 170r–197v (18th cent.)
Cairo, Khasrîat ar-Rihân, 107, fols. 123v–139r (15th cent.)
Cairo, Khasrîat ar-Rihân, 109, fols. 160r–190v (18th cent.)
Cairo, Khasrîat ar-Rihân, 119, fols. 92r–106v (18th cent.) ~ here attributed to Theophilus of Alexandria
Version 2 (at al-Qūṣiyyah)
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, arabe 153, fols. 1r–8r (17th cent.)
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, arabe 155, fols. 89v–94r (1486)
Wadi al-Natrun, Dayr Abu Maqar, 378 (1755)
Khater, Antoine. Al-La’âli’ al-Saniyyah fî al-mayâmir wa-al-‘ajâ’ib al-maryamiyyah (“Precious pearls in the Marian sermons and miracles”). Cairo, 1966 (version 2, pp. 71–78; version 1, pp. 79–91).
Ḥunayn, Girgis. Kitāb mayāmir wa-ʻajāʼib al-sayyidah al-ʻadhrā Maryam. Cairo: Maṭbaʻat ʼal-Hilāl, 1902 (editions from an unidentified manuscript, pp. 73–81 [version 2], pp. 81–95 [version 1]). Second edition by ‘Abd al-Masīh Sulaimān. Cairo: ‘Ayn Shams Press, 1927 (version 2, pp. 106–18; version 1, pp. 119–39).
Graf, Georg. Geschichte der christlichen arabischen Literatur. 5 vols. Studi e testi 118, 133, 146–147, 172. Vatican: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1944–1953 (additional witnesses listed in vol 1:232–34).
3.1.2 Ethiopic
Version 1 (at Paisus):
Lanchantin (p. 145) lists six manuscripts of the British Library, but these all contain other homilies of Cyriacus.
Version 2 (at al-Qūṣiyyah):
Addis Ababa, Church of the Savior of the World, EMML 543, fols. 192r–198v (1965)
Ankobarr (Shoa), Church of Ankobarr Māryām, EMML 2461, fols. 308v–320r (1842)
Ankobarr (Shoa), Church of Ankobarr Māryām, EMML 3873, fols. 151v–163r (1899)
Vatican, Bibloteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. et. 151
3.2 Modern Translations
3.2.1 French
Dib, Pierre. “Deux discours de Cyriaque, eveque de Behnesa sur la fuite en Egypt.” ROC 15 (1910): 157–61 (summary of both texts based on Paris, BNF, arabe 155).
3.3 General Works
Coquin, René-Georges. “Cyriacus.” Pages 669–71 in vol. 3 of The Coptic Encyclopedia. Edited by in Aziz S. Atiya. 8 vols. New York: Macmillan, 1991.
Davis, Stephen J. “Ancient Sources for the Coptic Tradition.” Pages 133–62 in Be Thou There: The Holy Family’s Journey in Egypt. Edited by Gawdat Gabra. Cairo & New York : American University in Cairo Press, 2001 (see pp. 148–49).
Giamberardini, Gabriele. Il culto mariano in Egitto. 3 vols. Jerusalem: Franciscan Printing Press, 1974–1978 (vol. 2, pp. 56–72).
Lanchantin, Ève. ”Une homélie sur le Martyre de Pilate, attribuée à Cyriaque de Behnessa.” Apocrypha 13 (2002): 135–202 (additional Arabic and Ethiopic manuscripts—with some errors—listed p. 145).
Meinardus, Otto F. A. Two Thousand Years of Coptic Christianity. Cairo and New York: American University in Cairo Press, 1999 (see esp. pp. 23–24).
Suciu, Alin. The Berlin-Strasbourg Apocryphon: A Coptic Apostolic Memoir. WUNT 370. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017 (see p. 86).