The Second Sign by Ernest Dempsey

Author:Ernest Dempsey [Dempsey, Ernest]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: 138 Publishing
Published: 2020-06-25T16:00:00+00:00

28

Wadi El Natrun

The monk led the group deeper into the monastery's church through the narrow passage. More archways of red brick loomed overhead every so often, serving as both symbolic and literal supports of the building.

"In here," said the monk, pointing to a room to the left, "is a mural of the great prophet Elisha and St. John the Baptist. St. John's bones are also kept in the reliquary here at St. Macarius.”

That little nugget had slipped past them when they were doing their research.

"Pilgrims have been coming here to pray at the reliquary for centuries. The bones were brought here when the emperor of Rome, Julian the Apostate, ordered them destroyed."

No one interrupted the monk to tell him they already knew that, and Sean and Tommy both hoped Kimberly would keep her mouth shut. There was no need to sound like a know-it-all. Fortunately, she said nothing.

Maybe she has a hint of decorum, Sean hoped.

The monk continued the abbreviated tour, showing them additional alcoves and recesses that contained sacred images, carvings, and holy objects. In one, he relayed the story of forty-nine monks who had been killed in an attack centuries before. Despite the tragedy, the monastery recovered, and their sacred mission of study and service continued—their sacrifice not in vain.

Sean could see through an open doorway at the end of the hall and noticed something brown that looked like it was the shape of a box. As they drew closer, everyone realized what they were seeing.

The monk pushed the dark wooden door open the rest of the way, his hand brushing absently across a four-sided cross that adorned the front. The wall where the door fastened shut was actually not a wall at all, but a screen made from wood, half of which was carved with the same crosses, allowing visitors to peek in before entering. Tommy and Sean noted the crosses, then cast each other a wayward glance.

Tommy mouthed, "Templars."

Sean suppressed a giggle, but there was no denying the similarities between the symbols of the Order of the Knights Templar and the Coptic cross on the door. In fact, that cross adorned much in the church: doors, walls, ceilings, and even places along the floor where it had been painted.

Seeing it reminded Tommy of something else, too, a show he'd once seen on a history channel about a theory that the cross wasn't the tall, slender apparatus seen on necklaces and in churches all over the Western world. Instead, it looked more like the Templar cross, propped up with a brace on the backside, not driven into the ground like a piling.

Tommy let go of those thoughts as he entered the reliquary behind the monk, followed by Adriana, Kimberly, and Sean.

"This," the monk said, "is the reliquary of the prophet Elisha and St. John the Baptist.”

He held out a hand to display the sarcophagus, allowing the room to fall into reverent silence.

A plaque on the wall indicated that the reliquary indeed contained the bones of Elisha the prophet and St.

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