- Mary kept a cross hanging from her rearview mirror in her car, a quiet, visible confession of her faith in Jesus Christ, in spite of living in Egypt, a country where Christians routinely suffer persecution from their Muslim neighbors.
- Mary put herself in harm's way to deliver medicine to a sick, elderly woman near her church, thus fulfilling Christ's words, "I was sick, and you visited me" (MT 25:36).
- Mary did not fear those who can only kill the body, but cannot touch the soul (cf. MT 10:28).
Now her pure soul is with Christ:
“These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." (REV 7:14)
Let us pray for our brothers and sisters being persecuted for the sake of Jesus Christ, and let us rouse ourselves to imitate the faithful witness of Mary and all the New Martyrs! Let us never deny our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ, and let us prefer death rather than to commit apostasy and betray Him!
O Holy New-Martyr Mary, pray to God for us!
The Martyrdom of Mary Sameh George of Cairo
by Raymond Ibrahim — March 30, 2014
"Oh how lucky you are, Mary, you who are beloved of Christ. They tore your body because of the Cross. Yet they offered you the greatest service and gave you a name of honor as one who attained the crown of martyrdom."
— Coptic Orthodox Bishop Raphaeil, Secretary of the Holy Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church
On Friday, March 28, in Ain Shams, a suburb of Cairo, rioting Muslim Brotherhood supporters attacked the Virgin Mary and Archangel Michael Coptic Orthodox Church, including by opening fire on it and setting parked cars aflame. Four people died.
One of the slain, a young Coptic woman, was savagely mauled and molested before being murdered—simply because her cross identified her as a Christian to the Brotherhood rioters.
According to an eyewitness who discussed the entire event on the Egyptian program, 90 Minutes, Mary Sameh George was parking by the church to deliver medicine to a sickly, elderly woman:
Once they saw that she was a Christian [because of the cross hanging on her rear view mirror], they jumped on top of the car, to the point that the vehicle was no longer visible. The roof of the car collapsed in.
When they realized that she was starting to die, they pulled her out of the car and started pounding on her and pulling her hair—to the point that portions of her hair and scalp came off. They kept beating her, kicking her, stabbing her with any object or weapon they could find….
Throughout [her ordeal] she tried to protect her face, giving her back to the attackers, till one of them came and stabbed her right in the back, near the heart, finishing her off. Then another came and grabbed her by the hair, shaking her head, and with the other hand slit her throat. Another pulled her pants off, to the point that she was totally naked.
The eyewitness, as well as many others who have since appeared on videos, complained about Egyptian State Security and how it did not intervene—just like under Morsi, when St. Mark Cathedral was besieged, even as security stood by—how it knows exactly who the murderers are, and how one of Mary’s murderers, whom “everyone reported to Security,” was simply relaxing in his home, not even hiding.
Added the eyewitness: “Let me tell you, here in Ain Shams, we [Christians] know that every Friday is a day of death; that the day after Friday, Saturday, we’ll be carried to the morgue!”
In fact, the overwhelming majority of attacks on Egypt’s Christians occur on Friday—the day when pious Muslims meet in mosque for prayers and to hear sermons.
[...]
Responding to this latest murder of a Christian, Coptic Bishop Raphaeil wrote:
Oh how lucky you are, Mary, you who are beloved of Christ. They tore your body because of the Cross. Yet they offered you the greatest service and gave you a name of honor as one who has attained the crown of martyrdom.
More poignantly, the bishop quoted Christ in the Bible, “Yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service” (John 16:2)—a reference to the fact that the Muslims slaughtering the followers of Christ all around the world quite often believe they are doing God’s (or Allah’s) work.
Hence why anecdotes such as Friday’s are becoming immensely regular in the Muslim world. Indeed, only a few months ago, two other Coptic Christian girls — both also named “Mary” — were slain when Brotherhood supporters opened fire on yet another church.
