OLD CAIRO

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In his Plan for the regeneration of Africa, Egypt had an important role. Apart from being a stop over for the missionaries, it was to be the place where missionaries would adapt themselves, especially to the climate, before proceeding to the heart of Africa. Egypt was also a strategic place, since it was here that Africans, who would later become evangelizers of their own people, were to receive the necessary formation. In 1857 Comboni arrived for the first time in Egypt (known at the time as the “door of Africa”). He was part of a group set for a missionary expedition organized by don Mazza. Later in his life, he was to pass many times through Cairo until 1867, as leader of the institute he had just founded, he decided to set up a permanent place in Old Cairo near the Maronite convent. He built there two institutes for Africans; one for men an another for women. At present, a Coptic-Orthodox convent dedicated to St Joseph the Carpenter has been built on the remains of the Maronite convent where Comboni had first received accommodation.