While working on news stories in Egypt I heard other stories of miracles that intrigued me, so I started keeping a list. The list grew to about 50 miracles, interventions in the physical world, or blessed locations. Over about 6 years I tracked down these stories to their sources and made photographs along the way.

Miracle, flying cat seen in Egypt is the title of the clip on YouTube. It shows a white cat with winglike appendages on the table of a home in Ismalea. The father stretches out the cat’s wings and turns it around, the better for the camera to film it. The family tells the story of how the cat landed on their balcony. Someone says “It is a sign from God,” especially as its landing coincided Sisi’s rise to power. The journalist who originally reported on the cat said he will take me to meet the family, but never follows through. So I am left with the three facts I can glean from the video: The father’s name is Ibrahim Naseem, He lives in a neighborhood called Salam, and he is a Christian. I start my quest early in the morning, walking from church to church and asking for Ibrahim, and while church members try to be helpful none of them had heard of Ibrahim Naseem or his winged cat. Around 3pm I find the last church. I duck inside and the security guards wave me over and ask what I want. I tell them I am looking for Ibrahim and his winged cat and they say “come with us” and walk me to the closest police station.

In the station I share the same story of my search for a winged cat to a series of low level police men until I am passed upstairs to the head officer. After I’m inside the stations only air conditioned office I wait my turn because there is already a sweaty portly man standing at attention wearing only white underwear. He is being verbally accosted about something to do with drugs. My best guess is he came from a holding cell for one last scolding before being released. The man in his knickers is ushered out and I am invited to have a seat and share my story of miraculous cats. I expect some sort of reaction from the officer but he doesn’t even blink. He asks to look at the photos on my camera and tells me to wait a little longer as if this is a normal occurrence. I am ushered out and another fully clothed man is ushered in my place. My short wait turns into 2 hours in a office with police who were filling out reports and organizing a drawer of cell phones. While these are the state’s eyes and ears on the ground none of them have heard of a winged cat in their district. I became restless and a little concerned because no one will tell me what I am waiting for. I text my location to a few colleagues just in case I am disappeared down to one of the holding cells. Eventually a dapper looking member of State Security walks in and introduced himself in perfect English. He pulls out a pen and a pad of paper and starts interviewing me and taking notes for an interesting addition to my docier that I imagine will be filed deep in the bowls of the feared security forces offices. When he finished getting my story I was released and make my way back to the last church. A deacon who knew everyone in the church said he didn’t know any Ibrahim Naseem and assured me that I had visited all the churches in the area. So I trudged to my hotel defeated. The next morning, as I’m riding to the bus station I relate this whole story to my taxi driver. He surprises me by saying that I had forgotten to visit one small evangelical church, a minority sect of a minority religion in Egypt.