[[Image:PopeKyrillosVIreceivingStMarkRelics1968.jpg|thumb|A historical event: Pope Kyrillos VI receiving the relics of St. Mark in Cairo airport.]] On the 17th of Baunah Baounah (Coptic month), of the year 1684 A.M. (Coptic Calendar of Martyrs), that coincided with Monday the 24th of June, 1968 A.D., and in the tenth year of the papacy of [[Cyril VI (Atta) of Alexandria|Pope Kyrillos the Sixth]], 116th Pope of Alexandria, the relics of the great saint, the beholder of God, St. Mark the Apostle, the Evangelist of the Egyptian land and the first Patriarch of Alexandria, were returned to Egypt. After eleven centuries outside Egypt, St. Mark's body has at last returned to the same country (Cairo, Egypt) where he was martyred, and where [http://www.st-marc.com/English/history.htm his head] is preserved to this day in the city of Alexandria, Egypt. Pope Kyrillos had delegated an official delegation to travel to Rome to receive the relics of St. Mark the Apostle from Pope Paul VI. The papal delegation consisted of ten metropolitans and bishops, seven of them were Coptic and three Ethiopians, and three of the prominent Coptic lay leaders. The Alexandrian delegation received the relics of St. Mark the Apostle on Saturday the 22nd of June, 1968 A.D. from Pope Paul VI. The moment of handing over the holy relics, after eleven centuries, during which the body of St. Mark was kept in the city of Venice, in Italy, was a solemn and joyful moment.